{"id":795,"date":"2011-11-21T09:55:08","date_gmt":"2011-11-20T23:55:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/robhealey.com.au\/Corvette\/?p=795"},"modified":"2023-03-12T08:05:08","modified_gmt":"2023-03-11T22:05:08","slug":"remove-metal-trim-from-glass-top-88-corvette","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/robhealey.com.au\/Corvette\/tech-tips\/remove-metal-trim-from-glass-top-88-corvette\/","title":{"rendered":"Remove metal trim from Glass top-88 Corvette"},"content":{"rendered":"

I had a mysterious leak in heavy rain. Water would drip off the interior rear view mirror. I thought it was the weatherstrip and replaced that http:\/\/robhealey.com.au\/Corvette\/tech-tips\/windscreenwindshield-weatherstrip-replacement\/<\/a> Unfortunately the drip was still there.<\/p>\n

Eventually I found the metal trim to the glass roof was slightly loose on the left hand side. Water was entering there and running along the trim to the front center and then into the car!<\/p>\n

Removing the trim to do a proper repair was not easy.\u00a0 On the left side it had obviously come loose before, because there was clear silicone in the u channel of the trim. I wedged a credit card between trim and top of glass, lubricated liberally with prepsol and with much force worked it forwards up the left hand side. It came away reluctantly.<\/p>\n

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The trim had separated along the front to about the middle. After that it was really hard to remove the original factory adhesive.<\/p>\n

I began again at the rear on the right hand side. This side was extremely hard to unstick. I had to hit the credit card with a hammer to make it move, and it moved just 2 or 3 millimeters each hit!<\/p>\n

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At about the point in the photo above, the card refused to move and I had to hit the metal trim with a wood block, just in front of the card, on the edge where my finger is. I hit it outwards, to drive the trim in the direction you would want to pull it<\/p>\n

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The pressure from the card and the wood block being just enough to release a little bit more trim from the glue. I had to hit the wood block hard. Kinda scary because a new glass top is very expensive.<\/p>\n

On both sides when the trim was off to nearly the corner, I released the trim completely by hitting the rear end of the trim forwards, using a wood block of course.<\/p>\n

After a lot of struggle the trim was finally removed, without damage.<\/p>\n

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I cleaned up the trim first by scraping with a small screwdriver, then 80 grit sandpaper and then wire wool and kerosene. The original adhesive was hard to remove.<\/p>\n

NOTE: The trim is very bendy and it is important to support it all while cleaning, to avoid having it kink, which would be very hard to fix.<\/p>\n

I cleaned the glass top & bottom by scraping with the tip of a sharp knife, then with 160 grit sandpaper, being careful not to stray past the obvious edge of where the trim sits. I cleaned the edge using a Dremel fitted with sandpaper drum. I got the impression that this edge is the main area that holds the trim onto the ‘glass’.<\/p>\n

Once everything was clean I wiped it all down with prepsol, twice. This removes any grease and makes sure the new adhesive will stick.<\/p>\n

I used Sikaflex 221 as the new adhesive. At this stage it is very helpful if there are two people, both wearing disposal rubber gloves, with a few clean pairs handy. Also needed is some methylated spirits, I use it in a spray bottle, a roll of paper towel and a cardboard box to throw the paper in when it is covered with excess glue.<\/p>\n

Sikaflex 221 has a cure time between 10 mins and an hour. I think the curing time is related to the humidity. I got about 15-20 minutes, which was barely enough, at 65% humidity.<\/p>\n

First I laid a bead of Sikaflex in the U channel of the trim. Too much adhesive and the trim will refuse to be pushed on. (You can guess how I know that!)<\/p>\n

Then I fitted the trim back on the glass, trying to fit it without sliding it backwards too much, which might create areas with little adhesive.<\/p>\n

I cleaned up excess glue by spraying with metho and using paper towels. It is much easier to clean up wet Sikaflex than after it has dried. It’s important not to saturate the glue areas because the Meths can stop the Sika from drying properly, so use just enough.<\/p>\n

Before the Sika had set I tied a rope under pressure around the rear, holding the two ends of the trim against the glass.<\/p>\n

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I carefully cleaned up any remaining Sikaflex and left\u00a0 the roof for\u00a0 few days. It would probably be OK after 24 hrs but having put a lot of effort into the job, I preferred to leave it as long as possible.<\/p>\n

Hope this helps a fellow Corvette owner some day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I had a mysterious leak in heavy rain. Water would drip off the interior rear view mirror. I thought it was the weatherstrip and replaced that http:\/\/robhealey.com.au\/Corvette\/tech-tips\/windscreenwindshield-weatherstrip-replacement\/ Unfortunately the drip was still there. Eventually I found the metal trim to the glass roof was slightly loose on the left hand side. Water was entering there […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-795","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tech-tips"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/robhealey.com.au\/Corvette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/795","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/robhealey.com.au\/Corvette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/robhealey.com.au\/Corvette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/robhealey.com.au\/Corvette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/robhealey.com.au\/Corvette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=795"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/robhealey.com.au\/Corvette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/795\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1192,"href":"http:\/\/robhealey.com.au\/Corvette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/795\/revisions\/1192"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/robhealey.com.au\/Corvette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/robhealey.com.au\/Corvette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=795"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/robhealey.com.au\/Corvette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}