Little bit more progress to report; I got all the windows back in now. I got a new windshield and gasket (without the lock strip) and it was a MAJOR PITA to get in the truck. I cannot stress enough how much of a fight that gasket put up, but it's in there and it's tight AND I didn't break the new glass. Wins all around. I know some folks have asked about how to do these gaskets; I learned on my dad's old British car and picked up a couple of tricks along the way. Some folks say to use a 3/8" rope in the channel, which will work, but I found somewhere someone said they used a smooth weedeater line. I tried that on the past couple of gaskets and like it much better. So basically you get some
3M bedding compund and I will line the inside and outside channels with a bead. Take a length of the weedeater line and starting at one bottom corner, run it along the bottom channel and then up and around the windshield to the corner you started, go past that corner and over to the other bottom corner so you have two lengths of line in the bottom channel now. This is why the weed eater line is better, the rope would be too thick for two lengths. Having two lengths is good because if the gasket lip pops back out you have a second length to pull it back later. Now set the windshield on the gasket flange as close to the center as you can get it, and adjust from there. It's going to move while you work on it, but the bedding compound will let you move it around pretty easily while it's still very soft. Here's the really tricky part, the bottom corners are not going to want to stay seated, so you have to use pressure to keep the window in place while you set the other corner. This time I used 2 5 quart oil jugs duct-taped together and hanging from a rafter pushing against the window. I like these because the oil jugs are soft and will easily deform, and 10 quarts of oil weighs about 18lbs or so. So I hang them from a rafter with a length of rope so they are pushing on the corner that I have gotten set on the flange. Once the window is centered, get your bottle of overly soapy water and spray all the gasket down where it's going to come in contact with the flange, so that as you start to pull out the line the rubber will more easily slip over the flange. If you don't have some kind of soapy water then find something else, don't proceed without some kind of lubricant here as you can cut the gasket lip if you have to pull too hard. These gaskets are really strong, so you would need to pull REALLY hard, and if you are pulling that hard the pain from the weed eater line should be killing your hands anyway. OK, run along the bottom and as you go push the gasket down onto the flange from the inside, this will seat the gasket better and help keep it from popping off the flange. From time to time get out of the vehicle and check the windshield center and pull down on the top of the windshield and try to seat that glass into the bottom channel. Now get the first corner set over the flange, it's probably going to be really hard. Use lots of soapy water and use short hard tugs on the line to get the gasket lip to come up and over the flange. Once you get the first corner set, go a few more inches up the side, and make sure you push down the gasket on the inside to set it down on the flange. Now, if you are working alone this is the time to use the weight from above. Hang it from a rafter that is back over the top of the front seat so all the weight will be pushing on the windshield and keep it as close to the edge as possible. You should not need to more this for the rest of the job. Now check the windshield center again, pull down to set the glass again, and proceed with the second line. In case I missed it, when you set the windshield on the car you put the ends of the line inside, you will be working mostly from the inside of the vehicle. Now pull the second line and get the second corner set. You will have to use the palm of your hand and with some quick raps hit the glass right near the gaskets to get the gasket to come up and over the flange. You will need to do this all around the rest of the windshield. Use LOTS of soapy water everywhere you can think to use it. I will not cause an issue with the bedding compound, but it's essential to get the gasket in place without damage. I'm sure there is a special bottle of something out there for this, but the cheapest dish soap you can find is actually the best I've found. Cheap dish soap has lots of glycerin and just a little actual soap, and that soap is the cheapest there is, not like Dawn with strong degreasing agents which you don't want anyway. I do a 10-second squeeze into my little water bottle so that when I spray it I can feel the sliminess of the glycerin. I use the same stuff to change tires too. Anyway, you keep pulling the line, bumping the glass to set the gasket all the way around. Also, from time to time, with a plastic time removal tool, pull out the outermost gasket face flange that overlays the windshield frame all the way around. If it's a new gasket this forward-facing lip will fold under and wedge down into the frame channel preventing the gasket from fully seating. Use soapy water and a plastic trim removal tool and run it along the gasket to pull it out. You will have to do this from time to time till the gasket gets seated down far enough to prevent this from continuing to happen. Note: the gasket corners will be a REAL bitch, period. Also, I'm pretty sure this is much easier if you have a gasket with a locking strip, and easier still with a used gasket that's still very pliable.
Now, why would someone be silly enough to do a gasket on their own? Well there are a few reasons: 1) I am a control freak with these kinds of things and wouldn't want someone around the truck who I don't know doing this work, and 2) I like to do things myself, and 3) It's too hard to find good tradesmen who can still do these gaskets. But I will say, this job was tough. I did it in about 5 hrs, but man, I needed several breaks during that time. You are moving all around the front, pulling, pushing, banging, tugging, etc. and it takes a fair bit of strength to get this windshield and gasket to comply WITHOUT breaking it. So there's the stress of that added to it. Oh, with regards to the glass, I used a place called Autoglassics to purchase the windshield. He has access to wholesalers and so I go the glass for $225 and the gasket for $90. Since the wholesaler was about an hour away from me, I just went up there with the order number and picked it up, easy peasy. I thought that was a really fair price, and the guy was super helpful and can find just about any glass you need for almost any car.
OK, side rear window locking strips. The old ones are a mess and new ones are hard to impossible to find. Since I don't have a locking strip on the windshield I decided to try something I read on the forum about using Chevy/GM rubber locking strip material. I bought some from Amazon to test and used the locking strip tool and with a bit of effort figured out how to get it in the channel and locked in place. I didn't use the little metal cap that joins both ends because the locking strip is already really tight and the cap wouldn't fit. So I cut the strip about 1/16-1/8" too long and crammed it into the channel, so both ends are pushing against each other. As the rubber settled into place the ends pushed against each other so the seam is very tight and looked good to me. You can also get this material with chrome covering if you wanted to keep a factory look. So I'll be buying two more of these for the rear and the other side window.
Carpet, I found that Rock Auto sells ACC carpets, which is good enough for me. I know we have a guy who sells some stuff, which might be better, but Rock Auto is an authorized distributor for ACC which I've used in the past. The color is very good, the quality is also very good and the price, I thought, was good as well from RA. Any carpet installation is just a royal pain unless it's OEM. Every other carpet I've ever used requires a butt load of cutting and fiddling to get to fit. This is not different, BUT it is still better than any other carpet set I've used before. ACC also sews on wear patches for the driver's side and presses the carpet so it fits the seat mounts pretty well. You will still have to cut the bolt holes once you get it lined up, but having those molded in depressions in the carpet makes for a GREAT starting point. Other companies I used didn't do that and the carpet fit like crap. So I got the front and middle carpet laid down and refurbished the seats a bit while they were out. I also, for the first time, removed the seat covers and was pleased to see the seats were still in as good of condition as I remembered. They look fantastic, just need a little carpet cleaner action. So you can see the restored dash and refurbished gauge cluster in the following pics. I also cleaned up the steering wheel and refurb'd it as well.
I will finish the carpet and seats install, locking strips, and then for the next big one, I need to use a different hood. I'm not happy with how the hood turned out for this project. There are still some minor imperfections, which wouldn't have been a big deal except the metallic paint on this rig really highlights them. So I have pulled off the hood from the 62 project which just had a couple of dings on top but was straight otherwise, and prepped it for paint. I'm waiting on a quart of color to show up now. I'll use this hood on the 62 projects since it's going to be finished in factory white. And without all the metallic in the color, you won't see the minor imperfections unless you really get down and look really hard. I'm also about ready to start the cut and buff on the rest of the truck now that the paint is really cured now. I can see, and smell, that the solvents have evaporated now and the clear should be nice and hard. I'll do the cut and buff on the hood later, but if I put the clear down right it might lay out good enough that it won't need it. That's what's nice about a hood, you can paint it flat and any runs are non-issues. So use a slower activator and reducer to give the clear time to lay down and it will smooth right on out. After all of that I'll move on to the suspension; I was going to leave well enough alone but have decided to use the new OME kit I have on the 62 on this truck, and just swap them around. This is also an OME kit, but I think it's 10+ years old. It probably doesn't have more than 40K miles on it, so it's still in fine shape, but I want to move the new kit to the 60 because the long-term plan is to sell this truck and so I want to get top dollar. Having a new kit with shiny new springs and shocks will just add a little more bling to the truck. Once all of that is done then it's wheels and tires. I have a set of perfect stock chrome rims and caps ready to go and I'll probably put something like 33" Wildpeaks on them. They will look the part without being super noisy on the road.
OK, now for some pics:
. just read through the whole thing. you wouldn't happen to have any pics of the OSHA compliant murder saw would you? old $h!t like that intrigues me
