How to remove the door glass

[z28 TPI]

I found a way to remove the glass without drilling the rivets out on the glass. Plus with the glass out its door its easier to get to the door handle and closer. Anyways here it goes. the tools you will need to remove the glass are: 2 torx bits or wrenches t-15 and t-30, a flat head screwdriver, and a 10 mm socket and wrench. You will see in the pictures the arm rest is held on by three t-30 screws where the red dots are in the pictures. The area where the door handle is is held on by 6 t-15 screws where the yellow screws are in the pictures. The next thing to do is to remove the lock switch plate and switch just gently pull the wires off of the switch where the blue circle is.

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[z28 TPI]

Next you can remove the red screw in the middle of the plastic housing and gently pull the door handle out of the door panel. The mirror cable and housing needs to be turned though the housing the only problem is to remove the lock mechanism rod (blue dot) from the lock handle (blue dot). When you pull the plastic housing from the door panel the lock handle needs to be slid all the way to the left so you can reach behind and pull the rod from the back of the lock handle (blue dot).

[z28 TPI]

My door panel is broken from the top so all i have to do is pull gently on the door panel itself and it will come off the door. The next thing to do is to remove the inside door felt or the top of the door panel. The picture door8 will show you the place where the top door panel is held on by tabs all you need to do is apply pressure to the place where the tabs might be and push lightly towards the glass and then up you should be able to feel the plastic slide up the glass. pictures door9 and door10 show what the tabs look like and where the staples are for the window sweeps for those interested in changing the sweeps just remove the staples and pull the old sweep off and replace the staples. I would show how but i dont have new sweeps to do it with lol.

[z28 TPI]

Okay the next set of pictures show the clear plastic removed from the door. The next step is to remove bolts from the door where the blue dots are. the bracket on the left is where your window stop is located (in the middle of the black spot. The final picture is showing what the brackets look like outside of the door. To remove the bracket on the left remove all four bolts slide the bracket down the inside of the door and towards the front of the car, your goal is to get the roller inside this track off it will push the metal stop inside the track out thats okay just set it aside for now. The next bracket is the other window stop (I think) there is no roller with this bracket you can pull it off the door.

[z28 TPI]

Next step is to pull off the mirror triangle. there are 2 bolts, 2 nuts to remove and 2 screws. The first thing is to remove the weatherstripping from this area of the door just remove the 2 screws with a phillps head screwdriver all you need is a little room to remove 2 yellow nuts from door11a on the top of the door near the plastic triangle. Then remove the 2 yellow bolts from door11a and the hole triangle will slide down a little. When you remove the top bolt the small bracket that the nuts held will come down. With the bolts removed the hole piece should be able to come out of the door with some twisting from the top of the door.

[z28 TPI]

The last bracket to remove is the middle bracket its held on by 2 bolts (orange color). I warn you this is the bracket the the cross arm that holds the window steady will start to move. It will help to steady the window when removing this bracket. When the bracket is removed slide the window to the front on the regulator arm and down. Next start lowering the arm by pushing the window down button. You will see that there is a point where the arm will go out of the track almost then back in you need to stop right where the roller starts to go back in the track and pull the window up a little then push the switch to move the regulator arm up that should release it from the roller on the regulator arm and now the window is free in the door frame. Next is to remove the mirror from the door with the 2 nuts that hold the mirror on. The last thing to do is to remove the outer window sweep from the door it is held on either be bolts or screws. for those who just want to replace there sweeps there should be no reason to remove the window but like me I wanted to freshen up the locking mechs. of the door and the actuator. The outer door skin has a little flex if you haven't noticed by now. That will be used to our advantage. The window has plastic holders for the rivets backing washers those might get broken cause of the weather for 20 plus years it okay. the large space in the front of the door is where all the rails and rivets that are attached to the window are going to come out of. So in a sense the window is going to "swing out" of the door. So all you need to do is to pull the whole window up and swing the front part of the window though the opening letting the back of the window swing down. By doing that you should've been able to get the first part of the rail and the plastic stop out. Next is to pull the back of the window out of the door but the last roller that goes in the first bracket removed will be a little tricky this is where the flex will come into play it will come out trust me with no damage to the door.

[z28 TPI]

Here are some pictures of the mirror and the opening im talking about and the first part of the window, and the back part of the window. Feel free to PM me and ask questions on the removal i will be happy to answer them or just reply so everyone gets a feel and a take on how to remove the window. Again thanks for the patience.

[zride91]

Great post, thank you. this was a task I was thinking of having done by someone else, doesn't look too bad though...

I am assuming there are no troubles doing the reverse putting everything back in??

[z28 TPI]

There shouldn't be any but my suggestion is to put all the pieces taken out of the door and arrange them so its esay to put back in. The more I think about it I think I missed a step...darn I did on the top of the door there are 2 I call them window felts they are the "holders" to keep the window stationary when the window is moving in the door. Here are the pictures of what they look like.

[z28 TPI]

Thank you for the thank you. I just think its time i give back what TGO has given me.

[da.slyboy]

Now granted I didn't have any trouble getting the window out (some punk had smashed it so I took most of it out with a shop vac.) But I remember when trying to reinstall, I couldn't figure out for the life of me how the window (with the track on) fit back in the door. I finally separated the glass from the track and reattached back in the door. I remember trying to remove the front slider bracket where the triangle seal was but it would not come out the door. Was that a difficult piece to come out or is the removal of the mirror needed to preform this operation?

[flu_by_u]

Will this work if the motor is seized and the window is in the up position?

[z28 TPI]

To remove the window the motor does have to work or you can try to take to motor assembly out of the door but again the window is attached the the regulator arm. Please do remember that the regulator arm has a spring to help the motor lift and drop the window in the door. hmm let me see if i can look at the window motor in my door and see if it is possible...

[z28 TPI]

The front slider bracket which has the plastic triangle attached to it can come out I took more pictures of the bracket to show you. The picture door12 shows the weatherstripping in the corner covering the nuts on the small bracket if you can find door24 pic (its been posted and I can't post it again) you will see the 2 nuts i was talking about. the next 2 pictures show the triangle bracket it takes some finess in removing it and patience but it does come out. I remember turning the bracket so the inside of the triangle faces the back of the door? Don't know how to describe it. hope that helps.

[flu_by_u]

I will try it when I get home tonight. I will let you know my outcome.

[flymikemc]

Man great timing I am working on restoring my car and it needs some TLC on the inerds of the doors. I didn't even know where to start on tearing her down and was going nuts. Your post came just in time to save my arse. Your the man! Thanks

[z28 TPI]

Sweet nice to hear. Funny thing is I'm going to make a thread on rebuilding the lock actuator or at least cleaning it and greasing it. Let me know how the removal goes and if I need to add anything, that and if you need bigger pictures I have them.

[flymikemc]

Cool, thanks!

[flymikemc]

Well I finally got it out. It was a whore though. As I got to the bottom roller I was concerned about how close you have to get the lower bracket to the front pillar. I was worried it would scratch the paint on the post by the front window. I managed not to but man is that a tight fit.

Now I need to figure out the best way to change the window motor. It runs but slowly and I sure as crap don't want to have to go back in later. I started all this just mainly to change the outer window felt. I couldn't get to the middle two screws even with the window hanging loose in the door and the lower rear bump stop broken off. (it already was)

[z28 TPI]

I see what you mean yeah I will add that hopefully to the above posts. Man its good you got that out I can understand how it could be a chore. hmmm now to figure out how to edit my posts.

[flymikemc]

Hey, what would be the best lube for the window tracks? Any thoughts? Thanks

[z28 TPI]

I was thinking about this. I thought that regular bearing grease would be okay but the smell from hot days might get inside the cab. Lithium grease would work well, or if you can I would run down to the parts store and get molybdenum grease it I think is synthetic. That I use to use in the rides I maintained for a while works great doesnt have a bad smell to it. The choice is yours, but i would use moly.