After waiting for a few days for the vulcanized rubber tape to arrive, I was able to take another stab at installing the pax side door window. The rubber didn't adhere to the glass quite as efficiently as the YT video would have suggested, but my son and I kept working it with our fingers, and eventually got it to adhere well enough to attempt to slide the window in. I was concerned that the soapy water would force it to separate, but we lined it up in the channels, and much to our surprise, it slid in incredibly easily. The rubber tape bunched up a bit at the point where the frame attached, and I trimmed it with a box cutter - just like in the video. My son and I used the pop rivet gun to reinstall aluminum rivets to attach the frame again. Success.
The next day we drove up to the airport early in the morning. The plan was to install the new window and frame in the door, and then remove the pilot side window frame to take that home to work on. We accomplished 50% of that.
Getting the new spring into the small hole it hooked onto was difficult, and it probably took me 20-minutes or so to find a way to do it with pliers and a lot of manipulation. Eventually it was on, though, and I taped it in place using some painters tape to hold it while we riveted the frame hinge back to the door.
Riveting the frame back to the door presented some challenges that I hadn't anticipated. To get the holes to line up with the drilled out ones on the door meant closing the gap between the door seal and the end of the frame. That gap was slightly too small for the head of the rivet gun to reach it, so it took a bit of work and peeling back the seal on the door frame to get it to work, which it eventually did.
Funny side note - I had noted that there were two rusted springs in the door that I removed. When I went back to the spring I had taped it was gone. We looked everywhere - couldn't hear or feel it moving in the window frame, but also didn't see it anywhere we were working. Possibly it got itself lodged in the frame in one of the 90-degree bends. Fortunately I had the other spring I had intended to use for the pilot side door and installed that. Took some work but managed to get it hooked in, and my son was able to get it wrapped around the return hinge. With that done, we installed the door back on. Easy peezy.
Since I'll need a new spring, I decided to wait until after the holidays to do the pilot side door. That window isn't as bad as the pax side one was, so it can certainly wait.
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