My friend got some pretty bad hail damage not long ago that put a hole through his rear plastic window. Needless to say this has got to be one of the most tedious pain in the ass replacement jobs ever!
To even gain access to the rear compartment EVERYTHING had to come out! First the seats, then the center consol, all the inside body paneling, roll bars, middle console, rear compartment covers, seat belts.... and much more I'm not mentioning here.
Whew! After gutting it completely we could finally gain access to where the top bolted to the car. Removed all the bolts then had to put the top back up and remove all the weather stripping. Once that was gone we could start drilling out the rivets that held the top together. Next we pulled out the old window, and put the new one in. Then it was time to put everything back, re-waterproof, and test her out.
Everything took a total of about 15 hours and saved my friend $1000's in labor. In fact, Honda didn't even think the rear window could be replaced! WTF is that!? 2 days garage time, some good wrenching, a shop manual, and we did it! Talk about a pain in the ass though. Honda should use some common sense next time and just make a zip-out window for the later models. Anyway, it was fun regardless.
Here are some pics mid-job....
To even gain access to the rear compartment EVERYTHING had to come out! First the seats, then the center consol, all the inside body paneling, roll bars, middle console, rear compartment covers, seat belts.... and much more I'm not mentioning here.
Whew! After gutting it completely we could finally gain access to where the top bolted to the car. Removed all the bolts then had to put the top back up and remove all the weather stripping. Once that was gone we could start drilling out the rivets that held the top together. Next we pulled out the old window, and put the new one in. Then it was time to put everything back, re-waterproof, and test her out.
Everything took a total of about 15 hours and saved my friend $1000's in labor. In fact, Honda didn't even think the rear window could be replaced! WTF is that!? 2 days garage time, some good wrenching, a shop manual, and we did it! Talk about a pain in the ass though. Honda should use some common sense next time and just make a zip-out window for the later models. Anyway, it was fun regardless.
Here are some pics mid-job....