can any one give me the proceadure for removing and installing the rear window panel thanks Greg

Well greg, since no one has givin you an answer yet I'll try. I haven't replaced one of these but I did cut out and replace my rear tail panel. If it were me, I would order the replacement piece first, so I had something to look at. I'm going to guess it's pieced, or spot welded in place so it has seams. That's the way it appears to look to me anyway. You should have the glass out already I'm guessing. I would look underneath it, in the trunk area for anything that's attached to it. Detatch without destroying, anything that's there. (I don't have my car right here to take a look at and can't recall what's in there right now.) Remove the spotwelds on the sides and the ones forward. Now I would have to be looking at it to explain exactly were you need to trim, but you get the picture? The main thing is, do not remove what you need to re-attach to. It can get very time consuming. It took me 12 hours to cut my rear panel off. I used a air chisel to remove the bulk of panel to get it out of my way. Then used a small cut-off wheel to get closer to the edges, then used a 4" grinder, then a dremel for the final touch-up on where the panel needed to be re-attached. Does the replacement panel have the upper part of the trunk gutter? Be careful around this area. I think you can do it, mine came out very nice and it was my first attempt. Just be cautious, those tools can be unforgiving.
I hope I'm making sense. I can't explain things as well as I can do them. Hope this helps.

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Steve
67 SS 396,4-sp
67 RS 327,4-sp
72 RS 350/350
69 4X4 suburban 350,4-sp
73 3/4 ton 454/400
http://www.geocities.com/stevocamaro

I replaced every panel on my car except the roof. The one below the rear window was the worst, followed by the tail light panel.

This one is a real pain to remove. The rear window has to be out of course. I used a cutoff wheel and cut the inside of the panel out first so I could see what I was dealing with. I cut it fairly close to the outside of the main part - that is, the top surface before it turns down toward the window or trunk channels or into the seams with the quarters. Then you can drill out spot welds and remove the rest without damaging adjacent panels.

I bought a repo piece which I think is all that's available. It didn't fit real good. I would recommend that you get the car level and solid before you remove the old piece and check the fit of the new piece carefully. I had to slice a couple of the corners and use a hammer and dolly to "shrink" the piece just a bit so it would fit right. I would also take the time to completely clean the area underneath and coat it with something like POR15 and fit some small drain tubes into the corners of the window channel to drain off water in the future.

Hope this helps - e-mail me if you have other questions.

Scott


[This message has been edited by RockyMtnRacer (edited 01-03-2001).]