Remove rear quarter windows

[grazza]

Hi,

I am thinking of replacing my sliding rear quarter windows on the SWB Patrol with either:
steel sheet, like a van, or
single piece glass/perspex
...and then put in a hingeing window/hatch.

I am interested if anyone has done this on any vehicle and have these questions:

- Is it legal?
- Can it be engineered? (I have been it cant by a mechanic but I have seen some GU Patrols with siding windows fitted in the rear quarters, Telstra ones I think)
- Would starting with removing the windows, welding a sheet over the hole and putting in a hatch be the go, or, silcon in perspex/glass and fit the hatch into this.

I recently got back from the Cape and the windows become really hard to operate and even though I have now cleaned them up they are still stiff. And in fact they have never been much good. I found these windows handy when touring, just not handy enough

Other options include just a steel hatch, like the Testra Patrols/Cruisers. I dont really need to see out of them but the visibility of windows would be safer.

Also, I dont have rear seats anymore...

Any help much appreciated.

PS: Cape trip report coming soon...

[Hardcorr]

grazza, I know a bloke who has replaced his rear side windows in a GQ Middy with a single piece of perspex. Simply cut out a piece of perspex the same size as the opening and fitted it in. His car is used extreme 4B'ing only, and he didn't want to worry about broken glass.
I would suggest keeping some sort of 'window' in there, handy when reversing in the scrub.

Cheers
Corry

[PJ.zook]

I think theyre was a bloke at ATECO who replaced his sliding glass with red perspex. Looked rather good, didnt seem to affect it much when he rolled either.