Cockpit Rear Window Install

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Major System Category: Interior
Task: Install rear window
Parts: Cockpit Rear Window and helpers
Prerequisite Tasks: Cockpit Rear Window
Additional Costs: N/A
Time Requirement: 30 minutes
Date Started:  April 25, 2015

Date Completed:  April 25, 2015

This is a very quick task with one slight catch. You need three hands. I know some of you are saying, "Well you're a ninja something or other, use your foot." Even Ninjas run into problems from time to time. Of course, I have resources very few builders can claim - grand kids! In this case, Ethan and Zachary. So now I have six hands and and people short enough to easily fit inside the cockpit.

The problem is to install the window here. As you can see there is a lot going on here, and not much room. This is taken from the rear of the car through the engine bay to the front.

Installing the rear window is really a very big step in working out the rest of the interior. I found I needed to know exactly where this fit inside the car and I have done numerous measurements from the back window as I worked on the overhead console and NACA wing vents.

Everyone piled into the car. I had the doors on the car to make sure no one fell out.

Because the window is installed in the window frame, there is no easy way to reach a hand around the car and hold the nut and bolt for the frame, plus hold the frame up. My solution was to recruit helpers (this did involve a trip to Sonic and some ice cream).

Zachary on the driver's side as the lift goes up.

There goes Ethan on the passenger side.

With helpers, the rear cockpit window was easily installed and secured in less than 30 minutes. I raised the car on the lift and clambered up a ladder into the engine bay. The kids had a blast.

Rear window taken from the driver's side. You can see some wires coming through the top of the frame. These have to be threaded at the time of installation.

Same view from the passenger side. The wires come from the second power cell installed in the engine bay.

Cockpit Rear Window Construct

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Major System Category: Body (Shell)
Task: Finalize rear cockpit window
Parts:
Prerequisite Tasks:
Additional Costs: Set Belt restraint bar  $200
Time Requirement: 2 hour
Date Started: November 1, 2014

Date Completed:  January 11, 2015
I needed a break from the wiring problems, so I started working on parts of the car that I could finish and put aside. The rear cockpit window is such a part. One design change I made was to go with a racing 4 point restraint system rather than the Corvette 3 point system salvaged from the donor vehicle. To make that work I needed a restraint bar.

The seatbelt restraint bar.

This is a hefty piece of gear with attachment points welded for easy bolt on to the chassis.

Painted black.

I purchased a restraint bar from one of the other GTM builders on the Factory Five Forum. The restraint bar bolts through the rear cockpit window frame and directly into the chassis. It is a great design. I started on this on my final 2014 trip down south to the new build site. The build manual calls for the application of a cloth covering. I decided to just paint the frame and the restraint bar black. I had a small paint booth already established and proceeded to the paint the parts

Rear cockpit frame. I would suggest mounting this in the car, before working with it so you understand the orientation.

Painted black.

On mt next trip down, I moved all the glass to the new build site. This included the cockpit rear glass. Some people have replaced this with clear Lexan, I decided to stick with the glass. The hardest part of the installing the gasket is in the half circles on either side of the frame. I started the gasket on the straight portion of the frame and worked my way around.

Gasket tool provided with the Factory Five kit. Use it. It makes the job easier.

Gasket installed.

Factory Five provides a gasket tool. It works to a point. The trick here is to get as much of the window into the gasket as possible. I tapped the edge of the cockpit frame on the floor to drive the window further into the gasket. This got it far enough into the gasket so it seats into the gasket. A friend suggested you could uses soap to ease it into place. The gasket tool comes in handy to pull the lip of the gasket over the edge of the window. 

Rear frame, window and restraint bar. Obviously, the blue tape is there for protection. It will be removed on final assembly.

Everything bolted together.