I went to the workshop with a friend yesterday
evening to have a go at removing the wind screen. I had tried to remove the
windscreen from a TR7 three times before with mixed results (one shattered, one
cracked and one came off in one piece). So I entered the workshop with mixed
feelings. But we did come fully prepared. As said friend works at a body shop,
he had borrowed a few tools to make life a bit easier;
Before starting on the windscreen we first removed the stainless windscreen surround. Starting from both bottom corners and using a combination of gently pricing it lose and a selection of “available” blunt levering tools, this was removed pretty quickly. Which brought us to the main task. The windscreen itself. We started with the traditional cutting wire;
But we had to abort this line of attack. Regardless of the type of cutting wire used, the wire almost immediately started to dig into the glass. This is pretty normal on a TR7 and is caused by the way the window is glued into the window lip, and the depth/length of this lip. After that we tried an air powered knife. This worked pretty good as long as there was enough room to work and see what you were doing. Which meant we only used it on less than half of the bottom part. So only solution left was cutting out the sealant with some pen knifes. Pretty easy, only took the two of us well over three hours to cut it free. But we have a result, one reusable front screen!
Before starting on the windscreen we first removed the stainless windscreen surround. Starting from both bottom corners and using a combination of gently pricing it lose and a selection of “available” blunt levering tools, this was removed pretty quickly. Which brought us to the main task. The windscreen itself. We started with the traditional cutting wire;
But we had to abort this line of attack. Regardless of the type of cutting wire used, the wire almost immediately started to dig into the glass. This is pretty normal on a TR7 and is caused by the way the window is glued into the window lip, and the depth/length of this lip. After that we tried an air powered knife. This worked pretty good as long as there was enough room to work and see what you were doing. Which meant we only used it on less than half of the bottom part. So only solution left was cutting out the sealant with some pen knifes. Pretty easy, only took the two of us well over three hours to cut it free. But we have a result, one reusable front screen!
Which means I now removed two front screens successfully and broke two over the years. But as I have a NOS one in stock (still in its original factory packing) the old screen will go to the spare parts storage. And after removing the last bits of kit it was obvious that the front screen frame is pretty solid;
Remain the removal of the back axle, the fuel tank, front suspension and engine. Shouldn’t take more than a few hours. So well on schedule to get the body ready for paint removal and light shot blasting in preparation for the body repairs.
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