Well, one of those days today. Wasted about 4 hours replacing perished rubber gasket on driver’s side window today, and well, it has to be redone.

I used a replacement gasket from the big NL supplier, but as it went in, it clearly was about a finger width too large. So I cut a small piece out of it on the leading edge, thinking I could just butt the ends together. Um, no. It now has a 1mm gap. What was I thinking? The window hinge rivet was easy to drill out, but oddly the hole on part 1 of the hinge is smaller than the hole on part 2 by a hair. This means I’ll have to keep fiddling with the small stainless nut and bolt I fitted to reassemble it, or drill out 1 hole to make them the same. (I’d love to use a replacement rivet, but I don’t have a tool capable of deforming the bottom of it, especially working right against the window.) Lastly, I struggled so much to get the window bottom pivot pin back in, that I badly scratched the aluminum window trim, and now I’ll probably need to upgrade that

I didn’t realize until after an hour of struggling, that on my car, the pivot loosens with the two screws along the door frame top and leading edge (at least that’s what I loosened to get it to finally slide back home). Thanks Haynes manual - not!

To help with round 2, anyone have thoughts on:

- sourcing a high quality rubber replacement quarter light gasket that fits? I have a 1971 500L, left hand drive.

- anyone have an easy solution to replacement of the rivet in the window frame hinge?

I hate do-overs!

Yes, hindsight is a wondrous thing!! As much as I may annoy you by saying this, it is a heck of a lot easier to do the 1/4 light refurbishment with the COMPLTE unit OUT (1/4 light AND surround frame) and on the work-bench. When I refurbished both my 1/4 lights I used modern black windscreen 'goo'--first putting the mastic into the frame and then carefully fitting the glass, making sure that it is in the middle of the frame. Left overnight, the mastic goes off and can then be carefully trimmed, although the bulk of the mastic 'shaping' is done during glass fitment.
With regard to fitting the top rivets---I made a drift, held in the vice, that had the top of it carefully finished flat. The head of the rivet is held against this drift. Then the 'deformable' end of the rivet is spread using a BIG and WIDE ANGLE centre-punch (I found an old-fashioned punch at a boot-sale). If you use a normal style centre-punch you will not spread the rivet enough. YOU WILL NEED A SPARE PAIR OF HANDS FOR THIS PART OF THE JOB to hold the 1/4 light unit in position whilst you wack the rivet. If you are fitting new glass frames, check that the rivets that hold the top pivot mount are not protruding into the frame too much. if they do, the glass will not go into the frame enough to allow correct closure of the 1/4 light---I found this out the hard way and had to take out the glasses (very carefully!) after the mastic had set, and start all over again after I had flattened the rivets---using the same tools that I used to fit the top pivot rivet. It really is much easier to do the job this way, and you are less likely to do peripheral damage. The door card is held in place at each end by plastic clips, which usually break when you try and take the card off---get yourself some ones prior to refitting the door card.:bang:

Thanks for the thoughts. I'll have another go at it with a new gasket. Should be quicker now that I have more experience. The rivet is going to be beyond my skills or patience. In place of the rivet, I think I'll use a tiny stainless bolt, a washer and a self locking nut.

I had trouble doing mine, this may help https://www.fiatforum.com/500-class...arter-glass-chrome-post4286421.html?p=4286421