OK, another 4 hours and the driver side is back together with minimum dings. Here some things I learned from this thread and from trial and error. Following the manual is a guide, but it in no way describes what it is you have to do or exactly how to do it.
If you haven't taken everything apart, and if you want to use the existing whiskers and wipe, you will have have another (third) set of hands to get up under the door and attempt to "spread the door halves apart at the whips. It does not take much, but just enough to get the window lift bracket to clear the wipes. It is next to impossible to take the wipes off and not bend them or bust off clips. I'd count on a new set of wipes.
Not a big deal to remove the window and vent wing assemble together with two people.
I had to make new gaskets for the brackets. I found a weather proof roll of gasket material that was close to .025". It had rubber in it and that gave it a nice cushion effect. I could not find the stiff "velvet" gasket material anywhere. The stuff I used came from Auto Zone.
I bought a set of weatherstripping for the windows. Much like the wiper and whiskers, I could only find a complete set for all four windows. Now the confusion. I noticed that the driver window had a clear plastic "weatherstrip" on the window edge, along with the slides. I couldn't see how this was weather proof so I put the new fuzzy weatherstrips in the cleaned channels and then attempted to slide the window, with the plastic and the slides into the channel. 10 gallons of crap in the 5 gallon bucket. So I got rid of the plastic. Still tight, but it would slide in with force. Kept thinking.."how is this thing going to slide on its own". It won't. Maybe you need a different set of slides, I use the originals and the ones that came with the new stuff. Finally, used the original plastic "weatherstrip" and the original slides. That works. Ruined the driver side new weatherstrip in the failed process. Oh, the channel at the rear of the door is a piece of cake to replace.
Got the window in the wing assembly. Ready to insert the set. Two people is a must. Kept the inside whisker strip off. This strip snaps in from the top down so is not that difficult. Sure makes getting the lift bracket in easier. Also, the lead bracket is rounded and this helps get it past the wipes and whiskers. The biggest proble I had on the first go around was thinking that the leading edge of the wing assembly (chrome) went OVER the edge of the door in order to cover the "raw" metal and to act as a shield for what looked like a means of getting water into the door. Did not remember how exactly it came off. After awhile, we tried it both ways but cold not get the unit is "fall" in place. Part to the problem is a metal "thinkamajig" located just in front of the division channel on the wing assembly. It needs to go under a support going across the door panels. You have to get this under that metal support before you can think about "dropping" the unit in place. Even then, hardest part to figure out came only after I played with the other door with the wind window frame without a window in it. It took 3 minutes to figure it out, and it only took one person.
When you get the assembly in place and that Thingamabob is under the support, now look in the hole where the 'yoke", on the front of the wing vent assembly, fits over the stud. Line it up so it looks like the yoke will slide right on. Then look up at the hole above where the support for the front of the assembly has a nut and washer that fastens the assembly. Make it look like it just needs to slide straight forward to line up. Have the leading edge of the chrome on the assembly going UNDER the rough edge of the door. Now, slide the assembly forward and it should drop in place. Double check the yoke on the stud and the alignment of the hole above. Now you are in business.
continue on next post................
