You do have to be careful. I would bang or strike the glass. Firm even pressure and pull the cord. If you use too much pressure the cord can damage the seal. The dangerous areas are getting around the corners. Try to not stress or twist the windshield

Try using string trimmer line, thin, strong and very slippery, no torn rubber.

 

I used to use thin stuff like that. Until I tried 1/4" cotton cord - wet. I've done 3 or 4 that way now and it works so much better, pulls so much faster, no torn rubber, faster around the top corners, it amazes me. Ya, this stuff - wet - it's unbelievable.

Hopefully I won't have a reason to try the wet cotton but I used 1/4" nylon cord and it worked like a champ.

I used to break a lot of windows when I was mowing for a living.  There were a few nice people that let me do the install myself, learned the rope trick off youtube.com. 

Edited July 2, 20196 yr by siteunseen

The only thing the cord needs to be is 1. Strong enough not to break, and 2. thick enough so that when you wrap it around your hand to pull in tight spots it doesn't cut your hand in half. Leather gloves are your friend.  Do little circles in the corners to get the gasket seated.

Also the thinner it is, the more likely it will be to tear the rubber if you pull it wrong. 3/16-1/4" rope is a good balance, and I will try that wet trick next time. Genius! 

HB olfa knife blade flat against the glass to remove outer rubber flange works every time to remove the old gasket and get the glass out. Never broken one. Old gaskets can be rock hard, so it takes a bit of pressure and repeated passes, so wear leather gloves and eye protection for when the blade breaks. 

Got lots of tricks for putting it in, just a bit hard to explain. Most important is to get the gasket on the glass 100% all around before you put it in on the car, so that it sits down into the window opening as far as possible all around before you start roping yanking. It should look like it's almost all the way in and down all around. If you can't get it seated well to start with, it will rise maddeningly at the top especially and make it impossible to get the gasket on the pinch weld. If you do it right, your helper really only needs to keep the top center held down as you do the rope thing around the bottom and sides. 

Last trick is using a flat plastic tool to help you seat the gasket all the way over the pinch weld as you go along. This one is my favorite.

 

When you push it between the glass and gasket (inside, 90 deg to the gasket)) and pull toward you , it forces the "U" of the gasket fully over the pinch weld. If you're not over the pinch weld fully at the bottom, the glass gets offset toward the top too much, making the top very hard to get it started and seated up there. Once you get to the top, using the tool also helps you get the gasket over the pinch weld and finally all seated in place. 

Anyway, hope this helps. The first couple I did were a bear, now I can do it myself if I get in and out of the car about 1000 times to whack the glass as I go along to keep the top in place. A big sand bag is also handy to help hold the top center down and in place if you're alone.

I started at the top on the last one I did. It worked great.  We used the Trace Tip of the mono line.  I had a set of hand tools that made the line grasp easy:

 

A windshield removal kit has two handles that will easily connect to mono line.

 

lube up the gasket with wd40....

3 hours ago, nix240z said:

lube up the gasket with wd40....

For inserting the trim or for pulling the rope... or both?

All great ideas.  One more tip from me. How to get the rope/twine/monofiliment/floss into the pinchweld channel in the weatherstrip. I use 3/16 line, so I grabbed a 6-8 inch long 1/4" ID piece of tubing (brass from a hobby store is what I used I think) and thread the rope through it, leave about 12" inches sticking out.

You can then insert the tip of the tube with the 12" bit of line into the rubber channel (leave the end of rope sticking out, it's the end you will start pulling on) and draw it around the weatherstrip perimeter keeping the tip inside the channel. Start center bottom or top, your choice. The rope will magically be deposited inside the channel. Should take about 20 seconds and feels SO good when you do it!  

Since lube is a hot topic, you could lube the rope before you insert it and get the channel lubed at the same time! 

Here is a picture of the commercial tool I found online to give you the visual. 

Tips and lube, 20 seconds...

My mind is the gutter, not in the gutter but THE gutter.

The preist said he doesn't get paid for circumcisions, he gets to keep all the tips.

45 minutes ago, siteunseen said:

The preist said he doesn't get paid for circumcisions, he gets to keep all the tips.

And the guy who does them for the elephants at the Ringling Brothers Circus says, "The pay's not good, but the tips are big."

Sorry, Cliff, I shouldn't encourage you.  However, take comfort in knowing you're not the only one with an 8 year old's sense of humor.

Enjoy the 4th of July!

Dennis

One day we'll meet! You're the best.

Encourage, encourage! I love it.

Edited July 3, 20196 yr by siteunseen