Removable Windows

#1

I need some good ideas on how to do removable windows that are reasonably weatherproof when in the car. The car is parked outside under a car cover, but I’d rather not have to bail it out if I tow it through rain.

#2

Here’s a Miata treatment, but they’re open top doors.

http://www.nasaforums.com/viewtopic.php?f=39&t=29360&p=208719

I was thinking about plexiglass cut to the same shape of the window. Put a couple of holes in the plastic to insert pins that would go across the top of the window threshold to hold the windows in place. You’d drop the inserts down in the door, raise them up into the window seal in the upper frame and then pin them. Hopefully that makes sense.

I’m going to need to do something also. Let me know what you try and how you like it.

#3

An open top door would be easy. But that’s not what our cars have.

#4

jlevie wrote:

I made windows for my Miata from Lexan (Home Depot stuff - nothing exotic). The installation required feeding the window in from the top, dropping it down into the door, then feeding it back up into position. Given the flexibility of Lexan, this wouldn’t be a problem in an E30. The window frame would actually make it MUCH easier. With the Miata I had to bungee the window to the seat halo. Getting the first window in was easy because you could reach across from inside. That second window was a b!tch!!!

I would slot the top of the E30 window and use velcro straps over the top of the door frame to hold the Lexan in place.

Steve D.

#5

I’ll have to play around with that idea. I have some Lexan laying around.

#6

Eric Nissen, GTS2 guy, has Lexan windows, and he cut the material basically in the image of the glass, then put a hole or two near the bottom to insert pins that rest across the top of the window sill to hold the lexan up in the track.

He writes:
the holes for the pins are a bit snug and the pins are long enough that they don’t vibrate out. The windows don’t seal real well but any rain that falls simply goes in the door and out the drains at the bottom of the door. I got the pins at Home Depot in the specialty fastener section across from the nails etc.

#7

I think I find the velcro application more appealing.

In the event you’re a butter fingers and drop the window blank in the door, you have something to grab and pull it back up.

#8

I saw a guy at the track with an Acura who had made a prop rod out of a piece of wood and used that to prop the window glass snug into the door track. He had cut it just long enough that when wedged between the bottom of the door and the bottom of the window glass, it would hold the glass up fully.

Of course, that method only works if you don’t have door panels and can reach into the door cavity to position the rod.

#9

I use the stock glass in my PRO3 car, held snugly in place with a bracket on the bottom of the window that holds straps that snap onto the door. As weatherproof as it came from the factory, easy to remove.

#10

Scott H wrote:

[quote]I use the stock glass in my PRO3 car, held snugly in place with a bracket on the bottom of the window that holds straps that snap onto the door. As weatherproof as it came from the factory, easy to remove.
[/quote]

WTG man, that’s clever.

#11

Jim,
I have window covers. They were made by a fabric shop and go over the doors and hang on both inside and outside of the door. You just slip them over the door and then close it and you are done. I will have them out at the track this weekend if you are still coming. Stop by to check them out and see what you think. I have never had them leak on me even in all this rain we have had this summer.

#12

Steve D wrote:

BRILLIANT!!

#13

That is a fantastic idea.

#14

FWIW,
I’ve been towing without windows for a couple of years (in some pretty serious rain) without substantial water in the car. On the other hand, storage is an issue - so far my car cover has been handling it okay at the track, but the racecar is in a carport at home.