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I welded a jig to index the upper frame corners, and a separate jig to index the lower edge of the front of the upper header to the lower frame.
Took lots of pics and measurements.
Removed the old header and right A arm.
Fitting up the new header and right A arm.
When the new header is sitting properly in the jig indexed to the lower frame, the ends of the header are too high.
If I rotate the header to bring the ends down to the corners, the upper windshield mounting area is no longer parallel to the lower frame.
Is this an issue?
How important is it for the upper header windshield mounting surface to be parallel to the lower surface?
Where did you get this header bar from??? I know that the ones I get from a company I will not name are not quite right....and I have to fight with them to get them to work....BUT...I read sometime ago that Willcox was getting these made and they were working on getting the tooling just right. I have not yet got one and tried to install it.
Keep in mind I checked, measured and noted numerous areas before I take the old one out.
I normally like it when I lay a level across the top of the header it is level...and then do a visual inspection of the flat surface where you are going to apply the urethane adhesive and see if it is angles so when the glass goes in...it will maintain a good thick bead. I will also set the windshield in the area and check it also.
SO with you questions..it depends on if the angel is going to still allow urethane to work or if it is making it so that due to the angle is so severe...that the metal portion of the header is going to hit the glass.
When you removed it...did you get any movement in the pillars??? I can see you are doing this with the body not on the frame...or at least it looks that way. And I know you made a fixture...but did it move???
I got this new style one from Willcox last May, supposed to be the cat's meow. I'm finally getting around to installing it.
My jig is indexed to the 2 holes in the top of the rocker channel. It hasn't moved.
I'm only replacing the passenger side A pillar, so I know the driver side A pillar is in the correct position.
I spent some hours today adjusting the corner pieces and triple checking my measurements and the "before" pics.
I finally got it close enough where I don't think the angle will be an issue.
It's only a few degrees off.
I decided to drill the rearview mirror bracket before I welded in the header.
The built-in nuts are too close to the peak.
Those are temporary screws, I know they're not the correct ones.
The purchase of the header precedes the rebuild and refurbish of the part. Actually the order is about 1 1/2 years old. I just pulled the last test sample down before these went into production and the header mirror bracket sat pretty much flat. I compared it to the original header I keep here and there was a slight (very slight) difference but nothing that would hinder the installment.
Your 4th picture tells me that the header is not right... But one thing we do is get the header in place before we ever mess with the corners. Below is what I call the Tri-corner... this is an original section photo shopped so that customers can see how the originals fit to the car. Once you have the header in the right place and welded, your corners will pull in when you use a crimping spot welder. Sometimes you have to massage the corners to get them to lay correctly and some times you will need to cut them off a bit.
If you look in the upper left corner of the picture you'll see that you can barely see the screw hole for the header molding... and even this factory one still didn't pierce the entire header...
There are actually 4 measurements that are very key to getting a perfect installation. A) the windshield opening, B) the measurement from the top of the header down to the floor (or our jig, which is what we use) and C) top edge of the corner to the rear of the car (on a couple) and lastly the angle of the pillar if you are welding one in place.
When we put the jig in a car, it's pretty hard for us to mess this up because the pillar post will lay flat in our jig, we have a hollow tube we use for the windshield opening so we can clip it over the edge of the lower front dash reinforcement and the it has to lay at the right angel and touch the forward edge of the header.
If you want a private link to some of the test fits we did email me back at service@Willcoxcorvette.com, I will check, I think the video is still up, just hidden from the public.
Ship the header back to me and I'll replace it with a new production header no charge.
Willcox Inc.
123 E. Maple Street
Jeffersonville, In 47130
Last edited by Willcox Corvette; Aug 9, 2017 at 04:09 PM.
In the last 2 posts in that thread we discussed building a jig.
I have spent a lot of time studying your install instructions, I used them to fabricate my jig as you suggested. I am also very familiar with the Tri-corner pics, and have spent hours monkeying around with them to try to get this header to work.
What stopped me from proceeding with welding it up as close as I could get it, was the rear view mirror bracket. DUB mentioned that in post #24 in the above thread. as well as the angle being off.
In the last 2 posts in that thread we discussed building a jig.
I have spent a lot of time studying your install instructions, I used them to fabricate my jig as you suggested. I am also very familiar with the Tri-corner pics, and have spent hours monkeying around with them to try to get this header to work.
What stopped me from proceeding with welding it up as close as I could get it, was the rear view mirror bracket. DUB mentioned that in post #24 in the above thread. as well as the angle being off.
That is why I reached out to you.
Dan
This part ships direct in most cases, so my thought on this is that possibly they shipped you one of the old ones in error. The new ones should be black powder coated and the one on your car looks as if it's in the raw. I've already checked how the bracket fit the one I have here and it bolted down flat so I had the manufacturer go head and ship you another one yesterday.
Ernie
Last edited by Willcox Corvette; Aug 10, 2017 at 04:01 PM.
VERY RARE do I actually find a company...where the company knows when a part was 'not quite right' and corrects the problem with one that they spent the time in getting it made correctly.....becasue they actually install the parts that they sell. THAT makes a HUGE difference. You gotta love that level of dedication.
Very, very few of the companies I buy from do well in this area of recognizing parts hat are not 'quite right'....while some of the other companies seem to just want to sell parts and do not care to make any attempt in getting them corrected....SO...it is GREAT that this part is being replaced. Gosh knows... I do it for my customers also when 'things' go wrong.
I have written this a few times..and now this time it seems to be appropriate.
I have what I call the 95% rule and here it goes.
"95% of the time.,..95% of the companies that make parts ....reproduce them to 95% of what they should be. And it takes 95% of my time to rework that part to make it 100% so it will work and be able to be installed".
for WILLCOX for 'taking care of business' as it should be done.
Yes, the box was waiting for me when I got home from work tonight!
I just came in from the shop intending to post about it.
The new header is completely spot welded, unlike what appeared to be MIG welding on the edges of the other one. It also is painted black and the rearview mirror captive nuts are right.
It set into place with hardly any effort and the measurements were correct. What a difference!
I will work on finishing the install this weekend and post more pics.
UPS tracking shows you received today the header I sent back to you.
Thank you for taking the time to sort this out and sending me a new replacement! Your customer service is second to none!!
Yes, the box was waiting for me when I got home from work tonight!
I just came in from the shop intending to post about it.
The new header is completely spot welded, unlike what appeared to be MIG welding on the edges of the other one. It also is painted black and the rearview mirror captive nuts are right.
It set into place with hardly any effort and the measurements were correct. What a difference!
I will work on finishing the install this weekend and post more pics.
UPS tracking shows you received today the header I sent back to you.
Thank you for taking the time to sort this out and sending me a new replacement! Your customer service is second to none!!
Hey Ernie...I expected nothing less than this forum member being happy with the fit.
I know you worked tirelessly on getting it right and what I do know about that upper windshield frame part is that they have to be right because the ones I have used that were not right.....caused me to spend gobs of hours working around an incorrect part.
I LOVE it when a part goes in and fits like Legos.
Hey Ernie...I expected nothing less than this forum member being happy with the fit.
I know you worked tirelessly on getting it right and what I do know about that upper windshield frame part is that they have to be right because the ones I have used that were not right.....caused me to spend gobs of hours working around an incorrect part.
I LOVE it when a part goes in and fits like Legos.
SUPER AWESOME!!
DUB
Thank You.
One reason I was a bit surprised... We just installed on in a 69 conv. and using our jig it practically fell in to place.
Last edited by Willcox Corvette; Aug 17, 2017 at 04:20 PM.
One reason I was a bit surprised... We just installed on in a 69 conv. and using our jig it practically fell in to place.
HOLY SMOKES....I KNOW you have to love that!!!!!! Like I wrote in the past post...I have for years dreaded putting those upper frame part in due to the cluster I would have to deal with. back when GM made and sold them they would literally fall right into place....but that was long time ago and I got spoiled knowing how they should install.
SUPER glad you got the parts that fit like a glove...as they should. So...you can count on the fact that I will get them from you.
Replacing windshield header
1000% 
