Windshield glass

Lefthander1930

Lefthander1930

Senior Member
I have a crack on the inside of my windshield. The little bonnet is welded on the body over the windshield. With that said, Can I get the glass out and back in without removing the bonnet ?
 
On my 31 Tudor open the windshield horizontally, there are 7 wood screws in the hinge into the header, remove the entire windshield. You now can disassemble the windshield frame top and remove the glass. The upper frame has small screws in the corners, best to use very good screwdrivers , soaking the gasket with wd40 or similar to soften the gasket. Siding the glass up out of the frame, use some heavy leather gloves !
 
Yes, open the windsheild up enough to remove the side arms, then open it all of the way and have a helper hold it up, from the inside of the car look up at the hindge and you'll see 8 or so screws holding the hindge up to the header wood thats above it, just remove them and the whole windsheild frame with the glass will come out. pretty straight forward when you get in to it and again best NOT to try it by your self
 
It's a good idea to assess the condition of the holes in the header that you screw into. A lot of time this header wood is (at best) kinda mushy with age. With the windshield out is the time to consider drilling out the holes and inserting wooden dowels to give you some fresh meat to screw into. Don't do them all at once, leave several of the original holes so that you can line up the hinge with them to give you the location of the new holes in the dowels. Once you have the new holes located and drilled you can remove the windshield again and fix the last few you used as locators. Depending on how badly the header is rotted, I either use a small dowel and wood glue, or a larger dowel and epoxy.

When you put the new glass in, I find it handy to coat the rubber with a thin film of motor oil on each side, that makes it easy to slide into the windshield frame and the glass. The oil then expands the rubber to form a tight fit. I use a dab of black trim adhesive at the corners to seal the two strips of rubber to each other.

You might consider replacing the exterior rubber (around the outside of the three sides of the windshield) while you have the windshield off. This tends to get stiff with age and loses its ability to seal against the body. Don't use motor oil on this one, I use ArmorAll on the rubber bead to slide it into the window channel but almost any silicone-based product will work (like detailing spray or spray wax).
 
When working with rubber trying to get things to slide or slip fit it's better to use a silicone spray than to use an oil product oil tends to make rubber swell and it also deteriorates it faster.
 
I was introduced to P80 Emulsion Temporary Rubber Lube while working on Robinson Helicopters. It was made to provide a biodegradable rubber lube that won't leave anything behind. It looks like milk but after it evaporates, the rubber won''t have any grease or oil on it such as some lubes have. This is used where the end user wants the rubber to stay in place after it is set. It can't slip that way. It may not be for some due to it's cost but it won't break the bank.
 
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