Fitting/Manufacturing Sliding windows: Rear
As the inside of the truck gets very hot with little ventilation in the rear I decided to try and make life a bit more comfortable for the passengers sitting on the newly manufactured seats. The right rear window already had a crack in the back half of the window so my experimenting could start there and if I brake the window it wouldn't be that bad as I have to replace it anyhow.
I took the center portion of the rubber surrounding the window out. (It's just a round strip of rubber inserted in the outer side of the large rubber "frame". Next I had to get the window out of the "rubber frame". That was easy enough as it just slides out of the rubber. (with a bit of persuasion.) The next step was to try and cut the window. As I never had any good luck in cutting windows I bought a "glass drill bit" for approx. R30-00. It has a diamond tip and I used it as a glass cutter. Lots of paraffin, straight edge and scrape on both sides of the "Shutter proof" glass. GENTLY tap the glass with the scratched line over a piece of wire that's laid in line with the scratch. The plastic between the glass prevents it from coming apart, so I used normal blue spirits, poured it on the, now broken/cut glass and waited 15 minutes. The spirits made the plastic soft enough to tear neatly. I now had half a glass and I went ahead and inserted it back in the frame with a piece of chromed cover over the sharp edge.
Now for the fun part. I had a piece of glass cut 305mmX 500mm, bought some aluminium channeling, 15mm X 15mm X 15mm X 1.5mm. Cut 2 pieces of 1 000mm and one piece 300mm.
Bought 20mm X 20mm X 1,5mm angle iron aluminium, riveted 700mm at the bottom of the window into the side of the truck as well as a 700mm piece above the window. The channeling was then attached to these pieces of aluminium "angle iron". A 300mm piece was riveted at the rear of the window and the 300mm channeling fitted to this. A piece of "angle iron" was fitted at the end of the channeling to prevent the window from sliding too far. It seems to work quite well, just need to see how weather proof it is.
Will post some photo's.