Had my side window shot out. Some tips on installs.

DOE-SST

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Yesterday afternoon, in Albuquerque during stop-and-go traffic. Heard a loud "whack", looked at the passenger window, saw a bullet stuck in the center of the glass, which then shattered into hundreds of pieces. Nothing unusual for Albuquerque, although the guy driving next to me freaked out when I yelled back that someone was shooting at us.

Today, I wasted four hours in a junkyard getting a decent used window out of a junker. Not allowed to use powered cutting tools there, and I absolutely destroyed that door and components getting the glass out. Tomorrow I absolutely HAVE to put the glass in. My daily commute is at 5am, 25 degrees and 75mph, with an inop heater fan. Don't want to do it, nor leave the vehicle parked out of sight, with a missing window.

There are no spare parts readily available, so I cannot afford to break anything on the install, and I really don't want to spend 8 hrs doing this. I've been all through youtube trying to glean a few tips and tricks, but there is almost nothing useful for a 1993 Ford E350 van. The truck videos are too different to be useful.

So, if anyone has any helpful hints or suggestions, let em fly.

Thanks
 

DOE-SST

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no wing vent. The junkyard window was stuck in the fully up position and I'm wondering if that caused most of my difficulties. I removed the window motor and cut the cables but still could not get it to move down even using a 24" prybar.

BTW, the junkyard window was out of a 2001 E250. Don't know if Ford kept making vehicles less maintenance-friendly over the years.
 
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DOE-SST

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Pretty sure it will fit. Didn't have a choice. went to six junkyards, lots of vans but only found one with an intact side window. Seems even minor accidents shatter most of the windows.

Gonna start on it now. Sucks there are glass slivers all over. I'll probably still be getting stuck by them a year from now. maybe I'll find the bullet. At least it is 61 degrees and sunny.
 

The_Josh_Bear

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First of all, that's absolutely bonkers that your window was hit by a bullet!!!
Dang 6 junk yards is tenacity.

Secondly, the way you describe it, was your side window not tempered glass? It should shatter into a million tiny pieces that are more like tiny bricks than sharp glass.
I accidentally hit my own XC90 side glass with a little pebble from a line trimmer, shattered up good. Took me just as long to vacuum the crap out of the car and door as it did to replace the glass. I was very thorough just becsuse I didn't want to hear little glass bits vibrating around on a drive or closing the doors!

Third: I hope it goes well for you and everything is good to go for your drive tomorrow morning!
 

Cubey

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Gonna start on it now. Sucks there are glass slivers all over. I'll probably still be getting stuck by them a year from now. maybe I'll find the bullet. At least it is 61 degrees and sunny.
Go use a car wash vacuum
 

Cubey

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Secondly, the way you describe it, was your side window not tempered glass? It should shatter into a million tiny pieces that are more like tiny bricks than sharp glass.

How my 87 F250's shattered from ???? when driving down the highway out of Laramie WY in 2017. Turned around and went back, finding a window at a local junkyard that same day. (then my driveshaft carrier bearing went very bad the same day, got replaced the next day in Colorado)

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The_Josh_Bear

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Yep, like that. Little bricks not sharp for the most part. They can cut you but nothing like non-tempered will.
We had a sliding glass door explode on us one day when I was 12/13, thought we were under attack or something. Turns out it was just the heat of summer, apparently. In Western WA!
 

DOE-SST

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DONE!

Went far easier than I expected for one major reason. I was able to move the window track plate up/down with the electric motor. This allowed me to move the plate into different positions to access the 1/4" rivets that needed to be drilled out. I couldn't do this at the junkyard and had to hack and rip sheet metal to access those rivets. BTW, if your junkyard donor has a damaged door, removing the glass intact may be impossible.

two other tricks that helped....

weld a 7/16 wrench to a 12"x1"x1/8" bar to access the bolts/nuts that replace the removed rivets.

The new window only went in one way, and I tried a dozen ways before figuring it out. Insert the window from the outside and lower it into the door frame. BUT, don't attempt to fit it into the front/rear vertical channels it is supposed to go into. There is just enough room to lower the window between the rubber channels and the steel door frame with the window on the outer side of the channels. You should have already removed the bolts securing the lower ends of the channels to allow you to slightly move them forward and aft. With the window fully lowered into the door but not into the channels yet, move the glass forward just enough to slip it aft into the rear channel. Then push the front channel forward, using a fair bit of pressure, to allow the forward edge of the glass to slip into the front channel. Your window is now in its proper position, intact.

Getting all the glass fragments out is difficult. Need to make a small tool shaped like a hook, to remove pieces stuck inside the vertical channels. I tried using several tools and thought I'd gotten it all, but when cycling the new window it was clear I missed a small piece. Hopefully, cycling the window will eventually crush it into dust.

Hope this helps someone else in the future.
 

Old Goat

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When you go to the Junk Yard, take a drill motor with you,
like for a Dewalt etc... I made some jumper cables from some test leads like for a DVM. Cut the ends of and solder on some spade connectors to push in the contacts on the battery.

Then you can power a Window Motor, Electric Seat, Blower Motor, Head Light etc...


Goat
 

The_Josh_Bear

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I've had a Ryobi 12v little drill for years I keep around both because it's little, and because of the 12v test batt! Good tip
 

Cubey

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4L-BS motorcycle/scooter 12v AGM batteries are about $20 online
 

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