2004 ford trucks backglass

all right all you gasket cutters, here's how we pullers do it.

reach inside and grab the lip of the bg gasket in the top corner. pull it down and push on the glass. these glasses are so easy it's not even funny. they literally fall out by themselves.

when you get it this far, just grab the glass and "wiggle" it, and it comes right out.

take it out and remove the gasket. ready for tint.


total time to this point-- 34 seconds

next, tint the glass. there's no pics for this, we all know how to do that part.

total time for clean and tint-- 5 minutes 17 seconds

I'll try it!..is there any other ones you can think of off the top of your head that come out as easy ?

i wasn't finished. the board went down or something.

anyway, after tinting the glass, i let it set while i finish the rest of the truck. when i'm done, i put the gasket back around the glass, slip the rope in the channel, set it on the truck, rope it in, push the gasket back down in the corners and done.

make sure you check the bottom corners, sometimes the don't slip behind the plastic molding like they're supposed to. like the picture.

total time to slip the gasket on, put rope in channel, rope it in and push the corners back down-- 2 minutes 21 seconds

and here's the finished product. nice, clean, contamination free, no light gaps. nothing.

notice the corners--no edge of film showing. like most jobs i see.

excellent demo with illustration TTS

total time to make a back glass of a 04 ford 3/4 look perfect-- 8 minutes 12 seconds

and guess what? i never had to get inside the truck, or get in the bed. how many times you gasket cutters get inside the truck? once to cut the gasket, once to cut the film, and once to install it? you want to climb in a truck 3 friggin times? WHY????

to answer your question TW, the only other trucks i know of that are as easy as this one are the old nissan hardbody trucks. they were really easy to get out too.
most of the older ones like the 87 down chevy's, require removing the trim and screws. so i can see why most tinters don't want to fart with it. but i do it because of the contamination factor. where i live, people with trucks that old have a buttload of dirt built up in them. and it's damn near impossible to do a decent job.
but why anyone would want to cut the gasket on one of these new fords is beyond me. they're just too damn easy to do them right.

Questions . what other trucks can you do this to (never learned to remove glass from rubber frames) and do you need any special tool(s) ?

you need a rope and a gasket jammer (bone, sissy stick, whatever you call them) that's basically it. if you do the older chevy's, you need to keep a roll of the black bead around because most are too far gone to reuse.
this can be done on any truck with a gasket set bg. all fords, all years, except the 97 to current 1/2 ton. any chevy from 87 down and all s-10 up to 93. all the older toyota and nissan trucks.
DO NOT TRY AND REMOVE THE BG OF A OLDER STYLE DODGE DAKOTA. they're gasket set, but they still glue them in. i found out the hard way.
i'll elaborate more on this later. gotta go.

I can do it, but the glass guys do it for me.

the 93 down dodge trucks without a slider don't have to be taken out. they have a nice 1/4 overhang of the gasket on the outside. the 94-96 dodges have two different glasses, the ones made in the USA have an encapsulated glass, the ones made in mexico have a gasket set. they're very easy to remove also. all the 93 down isuzu and rangers are easy to remove also. really the only hard ones are the older fords and older chevy's. lots of trim and screws to remove.
the only problem you'll have is on REALLY old trucks, like 72 down chevy. most of those have already begun getting brittle and have to have a new gasket. so depending on how picky the customer is or how nice the truck is, either get them to buy a new gasket or get one from a glass shop.
nowadays, most everyone doesn't have to mess with the old style trucks. but this might help some newer tinters that are only used to tinting encapsulated glasses.

Excellent post TTS.