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One thing that has always bothered me about my 84 is how the trim around my windshield looks. It seems that there was a seal here at one point, it degraded into nothingness, and someone tried using some sort of liquid sealant over it. Now even that has degraded, and nothing is separating the glass from the metal trim piece.
So I’m curious, would it be necessary to seal the top/sides of this windshield trim? I hear the windshield area can be prone to rust if not properly sealed. And if I were to seal it, would some generic foam stripping from Home Depot work, or should I use some sort of liquid sealant from a caulk gun to fill in the space?
A fellow forum member let me know how the trim on his 84 looks, and it seems like it should have a rubbery seal from factory. But in my case with an aged and neglected 84, what would work best?
On second thought, I think I know why this is so weird. I think my windshield was replaced at some point in my cars past.
In most images and videos I see of windshield replacements, people say to be very careful with this metal trim since it’s easy to bend. Perhaps someone in the past was aggressive with the trim removal and bent it?
There’s a chance I can bend it in better shape. But still, it would be nice to know if these trim pieces were sealed off from factory with anything.
to have a large gap from outer windshield surface to the trim, windshield was simple pushed too far in when installed….the way the urethane works, you just push it down and it squidges out a bit if you need the windshield lowered. Or perhaps they didnt put enough on and it was lower even without pushing it. Chances are that was installed to fill the gap.
I had an 86, rough car, i used black urethane to fill that gap. Same thing, it had too much gap, but it had been left. pics to follow in 10min
Last edited by VikingTrad3r; Feb 22, 2026 at 02:02 PM.
So, here are shots of frostbites windshield. it DOES have a pice of plastic trim btwn the metal and the glass.
AND i happen to have saved my 90 racecars windshield trim….and it also shows a bit of plastic trim that would be btwn the metal trim and glass.
So its possible that your oem stuff was lost or installed wrong, on frostbite its really tuck in there you cannot see it at all. Or maybe yours is aftermarket.
Im guessing its to prevent metal trim to glass contact.
Thank you for the images. They’re always very helpful.
Alright so it seems like my suspicions were correct and someone seriously messed up with a replacement windshield installation. And it seems like whatever trim sat between the metal and the glass has either degraded into nothing or was simply lost.
Would replacing the windshield be a logical course of action here? It’s a massive overreaction to replace the windshield because of some trim misalignment, but poorly installed glass can rust out this whole section because of water intrusion risk. Thats what i hear, at least.
Other option is just squeeze some black Dynaflex in there and just let it ride. Sucks to see previous owners do less-than-respectable work on this car (remember my starter wiring…?).
EDIT: I also have a little less than half a bottle of this left over if I wanted to seal that gap. But this might be overkill for the glass-to-trim sealing job.
Last edited by conniekalitta; Feb 22, 2026 at 02:41 PM.
replacing the windshield is a big job. because someone needs to remove interior windshield plastic trim, painstakingly disassemble a very old and crusty weatherstripping, removing the glues in the weatherstripping retainer is the worst part of the job, which will need to be replaced with the good stuff, remove the double sided foam tape that is the seal between the window trim and the weatherstripping retainer, all without losing the weird torx fastners, and without bending the pieces, and then if you go this far u need to sand and ospho-like treat the windshield frame
If it were mine, and if your windshield is not cracked or pitted or otherwise damaged, id probably use an extremely sharp blade, remove that plastic trim, and then (as i did on my old 86) carefully fill the gap btwn the windshield surface and the trim. Id use something that dries matte, like a black polyurethane.
Keep in mind, if you need to chage ur windshield eventually, you will be looking for a factory replacement set of trim.
I think u have the correct plastic trim piece. There was just too much gap greated by either pushing the windshield too far in or not using enough urethane.
i took this pic on racecar to show the urethane. You can see how to much and windshield stands proud. too little, or pushed in too much (one of these two your most probable situation) and u get trim to glass gap and the plastic strip is allowed to get wavy in the hap
Entertainingly enough, my windshield is cracked as well. My old man accidentally chipped it while trying to help me remove the wipers long ago. One hot day later, huge crack appeared, which I have mostly mitigated the spread of by using resin from a windshield repair kit. Has held up well enough so far…
Considering this windshield may very well get replaced someday again, I might go with a temporary solution of filling in the gap and seeing how long it rides for. I can always scrape the goo off of the metal trim if I replace the windshield. It’s just another hoop to jump through.
Windshield Trim Seals - Replacement?
