Gale Banks 80'

Has anybody tried to swap the CE rear Glass that opens into a non CE 78-82 car ? With a Roll Bar it sure would be nice for access. Most CE's I have seen lately have gobs of silicone and the resulting water damage to the interiors. I'm curious how the Hinges attach to the bird cage ? Would Paint and body work need to be done ? Are reproduction weather strips available for them ?

The13Bats

ecklers and others used to sell a kit to do that conversion it was costly back then and now from time to time I see flippers trying to piece together kits from parts cars and asking tall dollars,
I also read something which might or might not me true that the stock hinges had issues,
I had 2 81's and longed for that hatch back all of the 150k miles I put on those cars but now with how hard to find and costly the glass is I think I would pass

Easy Mike

They attached to the halo panel. The 82 AIM shows the installation and the parts you will need if you want to make this swap on the 78-82 cars.

No body work required. The halo panel trim will need to be 82 to accommodate the hinges. No paint if you're careful with the installation of the hatch and with removing the existing back glass..

Check the aftermarket provider sites.

If memory serves, a complete package was in For Sale a little while back.

0Willcox Corvette

Weatherstrips are available.

If you are going to do this conversion know in advance that the 82 collector cars had one inherent problem with the window moving. The hinge design was poor and the U portion of the hinge tends to open up. When this happens the rear of the glass moves upward and away from the weatherstripping not allowing it to seal.

The current reproduction weatherstrip is exactly like the original in every detail but when you get an older or worn out car, you'll find you must shim the upper halo area of the weatherstrip to get them to seal.

At one time there was a steel reproduction of the hinge but I've not seen them in a long time.

Willcox

Gale Banks 80'

Thanx for the replies they were all good info. I see there is a "Kit" on e-bay and yes it is extreme priced. A couple weeks ago I could of paid twice as much on the local craigslist and I would of got the whole car ! If anybody knows of a donor car please let me know.

Gale Banks 80'

As one who likes to make 1 off parts for my car I can appreciate somebody who is willing to engineer and produce a part for a car that is 34 years old. Lets hope he has recovered some of the time he spent.

Gale Banks 80'

On an other note. Does anybody make a reproduction Steering Wheel Emblem for the CE ? I found repos for the Standard 82 and I received them today. I was surprised that the background was Silver and not Black. I like the 82 C3 Emblems the best of the late C3's cause they look more like the early Chrome Bumper Cars but with a Twist of Black. I'm using them to make Center Caps for C7 Wheels that I'm fitting to my 80'.

brent319

I saw these on a website recently.

Priya

A lot of people are asking big bucks for the CE rear window and parts but I've also seen them go for a fraction of that price when people had them for sale and weren't willing to wait years to get the top dollar.

spedaleden

Contemporary Corvette had the back half of a 82 collectors and wanted $2500 for it

vettebuyer6369

If you have had posts removed or edited in this thread, it is because they either were full promotions of, quotes of promotions, or references to Non Supporting Vendors that are routinely promoted in the C3 area.

Please do not repost this material, thanks.

brent319

Sorry. I figured it was okay to say where you could get replacement hinges since I was it was my understanding that nobody makes them anymore, not even supporting vendors.

vettebuyer6369

Making anything for resale is commercial activity, whether its hinges, fiberglass parts, teak wheels or anything else, and requires the seller or distributor to be a Supporting Vendor, whether other Supporting Vendors sell those parts or not.

And in the case of various Non Supporting Vendor entities that are routinely promoted on the forum, those references will be removed.

Alwyn678

Metalhead140

I certainly appreciated the posts sharing information on where something could be bought that was otherwise regarded as unavailable in this thread, thanks Brent, and the other poster whose information is now unfortunately gone entirely before I had the chance to save it.

I can understand in some threads the reason behind editing, but surely sharing information on where parts are available is useful for all, particularly if a supporting vendor doesn't offer the product in question?

Anyway. Does anyone know if there is a kit available that doesn't require the original CE glass (which is the major cost)? I would quite like to do this on my '79, but getting a rare and expensive complete rear glass here to Australia sounds like a near impossible ask.

spedaleden

I wanted to do the same thing to my vette but after looking into it. The cost was way to expensive and if I did do it and something broke, no way to fix it because of lack of parts, and I could not find a kit available either so I decided to leave it alone. I realized I'd be better off buying a C5 with pop up rear glass.

My 2 cents

vettebuyer6369

I directly answered this question 2 posts ago. You have also had posts removed in the past regarding promotion of one of these non supporting vendors, so you know this information.

If you wish to continue this debate I suggest you take it to PM rather than argue it publically, especially since you have been here before.

The13Bats

Years ago ecklers offered a hatch vette kit, the rear glass was from a then easy to get Monza gt you could even get louvers for it, I loved the look especially on the wide body cars, if I owned a coupe I would be buying the one a cat on here has offered over in the for sale section, but sadly the only way to get one of these is to find one someone doesn't want any longer but in some ways they are easier to find and far cheaper than the ce glass....

spedaleden,
I feel the same I also love kit cars and would love a certain make and model one that happens to run a real glass windscreen not from a production car like many old kits but it was made for this kit car, and hasn't been made in about 30 years, they were prone to crack and that has kept me from buying one of the cars....