I posted last week about the possibility of using a cargo window from an 82 240 parts car in the recently purchased 89 240. Don Foster said he would bet a cold one that the swap would work and he was correct. Add one more cold one to the case I must owe him at this point.

I removed the old glass from the 82 with a razor blade knife as I didn't need the gasket. After removing the glass and comparing the two openings I found the opening on the 1982 was smaller than the 1989. The difference was in the width of the pinch weld. I thought that since I was using the correct gasket for the 89 the glass still might be the same size in both cars with the difference in the opening size being taken up by the gasket. Apparently that was the case. After removing the old black vinyl at the base of the window with a heat gun and an hour's time I repainted the area flat black and cleaned up the pinch welds (luckily no rust to deal with). I inserted the glass into the gasket and applied a small bead of silicone seal between the glass and the outside of the gasket. I then applied a 3M Glazing and Bedding Compound to the exterior side of the pinch weld. I ran two wraps of nylon cord around the gasket where the pinch weld would eventually sit and with my son helping from the outside I installed the bottom pinch weld into the groove in the gasket. We forced the window down as much as possible and I began to pull the cord- forcing the gasket in and over the pinch weld. It is necessary for the helper to keep forcing the window in against the pinch weld so that the cord doesn't slip past the gasket. That happened once and we were able to put it back in place with the help of a putt knife. I continued to pull the cord which pulled the gasket inside and allowed it to seat on the pinch weld. It was a small clean up job with some enamel reducer for the bedding compound. By putting the bedding compound on the pinch weld face rather than the gasket the cord didn't pull a lot of the messy bedding compound inside. Thanks to Zee for his help in explaining the process and sharing his recent experience which helped me with the job.

Randy