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I’m looking for a really good photo of an ORIGINAL windshield showing the dam material. Specifically, I’m hoping for a good photo showing the cloth material affixed to the top of the dam.
Hi Stan, my original 73 windshield is in place along with the surrounding trim and some of the damming material is visible through the glass in several places. It’s amber in color. Would pics of this be helpful to you or are you looking for pics of the materials after being disassembled?
No, what you have sounds perfect! I’m trying to get a good look at the cloth material as I am trying to replicate this for a couple of restorations that I am working on.
Let me clarify my last post (it sounded confusing after reading it back)… YES, what you have is what I am looking for, NO, it doesn’t have to be disassembled.
Looks like the dam has an interesting shape (I believe that one of Alan’s diagrams showed this shape as well)… The cloth covering appears to be on the curved, outer section of the dam. Not sure that any of the dams currently sold come in anything but a rectangular shape, but I think that I can make that work.
Hi Stan,
I tried to make a damming strip for my car.
I had a couple of good samples saved from the original glass.
I felt that the 'material' used for the adhesive strip was like a piece of cotton from a bedsheet.
The strip needed to be so narrow and thin I couldn't handle it and gave up.
James' detail photo shows a strip to be more like 'linen' which might be a bit easier to work with.
I believe once the exterior and interior trim is in place the actual shape of the damming strip could be a square shape of the proper size as it is not seen except for the adhesive face
I'll be interested in your progress.
Regards.....
The "linen" is on the flat not curved side... I made my dams by splitting some latex covered foam weatherstripping purchased at Lowes or Home Depot.
The curve is from being installed in the car and "rolling" over.
Another installed photo across the top of the front glass.
From what I have seen -removing originals the linen material was black originally but sunbleached from exposure.
One of the photos I posted shows the black color on the linen.
I have a bag of the original material around here somewhere.
Here is another photo of prefitting the glass with the dam in place. JohhZ stated that the dam was on a roll the "linen" backing kept it form being stretched thin.
Thank you for the feedback. I’m in agreement that once installed, the shape of the damming strip shouldn’t matter too much as it is going to be flattened out to a degree. I would also agree that the “cloth” is more linen in that it has a bit of texture to it. I believe I found a good substitute for the dam as well as a suitable replacement for the cloth component.
I truly appreciate the responses. For as many cars that I have owned and worked on, I think only one car that I owned ever had the original windshield so my experience with this subject is limited to what I have seen while judging.
As you said Alan, we’ll see how it all comes together.
Interesting on the color… The material I intend to use is available in off white and black. Not sure what to go with as I always have seen the “bleached out” version (as have most others). Kind of like the washer pumps… Yeah, they look yellowed on original cars, but they were white originally. Plus there’s the need to explain the black color (which you’ll never see unless you pull a real windshield, like you did).
One question that I’m adding to this… I see now that the linen is on the flat side. I assumed that was the “adhesive” side of the dam. It looks like the dam is attached to the windshield… Am I mistaken? How is that done with the cloth in place?
I miss John Hinckley’s posts… That man was a wealth of information on how our cars were built.
Decisions, decisions…
Regards,
Stan Falenski
Last edited by Rowdy Rat; Nov 6, 2025 at 07:56 PM.
Glad to hear that my pitted and scratched original glass can do somebody some good. Actually I’m kinda proud that it’s still serviceable after 52 years and it speaks to its provenance. Good luck in your efforts.
IT was glued in place according to JohnZ... I used trim cement to glue the last one on the glass and then applied the sealer onto the glass up against the dam using the tip cut as illustrated in the Fisher body manual. (it has the specific way to cut the tip so the bead is correctly shaped.
I prefit everything with the rubber blocks in place then on both A pillars put a piece of tape across the pillar and onto the glass...cut the tape with a razor blade so I knew exactly where the correct alignment was - removed the glass pumped on the sealer and then installed the glass pushing it down after installed.
Thanks for laying out your procedure James, gives me a better idea of how it was done too.
First point… I’m probably going to go with the black linen material. You’ve seen it in person and it makes sense that it would be a dark color. I don’t think GM would want to call attention to the materials that they used… I think that the light/off white color can be attributed to fading and staining, so black it is.
Second point… I’m thinking that the way that you did it (while probably like the factory did it), might not be the best way from a hobbyist/restorers standpoint. I’m thinking that it might be better to do the layout of the damming strip on the windshield frame, assemble the trim to check the reveal and installation, disassemble the trim and apply the sealer to the frame, and then install the windshield. I’m guessing that there might be some seepage, but probably not much (and likely something that I can live with).
That’s my thinking anyway. Would love to hear what you think.
I have done 6 glasses using the procedure I laid out which came directly from the fisher body manual.
I pretty much had to glue the strip to the glass due to the shape of the ones I made, but maybe you could glue it to the channel lip using the squared type -
I have made my own which are shaped like the original I pictured.
Whatever you do prefit and mark the glass - using masking tape also be sure to rubber block and shim it accordingly...
If you do not have a fisher body manual which shows the procedure and tip cutting procedure I will photograph it from one of mine and post it.
LAy the glass in the correct position and then take a grease pencil and mark the perimeter from the inside ... the margin is much narrower than you think it would be.
Thank you for the feedback. I do have a rectangular dam… I could make it look like the dam in your photos, but that would take a considerable amount of time and effort. The rectangular dam that I have has adhesive on two sides; I figured one side to secure the linen, the other side to secure it to the windshield frame. I also thought that if I installed the windshield trim ahead of time, I could get a good reveal on the dam/material. I will definitely lay out everything in advance… I did this with all of the other windshields that I have installed and it makes a lot of sense to do it this way (no surprises when you do the actual install). Good advice though as I know that the dimensions on the reproduction glass are different than OEM.
I would very much like to see the information from the Fisher body manual regarding the adhesive if you are willing to post it.
This is what I picked up to use as the linen material for the dam. As noted, I intend to use the black material based on James’ (firstgenaddict) observations. This material is (nominally) 1/4” wide.
I also purchased several windshield dams, 3/8” x 1/4”. These have two sided adhesive… I’ll attach the linen on one side and attach the other side to the windshield frame.
Hello Stan,
Those rolls of material are a nice find on your part.
Was it much of a search?
Might the linen strip cause the foam strip to 'kink' up at the corners?
Regards,
Alan
Windshield Dam Material
