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Hi, the rear window on my wife's 76 is falling out and I thought I'd swap it for a removable window this winter if I can find the parts. Anyone know of a 68-72 removable window out there I could get my hands on?
Hi, the rear window on my wife's 76 is falling out and I thought I'd swap it for a removable window this winter if I can find the parts. Anyone know of a 68-72 removable window out there I could get my hands on?
Here is a pair nice pair but not NOS look at the pics and if you want more then PM me 175.00 shipped I think new reproductions are 325.00 pair
There is other parts that are needed like weather strip you need, covers for the latches
plastic insert for the window pegs
Just my opinion, but I tried this conversion many years ago, and ultimately went back to a solid glass. In addition to the latches, receivers, and weatherstrip, there are a lot of other considerations. Primarily, the earlier cars had the Astro Ventilation setup, which included a "trough" bonded to the underside of the deck, with water drains included. That trough provided a lot of reinforcement to take the "bounce" out of the rear deck. (It becomes flimsy without the glass holding it all together.) You can resolve this aspect by riveting or bonding a piece of angle steel or aluminum under the window frame, behind the lower trim. Of course you'll also need the different interior trim with cutouts for the latches.
That said, many years later, and having worked on a lot more Corvettes, I'm now heavily customizing my '76, including conversion to a 68-72 type rear clip. Would I try it again? Probably. Good luck!
Update on this removable rear window project if anyone is interested.
Trying to build some support for the upper latches, you can see in the picture all of my "fails". They fit perfectly around the latch but there just isn't any room above to fit anything in. I finally went with some speed nuts that fit perfectly up there and the latches seem pretty secure. I don't imagine I'll take the window in/out more than once or twice a year so all good.
Oh and definitely take at least one seat out, you're going to spend a lot of time in there and it's worth the 10 mins to take out a seat. I took out just the drivers seat and it was a breeze to work in there.
Next step is the lower slots and maybe some reinforcement under the whole back window as TPI Shark mentioned it's a little weak.
Latest updates if anyone is planning to do this mod. It's a lot of work but that's kind of the idea, I'm looking for things to fill some time that isn't work.
I got the lower wedge guides in, it is very tight at the top of the window so you need to make sure these are allowing the window to drop down as far as possible. I used an aluminum plate drilled & tapped underneath to give it a little strength. You'll have to cut out an opening in the aluminum plate for the window wedges.
Now that the top latches are in place and the bottom wedge guides are in its time to test fit the window.
With the upper latches & lower guides in place and the window going in & out without any trouble it was time to test fit the weatherstrip. My weatherstrip didn't have the holes that some have mentioned so I drilled a few through the rubber and into the fibreglass, about 8 screws total to hold it in place. The window latches at the top are really hard to close with brand new weatherstrip but it all fit. I had to adjust everything for a good fit before the weatherstrip glue.
After test fitting the window 3-4 times, adjusting everything, I glued it into place. I taped the outside to make sure I didn't get the black glue on the paint but it wasn't necessary. I left the window in to press the weatherstrip onto the frame while it dried for a day or so. Took the window out and it all looks good. next step is to finish the halo panels.
Final step - cut the halo panels & put the new trim pieces on. The one problem I had was the latches were too far back (toward front of car) so the new trim pieces would not sit flush, there wasn't enough room. So I decided to cut a little material out of the trim pieces to make them fit better - problem solved.
Project done! It took a month of working away at it, wasn't that bad in the end. It works like a charm. I'll probably leave it out 99% of the time so I didn't bother with the storage tray behind the seats but if I'm bored some winter I might just add it.
68-72 removable window project
