The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk vent glass removal and installation

wondering if anyone can tell me how to install the new vent glass in a 51 gmc. I'm not sure if the whole divider piece has to come out or if the vent glass frame is just connected inside the housing.

If you're just trying to get the glass out of the frame, you can soften the adhesive with gasoline and pull on the glass. This is what I've read but they had trhe assembly out of the door and on a bench.

Not quite agreeing with the gasoline part so perhaps someone has an alternative solvent.

Strictly speaking, the vent glass is held in place in the frame with glazing tape. I removed mine by spraying the edges with brake cleaner. The cleaner softened up the tape in minutes. Now the correct way to remove the whole unit is to remove the dividing bar. One truck I saw had the swivel rivet replaced with a small stainless bolt and two nuts. This was probably the result of a very clever shortcut to removing the vent assembly. If I have to remove mine again in the future, I will definitely go that route.

The swivel rivets and the setting tool can be bought from any major vendor.

My point was that you can remove the window assembly without removing the divider bar, by removing the rivet. I don't know if I would try installing a rivet with the dividing bar still in the door, but that is just my take on the situation.

That makes perfect sense... It would be difficult to set that rivet with the window in the door.

I did my vent glass by removing the whole divider since I was replacing all the glass anyway. You can probably replace the vent glass only if your vent frame and rivet are in tact. I had to press the rivet with the tool in a vise to secure it correctly. I think that would have been impossible without removing the whole frame and divider.

I did use glass tape which makes the job messy and difficult. If you want to do it in place I would remove the glass with gas or brake clean as described then replace using windshield glue in stead of tape. This requires much less force. (when securing with glass tape I had to use a rubber mallet to get the glass in the frame)

There are a lot of messages on here describing this process and even a few good tutorials from guys who have done it if you do a search.

One key thing to remember regardless if you use tape or glue be sure to set the glass so it seals against the weather strip on the divide. Youe can set the glass too far into the frame...then it wont seal.

Rich

If i remember Houston 54 or Alan Horvath had tutorials on this topic.

I can add a note here. I reset my vent glass using black RTV. I had to do it twice because the first time I inserted the glass, I pushed it too far in and it wouldn't catch the rubber when mounted. Glass tape will not allow this mistake.

I'm always nervous working with glass. I was at a wrecking yard last winter that had lots of 50's trucks with rotten doors and good glass. I had a good look at the door insides. I took out the vent windows with the whole divider bar in one piece. I'm happy to have a bit of extra glass, just in case.