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If one wheels long enough, one is bound to get body damage. With the 4runners, one of the problems is the large amount of glass in the back. Combine that with a top heavy hard top and the chances of hitting the glass on a boulder goes up.
Fortunately, the fix is relatively easy. Outlined below is how I replaced my broken window. This is the first time I've done something like this so I have no idea if this is the best way to do it, proceed at your own risk.
The rear toyota windows are actually bolted in and glued at the rubber moulding. Here you can see where I peeled away the rubber molding, exposing the polyurethane glue.
To get at the studs and nuts holding the window in, remove the interior lining. This will expose the nuts holding the window in at the edges of the sheetmetal. The top nuts are hidden at the top, inside the double layers of sheetmetal. There are 11 total 10mm nuts.
The polyurethane glue is very gooey and tacky and will stick to everything. Rubber gloves, preferably nitrile gloves are a necessity. Without them I don't know how one would ever free ones self from the goo.
There's no way I could peel off the glue from that glove.
Once the nuts are removed, gently push or pull away the window. I watched the dismantler use some kind of pneumatic cutter to cut through the glue, but I imagine any knife would do. Keep in mind that it will be very difficult to remove the glue from the knife later, so use a junk one. Having a 2nd person on the outside is helpful to hold the window. As the glue is cut, the window should seperate from the sheetmetal.
Here's the new window showing the studs.
Getting the old glue off is the worst part of this project. I ended up scraping off as much as possible with any stiff plastic I had laying around like old credit cards. This would leave a thin layer of glue on the surface. Then I stuck a small piece of glue on my gloved fingers and used that to pull off the remaining glue on the sheetmetal. Working my way around the window took me about an hour, mostly because I had broken glass in there and was using leather gloves.
This left spots of glue residue which I cleaned up with isopropyl alchohol. However, if rubbed hard enough, I found that it would also remove the paint. Use sparingly. There's probably better stuff to use, but I don't know what.
Then, using a caulking gun, I layed down the new glue on the window moulding.
Not the prettiest, but it should do. It does need a lot of glue, especially in bead height rather than bead width in certain areas. I ended up applying it twice because the first time wasn't enough. This used up over half the tube of glue.
Then I popped the window back in and tightened down the nuts. I let that set for an hour or two and then backed off the nuts very slightly. The reason I did this is because I found the nuts were loose when I removed them the first time. I'm sure they worked loose over the past 13 years, but I also thought that maybe it's better to be loose to allow the body to flex independant of the window. I don't know if this was correct, but that's what I did.
Now that the window is installed, pop the interior lining back in and the window repair is done.
A couple notes:
- there are different color tints, depending on the interior color. Grey interiors have a more greyish tint and tan interiors have a more brownish tint. I ended up getting a brown tinted window from the dismantler but I have a grey interior. I put the window up to test it and didn't notice much of a difference in the two tints. I don't think anybody else would notice unless I told them.
- Supposedly, the rear cargo windows have a radio antenna built in to help with reception. The driver's side did not have any wires, however, while rummaging through the dismantlers windows, the passenger side did have a wire coming off the window.
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Sierra Club policy: [A reason to close trails] ...Physical soil damage, often readily visible, resulting in:
a. Erosion, causing soil loss and damage to stream banks, streams, and fish habitat...
Lesson...Stay on the TRAIL!
08-19-2006, 11:47 PM
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