Window Glue

89DIRTYBIRD

Registered User
The glue or expoxy holding my window clips to the window broke loose. I was wondering what type of glue I am suppose to get and also should I just go ahead and replace those clips. How hard are they to do?

THanks!
 
I have tried many different products, but nothing works as well as the stuff that pro glass shops use. They use fancy 3M two-part epoxies with a special applicator gun and what not. I looked into it, but I found it much better to take it to a body shop and have them do it. I explained what I wanted done, I cleaned the clips and glass, removed the inner door panel, and dropped it off. $40 later, it was perfect, and it has worked for about 2 years.

Best $40 ever spent.
 
Ford shows TSB 92-11-2 on this issue...

ISSUE: The front door glass may separate from the glass bracket because of poor adhesive material. A procedure has been developed for refastening the door glass assembly when the bracket separates from the glass. Previously, replacement of the entire glass assembly was required.

ACTION: Thoroughly clean the glass bracket and reattach it to the glass.

After removing the glass assembly from the front door:
  1. Mark the glass for the bracket location.
  2. Clean glass.
  3. Remove pink primer from the plastic bracket.
    • Soak in a tray filled with 3M General Purpose Adhesive Cleaner (3M #08984) for approx. 20 minutes.
    • Use a wire brush to clean the inside of the 'U' channel plastic bracket.
    • Clean glass at the bracket location w/same adhesive cleaner, being careful not to remove bracket locating lines.
  4. Mix and apply 3M two-part adhesive system 'Structural Adhesive' (3M #08101) to the inside wall of the 'U' channel bracket.
Adhesive has a 4 to 5 minute drying time. Cure at room temperature for 4 hours and reinstall assembly into car door. Restrict use of window system for 48 hours for full cure.

-=-=-
If this sounds a bit too tricky, take it to a shop as suggested above by S_Mazza.
 
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Just go to your local junk yard and remove a window from any bird or cougar (89 - 96)....

They are not that hard to swap out, if you can find one that is still intact.....:rolleyes:

You might get lucky and find one that has the metal clips on it.....:D
 
I had to re-glue my driver side window about a year ago.
I went to a nearby automotive glass shop and asked if they would sell me the glue that they used.
They sold me a tube (as in tube for a caulking gun) of "Sikaflex 220+"
The tube says :
Sikaflex 220+
Cold applied
Direct Glazing adhesive

I found this stuff to be difficult to use.
Instead I just used some Ultra Blue silicone gasket sealer and kept the window closed for about a week before opening.
It worked great! It is still holding just fine.
I also cleaned the window real well with alcohol before applying the silicone.
 
NAPA sells window adhesive for this purpose, I think 3M brand. The kind I bought was a cartridge for a special gun that mixes the two-part epoxy...I didn't buy the gun, but used the cartridge to manually mix the epoxy (like JB weld). It has held up fine for...3 years I think. If I remember right, the epoxy costed me around $12 and should be enough to do 12+ windows. The big think is making sure that the clips and glass are as clean as possible. And I also recommend getting some of the metal clips too (if it's not too much trouble) They're wider just feel better. :) I did use the plastic clips on the car I fixed around 3 years ago though, so they work fine too.

I don't think this is the actual type I bought, but it looks a whole-lot like this:
http://www3.3m.com/catalog/us/en001/home_leisure/-/node_GSGB4FGH1Zgs/root_GS2MT8MCQBgv/vroot_BWFLZ648DFge/bgel_SLDT88M2MPbl/gvel_V81136SWNHgl/theme_us_chimpartnersupport_3_0/command_AbcPageHandler/output_html
 
I've had 2 windows come loose from the clips over the years and glued them back into the clips with clear flowable RTV window sealer and it worked beautifully. 5 years later it's still holding.
 
Instead I just used some Ultra Blue silicone gasket sealer and kept the window closed for about a week before opening.
It worked great! It is still holding just fine.
I also cleaned the window real well with alcohol before applying the silicone.
Yup. I use my favorite adhesive, Black RTV silicon. I clean the glass and the clips well with brake cleaner; fill the clip with the RTV, attach and let sit with the window raised for 24hours. Because the window has a shock at the end of travel, a hard set epoxy of any sort (JB weld, epoxy, etc) is a poor choice as it will fracture. A rubber type adhesive will stand up for years. :D
 
Why not.....

I took one from a 95 SC and put in into a 90 SC.....

It's a big PITA unless you have the right tools to remove it.....
 
Ford shows TSB 92-11-2 on this issue...

ISSUE: The front door glass may separate from the glass bracket because of poor adhesive material. A procedure has been developed for refastening the door glass assembly when the bracket separates from the glass. Previously, replacement of the entire glass assembly was required.

ACTION: Thoroughly clean the glass bracket and reattach it to the glass.

After removing the glass assembly from the front door:
  1. Mark the glass for the bracket location.
  2. Clean glass.
  3. Remove pink primer from the plastic bracket.
    • Soak in a tray filled with 3M General Purpose Adhesive Cleaner (3M #08984) for approx. 20 minutes.
    • Use a wire brush to clean the inside of the 'U' channel plastic bracket.
    • Clean glass at the bracket location w/same adhesive cleaner, being careful not to remove bracket locating lines.
  4. Mix and apply 3M two-part adhesive system 'Structural Adhesive' (3M #08101) to the inside wall of the 'U' channel bracket.
Adhesive has a 4 to 5 minute drying time. Cure at room temperature for 4 hours and reinstall assembly into car door. Restrict use of window system for 48 hours for full cure.

-=-=-
If this sounds a bit too tricky, take it to a shop as suggested above by S_Mazza.

Hey Ken, did you ever try this method? Wondering how it worked out for ya. Getting tired of doing windows pretty much every year! I'd like to find a good propper method that lasts longer. Three out of four SC's in this picture needed window work. I got through 2 cars, one still needs both windows done.

 
No, I haven't done this exact process, sorry.

In the past, tho, I've used 3M yellow death, after wire brushing and blowing clean w/compressed air. Our side glass is fairly large, making it more prone to size changes with temperature, so anything you can do to help the parts stay together is worth the trouble. If you're seeing repeated fails with an otherwise good process, I'd look at anything the might contribute to the issue, such as tight/mis-aligned channels, etc. Any chance there is 200 lb. dog that insists on hanging out a window that isn't open all the way ;)

Today, I think the glass shop pros have access to much better materials than I ever did.

Ken
 
No, I haven't done this exact process, sorry.

In the past, tho, I've used 3M yellow death, after wire brushing and blowing clean w/compressed air. Our side glass is fairly large, making it more prone to size changes with temperature, so anything you can do to help the parts stay together is worth the trouble. If you're seeing repeated fails with an otherwise good process, I'd look at anything the might contribute to the issue, such as tight/mis-aligned channels, etc. Any chance there is 200 lb. dog that insists on hanging out a window that isn't open all the way ;)

Today, I think the glass shop pros have access to much better materials than I ever did.

Ken

Well I didn't do the prep work on the clip as outlined in the TSB, but did clean them up really good. They were already super clean as they are only 54k miles. I ended up using the 3M #08101 structural adhesive on the clips/glass. Man, that stuff starts curing fast! Looks promising. Been a couple days since I did this. I'll probably give them a few more days before I try the windows, just to be sure. However, this 3M stuff looks much stronger than the regular RTV stuff from the parts store.



 
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I'm still curious why you seem to have so many issues with keeping the glass in place and going thru motors, etc. Is it just because you're talking about several MN-12's?

If it were the same car, I'd be looking at the glass binding in the channel, but if it's just common to a fleet, maybe it's just age, etc.
 
Im a bit surpised as well that you all are having problems with the adhesive. The 3m 2-part stuff Im sure is fantastic, but for me, I've never really had problems after switching to plain jane black RTV. I did have some issues with using too stiff of an adhesive, (e.g. Gorilla glue and JB weld) in that they would only hold up for maybe a year. What I determined is that the surface needed to be cleaned very well with a solvent, and the adhesive needed to be non-hard set. In short, it needed just a bit of give to accomodate the torque and shock of movement and temperature changes.

My RTV solutions have held up for longer than I can recall. 8-10 years?? :cool:
 
Yeah, the issue is the number of different cars I've had to do this to :). Plus, you always have two separate issues, per door (bushings and glass clips). They never seem to all go at once, so you could have one window get unclipped first, then the motor on the other side....and so on.

Luckily, if memory serves me, from the 3 birds I have now...all motors and all windows have been done! So, hopefully I won't deal with this...until the next bird comes along :).
 
Im a bit surpised as well that you all are having problems with the adhesive. The 3m 2-part stuff Im sure is fantastic, but for me, I've never really had problems after switching to plain jane black RTV. I did have some issues with using too stiff of an adhesive, (e.g. Gorilla glue and JB weld) in that they would only hold up for maybe a year. What I determined is that the surface needed to be cleaned very well with a solvent, and the adhesive needed to be non-hard set. In short, it needed just a bit of give to accomodate the torque and shock of movement and temperature changes.

My RTV solutions have held up for longer than I can recall. 8-10 years?? :cool:

I've had 6 T-Bird's that have been daily drivers, so it's been a fleet issue with me. I've re-used motors off parts cars as much as I can, but and tried some window "goop" first...which was years ago. It's that tarry junk that is usually used on windshields, I think. It held up great until hot weather. ;) Since that mess, I wanted what was known to work, so I bought a applicator cartridge of the adhesive. It lasted 7-8yrs at least...seems like I might have finally tossed it last time I had to use it. If RTV works, that's great too though! Less chemicals to keep on hand!

There are multiple weak links that develop - several with the motor (shaft, large plastic gear, the stubs), the window clip adhesive are the common ones. I've worn out the channels too (wore the fuzzies off)...which causes problems too, as you can imagine. I wore out a regulator too....that was fun replacing. With the other items making it harder to get the windows up and down, you definitely want whatever works for a long time....do you know the condition of your window channels? Or whether there is any struggle to rolling your windows up or down? If there is, I'd say RTV may be the way to go, if you're like me and don't start tearing into something immediately after a nuisance problems shows up. :)
 
I've had 6 T-Bird's that have been daily drivers, so it's been a fleet issue with me. I've re-used motors off parts cars as much as I can, but and tried some window "goop" first...which was years ago. It's that tarry junk that is usually used on windshields, I think. It held up great until hot weather. ;) Since that mess, I wanted what was known to work, so I bought a applicator cartridge of the adhesive. It lasted 7-8yrs at least...seems like I might have finally tossed it last time I had to use it. If RTV works, that's great too though! Less chemicals to keep on hand!

There are multiple weak links that develop - several with the motor (shaft, large plastic gear, the stubs), the window clip adhesive are the common ones. I've worn out the channels too (wore the fuzzies off)...which causes problems too, as you can imagine. I wore out a regulator too....that was fun replacing. With the other items making it harder to get the windows up and down, you definitely want whatever works for a long time....do you know the condition of your window channels? Or whether there is any struggle to rolling your windows up or down? If there is, I'd say RTV may be the way to go, if you're like me and don't start tearing into something immediately after a nuisance problems shows up. :)

Totally feel your pain :)

Regarding the channels, i don't think I've seen a bird that has the felt material intact in the channel pieces in the door (black) or the one extra tensioner thing in the middle of the window (usually white/yellowish held in by one single 11mm nut). Just purchased a 35th 5speed with 54k~ miles and even that's partly gone. I've been meaning to attempt a repair I saw in a ferrari forum where you strip all the felt material from the surface and re-glue the material. Ferrari guys seem to be happy with the result, but I'm not sure if the fix will stand up to our heavy window and constant window use.
 
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