thanks finding the write up saved me some dollars by doing it myself, I was going to let the glass shop do it

 

Thanks to the original poster and all the contributors. I did my 97' single cab F150 over the weekend and would like to share some things I learned, which may be of use to F150 owners. For starters, among other reasons, the rear windows leak because the butyl tape forms "buckets" around the two holes that receive the hooks on the upper rim of the surround. Most importantly, the surround must be installed first, thus blocking view and access to the edges of the window frame. This makes installation with polyurethane tricky, as you can't run a bead of it where the water likes to seep. I decided to split the surround in two halves, so that I could install the window and then seal it against the metal. This gave me a tight seal and the ability to remove the surround and re-seal if need be. I used DAP polyurethane right out of Home Depot, which I regularly use to seal the bottom of my vehicles, so it protects them from the road salt in the winter. German manufacturers have been using this for decades. i took some pics of the process, so I'll try to share them. This one shows the notch on the window frame where the surround hook goes into. I cut off the hook and filled the hole with urethane, so it will not be able to hold a puddle of water.

 

I cleaned up the butyl remnants with gasoline, which dissolves it nicely, so your surfaces are ready for the polyurethane. There were cracks on the frame and missing screws left holes.


Window was installed with a decent sized bead of urethane, and even then there were gaps that would have allowed water to seep in. Not having the surround blocking view and access allowed me to seal the gaps with a bead around the frame.



The holes left from missing original screws served as attaching holes for 5/16" tap screws, which I will remove and replace with anchors and smaller fasteners once the urethane fully cures. This is just overkill, as I won't really need them once the urethane grips the window against the frame. Urethane takes 7 days to fully cure.



Installing the split surround was a bit tricky, as the corners are tough to insert under the installed window, even after splitting the surround. I did split the surround at the top center, which goes under the third light and at the bottom right to center. I also trimmed the two top corners to about half of their width, so that they could clear the glass. The lip I cut goes deep into the window and once the window goes into place, the trimming is no longer visible. In retrospective, i would have cut the bottom right at the center, splitting the pod where the factory center screw is. This would allow me to cover the gap with a piece of material and use one bolt to press the cover and split area into the frame. I did re-use the butyl on each of the screws that attach the surround against the cab. This way the surround installation can be undone if need be. The surround was painted in black with Rust Oleum epoxy appliance paint, right out of Home Depot. This paint goes in thick and shows a very nice glossy finish. I will cover the bottom split of the surround with a plastic piece epoxyed into it. As it is, it is covered by the truck's tunneau.






I hope this helps someone as the original poster effort helped me. Long live the original poster!!!!