On my last night of finals, I was able to sneak in a quick mod to my A4.  We call it the See Through Tinted Glass Delete.

As for the supplies list to perform this modification, you will need 1.5mm plastic wrapped around 2mm panel board and standard blue 3M painters tape.
These supplies, while seemingly difficult to acquire, can actually be harvested from the 24x36 Clearprint Drafting Vellum packages commonly used in a drafting class.
It made for an excellent temporary window.  Moisture / fog resistant and just a tiny more road noise than normal. 

Shown here, The Mighty Finals Beard.

The Rings make it official.  Seriously, I’m really impressed with our handiwork… freeway speeds up to 90, no moisture in the cabin and held strong for five days till I had time to swap in the new glass.

And so, the story.

A few weeks ago, a guy wearing a plaid jacket kicks in my rear window and steals my backpack moments before we exit my school’s building.  Building had security cameras and my car was right out front so the incident was recorded.   One could easily see the crime and pretty much the guys who did it.

I repeatedly watched the footage with building security who then called the police.  They show and we do the full report etc. etc.  Then, the Temporary Window Party commenced in full force.  After getting back to my friend’s place, getting the car cleaned out + everything locked in the trunk and finding a parking spot, got to sleep around 4am.  Rad.

Normally, under zero circumstances would I ever leave anything in my car while parking in SF.  Or most anywhere else for that matter, usually I strip the interior clean.  But when I put the pack in my back seat, the car was still in an underground parking deck.  Later on that evening when I moved the car to the street, I totally neglected to realize it was still there.  Granted I was running on day four of 3-5 hrs sleep etc. etc.  So, kinda my bad.  But kinda not.

This past term at AAU I was challenged with a monumentously difficult technical drawing class of sorts, hence why I completely vanished from the grid.  I was battling with everyting I could muster to pass this class and spent a sizable amount of effort on the final project.  It was a complete cumulative year end report style binder of literally everything we’d done in class (scans of large drawings, all notes, handouts, grading sheets, assignements etc etc).  I took about 60 digital images while in class of examples on the board and included those, with comments about them, in my ‘NoteBook.’ 

I handled this in on the day of my final and shockingly enough, when my instructor returned it to me later in the class period, he said that he was so impressed with it that he wanted a copy of it for use as an in-class example.  Needless to say, I was pretty surprised and stoked. Not only this, but also fortunate enough also pass the class.  The efforts on said NoteBook were certainly worth it.

I’m sure by now you can guess what was also in my backpack…  the freshly graded NoteBook. I’m just glad I got to turn it in before it was stolen… but needless to say, my instructor won’t be getting a copy.  I figure it was completed an in my posession for approx 20 hours before being liberated from my back seat via broken window.  Oh the irony.

Anyway, the day following the break-in, I work from 8am to 11:50am to finish up my 2nd final and turn it in.  Since we’re now finished with the term, a group of us decide to hit a sushi joint down Van Ness.  So we head down, have a nice long lunch etc. etc.  We’re all pretty tapped at this point and a nap on the couch is sounding pretty sweet.  Time to go.

So, I’m walking up Van Ness with a friend from class and as we cross Pine street, I look west towards the gas station / bus stop (left side of pic below)….

In the center median section of Van Ness, I see a street guy (as opposed to a homeless fella) trying to hustle change from stopped cars.  And he’s wearing MY backpack (which is quite distinct, not like a JanSport, and I’ve had it ~5 yrs).  Obviously, this did not sit quite well with me.

So I calmly asked my friend to mind my laptop bag, and then bound out into moving traffic across Van Ness.  I reached the median, did a quick stutter step, dropped a shoulder and LEAP directly at the guy hitting him square and knocking him straight into traffic (about where the 2nd mini van is above).  He found the business end of the concrete and I immediately removed the pack from him.  Hello sir.  How are you?I proceeded to, ahem, request that he explain where he came across said backpack.  During at which time I look up to see a couple in a car that’s come to a stop right behind the guy.  Their eyes are looking like dinner plates.

So while he’s still on the concrete in the street,  the guy tells me he found the backpack up the street.   Okay then.  So I demand he take me there.  He points up Pine street so I grab him and we walk up to a nondescript location half way up the street.  “Here! It was here man!”  At this point I explain to him that I only want the school work back but of course it’s no where to be found (nor my $500 Canon for that matter).  So I order him to sit on the sidewalk, which he does.  I figure, eh it’s workin… lets keep this up and see where it gets me.Even though I was quite heated, I kept in mind the entire time that he might not have actually been the guy who kicked in my window, only the guy who wound up with the pack.  Seriously.  So I told him I was gonna open the backpack to see what he had in there… and the first thing I find upon opening it?  The same plaid jacket from the security camera footage.  It was him.  The same effing guy.

At this point, I might have become a tad more upset.  Just a tad.  Hulk smash.So amongst other things, I proclaimed to this fine individual and anyone else listening in a three block radius that he would soon be visiting a holding facility of sorts.  I called 911 and rather quickly two units showed.  After they got the report number from the night before, checked me and the pack out they slapped the cuffs on the fella and escorted me to the sub station to fill out a report… which I gladly did.

At the station, the sergeant was quickly reading over the reports and says to me, “so last night this guy busts your window and steals your pack, which you see on the security footage, then you see him today while walking up Van Ness and he’s wearing your backpack, so you detain him till we arrive and now you’re here?”Yup, pretty much.

“Nice arrest.”

So with Mr. Julius Zah in custody, and a few officers stoked on my lenghtly and descriptive account of said events, I headed home for some sleep.  And after a HEAVY wash cycle my pack was back in action too.

Now for the window.  One can’t exactly park anywhere in SF for too long with a temp window like this.  So I needed to get on it ASAP.

I was able to source a new one from *gasp* the dealer for $115.  Not too bad considering the place that Geico referred me to wanted $426 for the install, or just $313 for glass.  Ironic, just below a $500 deductible.  Oh wait, not so ironic.  I had to hold in the laugh when the guy gave me that price. 

While this look is quite fetching, but since I couldn’t actually LOOK out of it, so then… time for the swap.

I found an awesome surprise at my folk’s place left by the construction workers.  I am so buying a Shop Vac.

‘There was glass was everywhere!

Even got some caught up in the Itali-fro, figured I’d clean that out too.  No one likes a glassy Itali-fro, that’s just rude.

If you were wondering what it takes to make a temp window that will still perform so flawlessly, you’re in luck.Be sure to cut the piece to fit inside the existing window partition.

And then add a metric ton blue of 3M Painter’s Tape.  Or more.

Fortunately, this was a pretty wicked easy install.  Got the window housing extracted from the door…

Glass mounted in the frame…

And back in she goes. 

Yay, all done.

And the following morning, she passed the High Pressure Water Evaluation Test.  Solid.

Good to go, now for some tint and we’re done.

So I’m down a few hundred dollars, minus a highly sought after NoteBook, short a pretty nice digital camera and still in need of some tint.

But the now somewhat famous Mr. Zah is going to visit the Superior Court of CA in the wonderful, crime-ridden and categorically un-car-friendly City and County of SF.  Unsure if he’ll get anything substantial but I’m calling it a win none the less.  I didn’t think much of it at the time but after more than a few people reminded me of how uncommon this is, well, one must step back and appreciate it.