DIY Network

1993 Honda Civic: "Racing Diet" Andrew Totolos puts a '93 Civic — already partly race-ready — on a weight-reducing program, lowering curb weight by 325 pounds and shaving standing 1/8-mile track time to under 10 seconds! From "Tricked Out" episode DTRK-401

(Continued from page 3)

Andrew Totolos tapes the new lightweight windows in position to hold them securely as the sealant dries.

In his attempt to make this race-dedicated Honda Civic lighter and faster, Andrew has already removed some 300 pounds of excess weight from the car's interior. Now he will replace the heavy factory windows from the rear and hatch and replace them with lightweight plastic windows.

Materials/Tools:

masking tape
utility knife
sticky-back shelf liner paper
standard shop tools
center punch
vacuum
set of molded plastic windows
black silicone sealant

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	Figure I
	Figure J
	Figure K

Remove Factory Windows

• Begin by removing the heavy rear hatch windows. The side windows on this car were never really meant to be removed, so it takes a little work to slice them out.

• First, tape the window to the car to hold it in place (figure I). Use a sharp utility knife to cut through the gasket material between the car and the glass (figure J).

• Work all the way around the glass from the inside, and then finish up from the outside and carefully pull the glass away.

• That's the proper way to remove a window, and it requires about an hour per window. For the sake of time, Andrew does things the old-fashioned way — he breaks it using a hammer! Before he goes to town on the glass, he decides to laminate it between sheets of sticky-back shelf paper. With a thin plastic sheet covering the outside and another sheet on the inside of the glass, the plastic sandwich will keep most of the glass shards from flying all over and creating a mess inside the car.

• Once the window has been sealed between the pieces of paper, a quick tap with a center punch shatters the glass into a million or so little pieces. Once it's broken, carefully push it out from the inside and drop the broken glass into a bucket.

• Andrew cleaned up the glass debris using a shop vacuum (figure K).
  

  	Figure L
  	Figure M
  	Figure N

• The new plastic windows will need a nice clean surface to adhere to. Use a scraper to clean up the frame. It will take some time to scrape away the old adhesive.

• When both of the window frames are clean, vacuum out any remaining glass shards.

• Run a bead of fresh adhesive around the first window frame (figure L).

• Press the new plastic panel into place(figure M).

• Tape the panel to the car so that it's held tight while the adhesive dries (figure N).

• The window on the other side goes in just like the first.

• Before swapping out the rear glass, reattach the battery. Since the new plastic windows bolt in, accessing the battery will be much more difficult from outside the car.

• To pull off the glass from the rear, remove the acorn nuts that secure the spoiler, and pull it off from the top side.

• Unplug the third brake light and the defrosters. Pull the wiring out with the grommets attached.

• Unbolt the support struts from the body and close the hatch to unbolt the hinges to release the glass.

• Bolt the plastic window into place, reusing the factory hinge bolts.

• Put the spoiler back on and open the hatch to tighten it up.

• The bottom of the window gets secured to the car with a couple of bolts.

• After the rear window is secured, peel off the protective plastic coating from all the windows.

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