Thank's to all of you who responded to my earlier request for help
and suggestions for replacing the windshield rubber on my MGB.
The job is completed but the windshield is not installed in the *newly*
painted body. I know the install will be a pain, the frame to body seal
is the stumbling block and will create a bundle of frustration. It has
a *set* that causes the seal to fold rearwards, under the frame.
Here's what I did......Begining with all new rubber and plenty of time
in fact I have had the rubber but not the time, for a few months. now.
How the mind wanders from winshields..........*no comment*
When I had the time, I didn't have the courage to begin.
However, it is done now and what a job for patience, my oh my.
Here's what I did......Removed windshild from the body.
Removed the rod tieing the top to the bottom center of windshield.
Removed the 10 xhead screws holding the top rail to the sides. I looked look
at the screws holding the bottom rail to the sides and they looked real y
rusty. Even after a few days with WD40, they would not budge! Well with the
top rail removed, the two sides could be pried apart far enough to pop he
glass and seal out! So that's what saved me.There was enough flexibilityy in
in the frame, after the top rail was removed, to get the glass out.
Next I needed to replace the frame to body seal, what a job this was. was
I was not making good headway removing the bottom rail because of these was
rusty screws, then I tried the screws in the side posts, one side was usty
solid, but I did manage to get them out on the other side, *oh joy*. aving
With one side removed, then I was able to slide out the old and seal. l into
The next step was to lay out the new body seal and prepare to insert in
the bottom rail. Guessing it would not be too easy,I used some dish soap
to lubricate the bottom rail. Then with, I might add, *great difficulty*sh
I began to feed the seal into the bottom rail. So slowly this went evenngers
with the dish soap. I fought this for about 45 minutes and my fingers ngers
felt like they would drop off. I can't tell you how many 4 letter words I was
I said to myself, finally I managed to get it in place. The gasket was eemed
about 3/4 in. too long and kept pushing the end post off every time I ied to
tried to start one of those screws that hold the bracket to the post.
I am pretty patient, but this pushed me to the limit. Having got that
out of the way, the rest was fairly straight forward. I had a new glass had a
to frame seal. I ran a bead of silicone window caulk around the valley e
of the seal before I put it around the glass. When I went to insert the rt the
glass and seal back into the frame I discovered I had the seal upside own!
down,so it would not insert fully into the frame. There are cut outs in
the seal to accommodate the frame screws and brackets. I did match the ough I
join in the old seal with the new one *join in old one at the bottom* ttom*,
it now didn't match, the join had to be at the top. What a mess getting that
seal off. When I was done with it back inplace the correct way, I had ame.
silicone caulk all over the frame and glass. What a mess. The next stepame.
was not as easy as I had hoped it would be. Getting the top rail back inp
place and the screws in. The top rail has some slender, almost straight ost
plates that join the left and right posts to the top rail. The screws
pass through the frame and engage with these plates. Aligning the screw
was really difficult as there was a tendency was for the plate to push to
away from the top rail and rest on the glass and gasket. One end was a s a
piece of cake because I was able to attach the bracket to the rail then e
put the rail in place. The other end was a real pain as one had to work ork
*blind* so to speak. I overcame this by filling the cavity with siliconelk
balance the bracket on the caulk and pull in the two ends of the frame ther
using one of those ratcheting web straps. I used a 3/16 in. drill to o
align the screw holes through the top of the rail. This was another pain,I had
I had to use some longer screws to get it all started and when I had a
couple in place, I was able to insert the correct length screws and
then change the longer temporary ones. I really had to crank on that s and
webbing to get the frame together where it would all align enough to getthings
those screws into the top, without breaking the glass. Success...... ass.
but not without some anxious moments. Would I do it again...Yep!
Well that's my story... The next step is going to be interesting, since the
the body seal is fabricated to put mucho pressure on the body to ensure ter
a water tight seal. In it's natural state it is folded back underneath the
windshield frame towards the rear of the car, it therefore takes a good the
deal of force to pull it forward to it's installed state. The install,
I gave up on a first attempt.... as fast as I got one part set and ne
moved on, so the first part would fold back under the frame again. !!!! I
Grrrrr.................. I will try again, may be at the weekend. u
Is'nt it amazing how much longer the jobs take. I am a poor estimate for
time taken to accomplish these different tasks. This was going to be a
quick restoration......a couple of years, huh! But I do enjoy it.
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John Bartholomew AMDAHL SAN JOSE CA. Usual disclaimers apply
69 BGT, 74 MGB, 78 MGB, restoring 76 MGB, 72 MGB daily transport.
408-944-3592 (07:00-16:00 PDT) via internet jdb70@amail.amdahl.com
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