Windshield Install (1 Viewer)

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alvarorb

Color Geek in Charge
Joined
Jun 5, 2003
Threads
105
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1,824
Location
Sacramento, California
Website
www.arb-digital.com
Yesterday I helped Darwood fix a leak he had on on his windshield. I asked him how long it would take to do this, and he said "It will take about an hour".

Darwood had recently taking his rig to a windshield place, were they did not believe in the power of urethane. This meant that they only used the black tar stuff, but only under the gasket, not around the windshield. The bad news is that it still leaked. The good news was that the windshield was easy to remove.

Doing this job involved: removing the windshield, cleaning the glass around the edges, making sure that there would be no exposed paint under the gasket, prepping the gasket with urethane, wrapping a rope around the gasket and finally putting the gasket in place.

We got back from Harbor Freight at 4pm. We needed to get some suction cups to pull out the windshield. We got 2 a $2.99 each, rated for 80 lbs. By the time we had the windshield clean it was dark. Then came the fun part playing around urethane. If you think the birfield job is dirty. You have not seen nothing yet.
This stuff is sticky and very easy to remove with mineral sprits, except from your hands. While we wore latex gloves for applying it, we thought that to clean off the excess we would not need it. How wrong we were.

Wrapping the rope around the windshield works like magic. From the outside I was applying pressure to the glass, while Darwood pulled from the rope.From there I could see the gasket falling in place, Just magic.

At 730pm Darwood's wife asked how long it would take to finish the job, he replied: "It will take about one hour". Not very convinced of our speed, or inability to tell time, she decided to join in the cleaning up of the windshield.

By 8pm we had the windshield clean and back in place and the only thing left to do was to apply urethane under it. That's when our wives revolted and demanded we go get something to eat.

Here are some pics:

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Regards

Alvaro
 
Well to be honest I said and hour, maybe two.

Thanks Alvaro for the help. :cheers:

Though everyone knows it always takes twice as long as expected to work on the cruiser :D

It's also not quite done yet. I still need to do alot of cleaning of the urethane and also I need to apply the urethane between the gasket and the body. After looking at the overabundance of urethane between the window and gasket I'll be quite upset if leaks again.

I'm fully convinced now that this is quite possibly the hardest windshield to install.

Also note the new bling bling on the front grill. That was a "present" from the garage owner.
 
To be exact we used this:

http://products3.3m.com/catalog/us/...us_aad_3_0/command_AbcPageHandler/output_html

I found it at an body repair supply shop. The one thing that worries me is we didn't use primer as per the directions. This is due to the fact that I couldn't find any and the guy at the body repair supply shop said it was discontined for this application and was not required :rolleyes: I hope he's right.

As for advice... just be aware that the urethane is really really really messy and this will consume most of your time. Also the FSM's procedure seems to be a good one.
 
So far I've just used one tube. I think it will last me through the rest of the install. I'll post otherwise if that does not happen to be the case.
 
:D

I know who to call when I do my windshield some day!
The Flint/Rodriguez glass crew!
 
I'm in but Alvaro might need alot of convincing before he does this again ;)
 
Hmm....funny...it took the local old window guy about 1/2 hour to pop off the old one and put a new one in with OEM glass no doubt!!!

Looks like another fun tech day with the NorCal dudes...

Later.
-o-
 
Doug,

I'll do it again. I don't mind getting dirty. But next time I'll wear gloves all the time. Did we mention urethane is nasty?

Regards

Alvaro
 
LOL nice pics,

the guy that did mine did not use primer either, so far no leaks.
 
Darwood,

What's that gold BLING you got on the front of your cruiser?

Alvaro
 
looks like you guys did more than just install a windshield...nice bling.
 
The little front grill elves struck again. Last weekend it was a deer skull. This weekend I'm styling. Note the zip ties.
 
The grill Elves RULE!

Definitely wear gloves the entire time! I did and my hands are clean...but somehow I got black smudges on my elbows :confused:

Knock on wood that this window will not leak once Darwood has finished urethaning it.

:banana: Install

:banana: :banana: :banana: :banana: :banana: Cleanup ;)
 
Besides the bling, what I'm amazed with is your suspension. Look at the roll of paper towels perfectly balanced on the ARB in the garage. Simply amazing :)

On a more serious note, I had my windshield leak in both lower corners.. After seeing other leak threads and looking in the FSM, I found out there was nothing sealing the glass to the gasket. So I used some Black Silicone all the way around between the glass and rubber, without removing the windsheild. Seems to be holding for now, 2 months and going.

Can anyone tell me a good reason to use a rubber gasket around the windshield, and not just glue the windshield to the metal, and use some trim around the edges. I ask because on my 1st gen 4Runner and probably other cars, thats how it was done. I would think there would be less room for error and leakage without a gasket.
 
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That's really cool guys. derek, how is it now? Wind noise, sealing, etc
 
gbell210 said:
Besides the bling, what I'm amazed with is your suspension. Look at the roll of paper towels perfectly balanced on the ARB in the garage. Simply amazing :)

Yes nice suspension and perfectly balanced that paper towels :)
 
How many hours? That must have been bullet proof glass. That can be a lot of custom work.
 
Well I just got done applying the urethane under the gasket where it meets the body. After cleanup and everything it seems that I spent another 3 hours or so doing this. Urethane is fun. I'm starting to think we used to much of the stuff. I'm mostly done now. Next I need to cut the oozed urethane away in the interior where the glass meets the gasket. At this point it's hardened and has to be sliced with a razor blade.

I do know one thing though. I see no way for this thing to leak now.

I'm now highly skeptical of anyone doing this properly in 1/2 an hour. The only way I see this happening in that amount of time is that the person is the master of urethane and used just right amount so that it seals yet none of it oozes out.

Also I believe Toyota created the hardest to install windshield ever just to have fun with folks. I mean most windshield are just glued in or sealed with a gasket. Toyota chose to do both.
 

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