Winshield seal

[badali]

I just had the windshield taken out for a new seal.  It was the original seal I think.  There is no rust around the opening.  I'll have the wood taken out and redone also.  Everything looks like it will clean up without any major issues.  Here are some pictures.

[Tomnistuff]

Wow, Brad,

I wish everything had looked that good when I took mine apart.

Tom Kizer

[badali]

I was worried about it being rusty since the windshield leaked if I got caught in the rain.  This car was in California from new until 2008.  I guess it was not wet very often to get rusty...  Sometimes these quick improvements turn out to be costly...  I got lucky on this one.

[Jordan]

Brad, the windshield trim looks in good shape. 

Don't know how involved you want to get with it but you may want to remove the chrome trim across the top and along the A Pillars so you can check for rust and replace the screws while you are at it.  They can be tricky to remove as they have putty behind them so be careful you don't bend them.  Even if you don't remove them you can replace the screws.  Hard to tell from the pictures but some of them look rusty. I had my trim rechomed as well when I had the windshield out since it is really the only time I could get at those pieces.  Have fun.

Marcus

[garymand]

I haven't gotten my courage up enough to pull mine.  I've had the new rubber for a year.  Are there steps you can describe for both the take out and put back in?

[badali]

I bought the seal over a year ago and finally just had my local glass  guy pull it out.  I was not there when he did it but removing the wood  and the pillar trim is necessary to putting it back in.  I know the wood trim is held in buy some blue plastic nuts under the dash.  A friend of mine is taking it out for me.  I may just polish the chrome around the windshield in place.  Everything looks to be in great condition.

[mmizesko]

Brad,

good idea about the wood.  The veneer is micron-thin, so be extremely careful in stripping it or steel wooling off the old finish.  Also, you may want to use a UV protectant top coat of whatever you do. 

In order to get to the blue nuts that hold it in, you need to take out the gauges in your dash.  Having just done this myself, you may want to consider either refurbing your tach and speedo (2 weeks in texas), or at least replacing your tach cable (speedo too?).  One doesn't have the opportunity to have these out of the car often during their stewardship tenure.  The gray rubber gaskets around your gauges may need replacing as well, as they may be brittle and cracked.

In addition, I replaced all my dashboard lighting with LED's which doubled the brightness, without causing any heat problems.  I'm a huge fan.

Don't want to cause more work and expense, but a few hundred dollars here may greatly improve your driving satisfaction, while you have your dash apart anyway.

Mike Mizesko
Columbus, OH

[badali]

I'll stop over to the shop and see about taking out the speedometer.  I have a new tach cable to put in.  I guess now would be a good time to put it in.  I have a new ignition switch also.  Thanks for the tips.

[garymand]

Warning. o not replace the charging light with an led.  1st its not an improvement, 2) it has too much resistance to energize the alternator until the motor revs to 2k+ rpm.  I'm got to pull mine back out because I'm tired of seeing the red light on when I start the car. .  The wood is relatively easy to get to.  Its the dash cover and speedo cover that is tough with hidden screws and tricky appoltry techinques to replace. 

[mmizesko]

brad,

gary has a good point about the resistance.  You have to leave 2 incadescent 2w bulbs in the instrument cluster for it to work right.   I do not have the problem Gary mentioned on mine.  Just follow the procedure on the thread on this site.

http://www.sl113.org/forums/index.php?topic=19084.0

check reply #22 from 66andblue (alfred).  Look at the picutres and check related threads for vendor information.

Mike Mizesko
Columbus, OH

[badali]

I just got back from the shop.  The opening for the windshield cleaned up perfectly.  It took me about 2 hours to wipe off the old gasket residue.  Next week I hope to have the glass back in.  So far no real problems.

[badali]

Here is the finished product.  It turned out pretty well.