40 rear hatch window molding question

[youmustbecrazy]

Hi, I am putting my hardtop back together and all the windows are smaller than the opening allowing the generic molding to hold the windows in place. The rear door window (72 style) is slightly larger than the opening??? I of course did not pay attention while I cut the old gasket out. Is this normal or at some point was the window replaced with an incorrect size?

 

[mcwinery]

hmmmm, I took out all of my hardtop windows. I wonder if I am going to have this problem too. Where did you get your gaskets for your windows? btw, I am a 10 year Bruin Woods camper at the UCLA conference center. The week after the 4th of july.

 

[youmustbecrazy]

I ordered jc whitney generic molding without the separate locking strip. Happy with it, looks good. I am thinking the back window is larger so when the hatch gets slammed shut it can't pop through the opening. Anyone know, or deal with this?

 

[LakeNorman_FJ40]

Hope you aren't slamming the back liftgate shut...the glass won't last long I would think...

There's a chance your liftback glass was installed with a used one from the wrong model year. Not sure how they got it installed, but I can tell you the glass sizes in the OEM liftbacks are different across the various years. During my restoration I converted to liftback and ended up with 2 liftbacks b/c the first one turned out to be bondo filled swiss cheese after I had it media blasted.

As I reassembled the "good" liftback, I was going to use the best parts from both liftbacks, but I found that many of the parts didn't interchange (i.e., screws on one...bolts and threaded inserts on the other). So, at some point Toyota changed some things around on the liftback design. Also, when I took the finished hardtop to a glass shop to have the OEM window gaskets installed I took both pieces of liftback glass as I didn't know which one went into the restored liftback.

They confirmed one wasn't the correct size glass...of course the other remaining glass was had some scratches and was etched. Since my hardtop restoration was complete I decided might as well put in nice glass, so I had them cut a new one on site from stock flat safety glass. I've still got both OEM rear glass panels in storage if someone needs one...

What size is the glass panel you have?

 

[youmustbecrazy]

I'll check the glass size. I don't know what year the hard top is, the 40 is a 72 and most of the top seems original, but the liftback was a different color, so year is unkown. Anyone know how to tell them apart?