Hi folks,
Just thought I'd share a few observations gleaned while swapping
windshield(screen) assemblies from one 77B to another. There was a great deal
of leakage around under and through the windshield on the 110 mile/day commuting
car and the lower right corner was clouded up. The glass and seals of the
windshield on my other 77B, commonly called the BfromHell, looked to be in good
shape.
Removing the windshields was quite straight forward and was readily doable
without having to remove the dash. Installation was something else! All of the
horror stories about installing a windshield were coming true. I spent six
hours yesterday trying to get the holes to line up so that I could get the
screws back in. What frustration, and on top of that I lost track of the
inspection sticker that I had so carefully scraped off of the windshield. I had
even been able to scrounge up some dum-dum.
Called it quits last night and decided to get a fresh start today. Spent the
first half hour cleaning up the garage and putting tools away while again
hunting for the sticker. Found it. Whew! Stepped back and looked at the job and
decided to undo the dashboard (fascia) so that I could see where the holes
weren't lining up. What an interesting observation. The real culprits were the
'shims'. These are two pieces of metal (Al?) that are listed in Moss (MGB-12,
page 45, item 26) as Packing, outer, pillar to body. The bolts that fasten the
windscreen to the body have to go through these pieces. Midway between the two
windshield mounting bolt holes you will see phillips head screws that holds
these pieces in position. Loosen these screws!!!! that will allow the packing
pieces to be moved into position so that the mounting screws can be easily lined
up with the threaded holes in the windshield posts. You'll have much more
freedom in adjusting the angle of the windshield to match the doors. Tighten
the screws when you're finished.
Dum-dum (thin rope calk) is wonderful stuff, but it doesn't allow the rubber
seal to slide on the cowl when you are positioning the windshield. I suggest
that you hold off on the dum-dum (between the pillars) until after you have the
windshield aligned to the doors. Then you can lift the rubber seal (with a
plastic putty knife), lay in a bead of dum-dum, and then press the rubber seal
into it.
I'd guess that the total time to install the windshield today, including the
undoing and redoing of the dashboard, was about two hours. As they say, YMMV.
Bud Krueger
52TD
77MGB (Hopefully, no more wet left leg)
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