Date:         Fri, 23 Oct 2009 17:39:44 -0400
Reply-To:     David Beierl <dbeierl@ATTGLOBAL.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         David Beierl <dbeierl@ATTGLOBAL.NET>
Subject:      Re: Rear Window Defroster Strips Pretty Much Fugeddaboutit?
Comments: To: Rocket J Squirrel <camping.elliott@GMAIL.COM>
In-Reply-To:  <4AE21C51.4050209@gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed

At 05:12 PM 10/23/2009, Rocket J Squirrel wrote:
>But in the fracas the copper bit pulled out of the rubber/window space so
>I just sort of shoved it back in. I could not tell whether there was
>anything fancier needed to achieve a connection between the copper bit and
>the window stripe.

I'd be fairly astounded if that wasn't soldered to the common bus
that runs down the side of the window.  If you're clean, careful and
quick I bet you can solder it back, maybe a little inboard of where
it was before.  Everything super clean, rosin flux, make sure you can
(and do) tin the spots where the terminal is going first, likewise
tin and remove excess solder from the terminal.  Helper positions and
holds terminal while you heat the ends and melt them onto existing
solder.  Can feed a little more in if it seems skimpy.  I'd be
inclined to shove a cut potato against the reverse side of the glass,
use a soldering gun with enough power to very rapidly heat up the
joint so that the glass doesn't get too hot.

If it breaks you prolly needed a new one anyway.

A safer method, maybe not as effective -- epoxy the terminal down,
then use lavish amounts of the grid repair paint to flow around all
sides and top of the attachment points.  Several coats -- the paint
repair in general is meant to carry only the current in one of the
thin grid wires, not the whole thing.  If it runs hot, more
paint.  Paint has to dry before being energized, I believe.

d