Gen 1 - rear window installation help needed.

[Redmantice]

Hello Folks,

I just picked up an unfinished Gen 1 Type 65. The previous owner stopped building it after a loss in the family. It is largely complete except for a number of areas. One such a rear is the rear window installation. I have notices that the kit comes with a back plexiglass window, a square metal frame and the hinges. Does anyone have any pictures of how they were able to install the back window. I have looked at other threads but it appears that builders are not using the square frame and instead are just mounting the plexiglas to the hinges and struts. Here are some pics of the Type 65. Any help would be appreciated.

I’m located in Cold Lake, Alberta.
Regards,
Jay Conlin

http://i63.tinypic.com/2up8gnc.png
http://i68.tinypic.com/ehn23r.jpg
http://i65.tinypic.com/k18fpw.jpg
http://i64.tinypic.com/2ez7clx.jpg
http://i63.tinypic.com/iwkmmc.jpg

[David Hodgkins]

Bump for moderated thread.

:)

[Garry Bopp]

Howdy and Happy New Year, Adams from Calgary,

I owned an early Gen 1 coupe (#031) and it was built with the squarish frame and the plexiglass (or lexan ... not sure of the actual material name) mounted to the frame. The Gen 2 coupes came with an actual glass hatch and that was mounted directly to the hinges. As far as I know, none of the plexiglass hatches were mounted any other way than with the metal frame. I ended up retro-fitting the glass hatch to my Gen 1 coupe when my plexiglass developed a few small cracks around one of the rivets. The glass hatch is a much cleaner look, although the metal frame with riveted in plexiglass is more period correct. I'll try and hunt up some pictures of the original hatch and the retro-fitted hatch.

Garry

[Garry Bopp]

Here are a few pics ... before and after retro-fitting the glass hatch.

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[Redmantice]

Thank you Garry! Your comments are very much appreciated. I know understand the difference between the two Gen options. When building your rear hatch did you ever consider bonding the window to the squarish frame? I’m tossing this around as an option. My concerns on riveting the plexiglass to the frame are two fold: 1) cracking the plexiglass with a plexi drill bit, and 2) hitting a weld point with a drill bit. I guess there is always an option to upgrade to full glasss if things go south. Thank you again and Happy New Year. Jay

[GThompson]

My Coupe has the plexiglass window and I mounted it to the steel frame with 10-32 button-head machine screws. I didn’t use a special drill bit and experienced no cracks. I did, however, have an issue when I broke a tap off in the frame when tapping the holes. The tough part will be finishing up the final shaping of the hatch. I don’t know how tight to fit it nor how far above the body the window should finally sit but I’ll figure it out.

[John Dol]

Looks like you picked yourself up a really nice coupe.
I would recommend the glass hatch as it looks much better and will keep your rear view much clearer in hot temps.
Install is much easier too.
Congrats on the new car and welcome

John

[Garry Bopp]

John Dol brought up a good point that I had forgotten about. The plexiglass tends to get slightly hazy in hot weather. As it cools off, it again becomes clear.

Garry