Rear window replacement

I got some green tint window (the thicker stuff) from a trimmers.

It is/was the green tint MGF rear hood. It cost £30 and I also asked for some heavy duty thread.

Process

• Remove the whole hood and frame.

this is joined down inside where the B post caps are. you will have to peel back the carpet sections as this is where the screws hold the B post rear sections to the car. you do not have to take then off, just give yourself enough room to get you hands down to remove the little 7mm and 8mm captive nuts of the strange shaped bracket... be careful not to drop them down as it will end up down by the sill.

• Take the roof off and don't bend it.

I placed / screwed mine on a rigid old work table and propped the header rail up with some beer crates.

• Remove the original rear screen by unpicking the stitching that in nearest to the window NOT the other one.
• Use the old window as a template and cut the replacement to size.
• Place the new window in and tack it back where you have just removed the old window.

tack between the removed old thread was and the still present thread is.

THE ROOF MUST BE TAUT/FULLY OPEN for this and must stay that way until finished.

• If you have not removed both stitching seams then the new window should be comfortably resting on the outer stitch.

• Now all you need do is:
• Acquire 1x friend/partner to give up 8 tedious hours.
• Lay on the table, underneath the inside of the roof (which is in the up position resting on the beer crates) with your head toward the nice new clear window.

The person on the "other side" needs to feed the thread through to you with a heavy duty upholstery needle, and you to feed it back to them... quite obvious really. For the sake of your fingers to pass the needle through and return with some long nose pliers.

The roof must stay tight at all time.

• If it looks like it is causing a ruck, cut the thread back to where it started. This is why so many "rear window only " jobs look creased or wrinkled.

• Do the window in sections so you don't have to pull meters of the thread through all the time.

If you have picked the stitches out rather than ripping them out the the old holes will be clean enough to use . this should give a more professional look. If your new thread is thicker that the original thread then it will still push through with a little resistance.

By the time you have gone all the way round (You'll know because your fingers will be hurting) you should have got the hang of it, so much so that your first few inches of stitching will look rubbish and you may as well remove that and replace it with your much improved level of stitching !

Always overlap your stitching by a good amount, say 1".

• Tie off about 10 times/loops and then feed the loose thread back through the 10 loops and use a dab of superglue.

This job was time consuming but the costs involved are low.

Copied from a forum entry by "CLEMO"