The race was on and I wanted to get this restoration finished. I had to workout how to get my Land Rover Series 1 door top glass to fit properly. For added pressure I had a fixed deadline to meet. An old time Land Rover friend invited me to a Classics and Coffee on Spring day. The condition that I come in my 107. It was going to be a mad rush right up to the last minute to make it.
Getting Wrong Door Top Glass
I had asked a local Land Rover restorer to get some glass cut for me becuase they were getting some for a project that they were busy with. I got the glass back and I checked the dimensions and everything looked fine. But I didn’t check the thickness. I should have known becuase it is one of the most important restoration lessons I have learned.
So when I came to assemble the door tops I realised that the glass was too thick. It would not fit properly since the glass was 6mm instead of 4mm. Besides a poor fit, the 6mm glass was also a lot heavier. Originally these windows would have been perspex or a mix of perspex and glass.
I still didn’t have the correct glass for the door tops and would only get the glass a few days before the big event and I couldn’t just sit and wait. So I decided to do what I can in the meantime. I could prepare everything so that as soon as I get the glass I can just screw everything in.
The window channel had to be cut to length and the spacers also needed to be trimmed and drilled. The door tops already had holes in so I measured those out on the window channel and spacers
Fitting the Correct Thickness Glass.
First I dry fitted the fixed pane to check that all the spacers and channel still fitted in. Then I fitted the fixed pane in place and used some butyl tape sealer between the glass and the door top.
Unfortunately some of my predrilled holes were not properly aligned with this new glass. So I had to redrill some and make some a bit bigger because the countersunk screws were still sticking out a bit.
With this 4mm glass now , the vertical sealing strip fitted and I could get the retaining strip to go on properly unlike the 6mm glass where it was clearly too thick.
These window tops had taken me longer than expected so the pressure was mounting but they were really looking great considering how damaged they were when I got them.
Fitting the Door Rubbers
Now on to the last job, the door rubbers. I couldn’t get the original door rubber but found something that was as close as possible. The original strips for securing door the rubbers were all rusted and too wide for this rubber that I had bought. So I had some 10mm stainless steel strips lazer cut. These 10mm strips could then be inserted into the rubbers, it was a bit of a fiddly operation and I used some soapy water to get the strips to slide in. Then I could pop rivet the rubbers onto the door channels.
It was late afternoon now and the sun was setting. I was having visions of working into the night and getting home in the dark. But I just kept going as quickly as I could.
Eventually I did get everything finished and headed home as the sun was setting. It was a special moment to remember driving this Landy home for the first time.
What a pleasure it was waking up the next morning and seeing this fully restored Series 1 in my driveway. It was even more of a pleasure taking it for a drive on a Sunday morning, something I had been dreaming of for many years.
It was a small gathering at Classics and Coffee with a couple of MGs and a Bentley. But best of all there were 4 Series 1 107s there. Not something you see everyday. There was KCs patina 107 named Lizie and then of course mine, and Dave came along on his recently restored 107 which is the opposite colours to mine. Then Rick was also there in this all original patina 107 station wagon.
It was a great morning out and so nice to finally start enjoying this project that has kept me busy for so long.
You can see the full video on how to get the Land Rover Series 1 door top glass to fit on YouTube
