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So I got to looking at the windshield area on my '68 this last week and noticed truly how bad the gap from the trim along the top edge of the windshield is. I really don't remember it being this bad when I took off the trim to coat the birdcage.in a rust encapsulator. I can't even bend the trim down some to lessen the gap because the trim would end up slightly behind the windshield in spots. Any tips or thoughts on why there is such a gap here?
New windshield glass is thinner than the original. The butyl tape is not thick enough. It takes a fair bit of trial and error with shims to get the depth set correctly. I think most of the guys that have replaced the windshield have eliminated the tape and set the glass in with a modern compound from a tube. I've been dealing with this issue as well. A highly recommended installer sent bubba (rather than their installer who apparently does good work) to install my windshield with the tape and it looks about like yours. I'll be pulling the windshield again myself and getting the glass to sit higher in the frame.
It doesn't look like the tape bonded with the glass very well in that upper left corner. There is a primer you need to put on the glass and frame before the tape.
When I did the windshield on my 69 at home I found the original 69 glass was .275" thick and the replacement glass now is only .205". The original damming strip used was 5/16" but with the new glass required a 3/8" strip to maintain the right height. The original sealer used outside the dammimg strip I believe was called Thiokol which I don't think is made anymore and didn't really hold all that well. I used modern stuff and checked all the gaps (twice or more) before sealing it down.
I believe there are a couple of utube videos on doing a C3. The fit in your pic looks really bad. It's hard to tell if the top edge is even sitting on the top header or just up against it. It kind of looks like the glass has slid down or was installed too low. Below is how mine worked out but it took a bit of work, measuring and planning.
Last edited by CanadaGrant; 03-21-2019 at 12:00 AM.
It very well could be an aftermarket windshield, I am not sure. It was raced from '72 through the mid '90's by my dad and something could have happened to a windshield or 2 during that time.
I did find a picture from likely the late '80s or early '90s that appears to show the large gap. Looks like the gap has been around for a while.
Looks like the windshield is set too far down the frame also. You may have a hard time even trying to wire your windshield out as low as it is to the pinchweld.
The "bubbles" are delamination of the glass to PVB. Not a big problem at this time.
So I'm definitely thinking it's a case of the windshield sitting too low and too far into the frame. It is LOF glass with a date code of NN. That means it was made in March of 71 or 84. My guess, based on the history of the car is that the glass was put in during the major repairs it went under in the early '70s for an engine fire. It had a later firewall installed, it would make sense that the glass would have been replaced too. The glass has been on the car for sure since the NCCC convention in 1984 since it still retains the event sticker.
This isn't a show car restoration by any means so I will likely live with how the windshield is gapped. I don't feel like taking the risk of damaging the windshield trying to remove and reinstall it.
03-20-2019, 01:14 PM
Windshield Trim Gap
