Removing a Van window.

Well, it's bragging time right now. But first...it's confession time. Last time I showed this on my blog, it looked great!... on my blog that is. Not so great in real life. But this time I think I've really improved! It's not perfect, but it still looks pretty good, considering the state of my van anyhow.
Now... time to bore you with the details.... This was the state of my van. It's due to get a Warrant of fitness soon, and rust was starting to come up around the two side windows and the back window. Now I had a fare idea that although I could just sand back what I could see, like last time, I had an idea that the rust went right under the rubber, which is why it came back again. Now Rob (my panel beater friend), showed me the start of how to get a window out of a car with 2 screw drivers. He's the expert, but Mr. Google told me that it couldn't be done without cracking the window. So it was with great trepidation that I attempted the screwdriver method of removing the window, expecting at any moment to have to call Smith and Smith for a new window.

Now here's the beginning shot of the moulding being levered out using a screw driver. (I can't believe this is working!! think I)

And not knowing what to expect, I taped the window to the van so it wouldn't fall and smash. As you can see here, I've levered the whole top half out, and it just kinda starts to pop out by itself.

And here is the window! All out with the black moulding still attached! I had no idea that it came off with the window itself.

And look... I was right.... the whole inside was covered in rust.

So I spent about 2 hours (yes, coz I didn't know what I was doing), scraping off the rust with a screwdriver, then sanding, then putting rust remover on it.... twice. And then filled the dents with some bog.

Then I masked up the inside and the outside with newspaper.

Then the undercoat!!

And finally the top coat. It actually looks that good in real life!

And finally I put the window back in, doing it the opposite way. Sit the bottom in, tape it to the van, then lever the moulding back inside with a screwdriver.

Now, I don't have any work on at the moment, and I'm totally keen to give re-painting the whole thing a go! But if I don't, I'm definitely doing the other 2 windows for my Warrant.

Please Note: I just showed my friend Teresa this blog post and she said that was the reason she sold her car was it was going to cost around $700 to get the panel beaters to do the same thing on her car... (Score!)... not so good is that they warned her that there is no guarantee that the window wouldn't smash. (She would have had to pay for a new one if it did, and apparently it happens quite often). So I guess i was really lucky then! Im still going to give the other 2 a go, but I'll definetly be keeping that in mind!