Itinerant Air-Cooled

On a leisurely 70mph cruise today, Gertie's passenger side popout window decided life was no longer worth living and liberated itself from the vehicle. By some miracle it didn't break, though the latch did.

I replaced the latch on that window back in March when we got her because the tightener-downer was no good and I had a spare. I felt at the time, and am now certain, that I didn't reinstall that window correctly, as it has seemed wiggly ever since.

So I see on another site that there are supposed to be these plastic cap dealies that fit over the tabs on the window frame, and hold it fast to the B pillar. Huhn. I also see that these little gems are NLA. Par for the course when it comes to Type IIIs.

Similar experiences, or ideas for a fix? Prevailing wisdom on TS has it that large shrink wrap, liberally applied, is the way to go.

whc03grady wrote:On a leisurely 70mph cruise today, Gertie's passenger side popout window decided life was no longer worth living and liberated itself from the vehicle. By some miracle it didn't break, though the latch did.

I replaced the latch on that window back in March when we got her because the tightener-downer was no good and I had a spare. I felt at the time, and am now certain, that I didn't reinstall that window correctly, as it has seemed wiggly ever since.

So I see on another site that there are supposed to be these plastic cap dealies that fit over the tabs on the window frame, and hold it fast to the B pillar. Huhn. I also see that these little gems are NLA. Par for the course when it comes to Type IIIs.

Similar experiences, or ideas for a fix? Prevailing wisdom on TS has it that large shrink wrap, liberally applied, is the way to go.

I bought my Squareback when they were built cheep cheep. I cannot help you with the arcana of pop-out windows, as I do not have pop-out windows.
Colin

I am just about to make that repair on my T3 - I have a thread about it on the Samba:

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=365256

I don't know when I am going to get around to doing the fix, but I am going to be using "caterpillar grommet" to do the fix. A guy who has done it before swears it will work and has done it on his car. The idea is is that you don't actually have to surround the tabs to get the window to line up - you just have to line the bottoms. So take grommet that looks something like this:



Then instead of attaching it to the tabs - and this is the good part - you glue it to the bottom of the ledges that the tabs rest on on the car. And that should do it.

I have my own grommet already and hope to do the fix soon. I'll post the pictures and the results in that thread on TS when its done.

 

Thanks, Meyer II. I don't know how I missed that thread on my TS search. I await your tutorial.

I've seen & held a few sets of the original plastic caps, most were survivors from cars that got parted out but one pair was NOS. Hard to find but they turn up every now & then.

Black electrical tape around the tabs works .. for a while at least, no idea on the long-term durability.

tristessa wrote:I've seen & held a few sets of the original plastic caps, most were survivors from cars that got parted out but one pair was NOS. Hard to find but they turn up every now & then.

Black electrical tape around the tabs works .. for a while at least, no idea on the long-term durability.

Yes -- the black electrical tape is the method that Everett Barnes uses. And Tram has a shrink-tubing method that sounds interesting. I think they all sound good. But boy, it sure would be nice to have the originals.

MeyerII wrote:But boy, it sure would be nice to have the originals.

Keep yer eyes peeled. The NOS pair was scored at the Sacramento BOR swap meet a few years ago for $5, guy didn't know what they were or were for. He was only *asking* $5...