While my old windscreen was removed, I took the opportunity to have the window frame sandblasted back to bare metal and repainted. Then I painted over the new black paint with Xtroll, a heavy duty rust preventative and converter which appears similar to the US POR15.
It set hard in a few hours and made the black paint look very shiny. I think it will be an excellent rust preventer because it is a thick semi hard coat and the drips were very hard to remove (with Kerosene).
I had many replies to my post on the Corvette forum about which weatherstip glue to use for the weatherstrip.
The concensus was NOT to glue the weatherstrip. I was surprised, but it makes sense – the side touching the door or hatch can’t be glued and is still watertight, so why does the other side have to be glued. The advantage is that the weatherstrip can be easily removed at any time without damage.
Once the frame was ready I cleaned up the two metal strips that run along the sides and top. The underneath piece is also the black trim around the windscreen and the top metal piece is a track for the weatherstrip. They are held on with about 4 Torx head self tappers each side and about 6 along the top.
While I had decided not to glue the weatherstrip, I could see there were two possible points of entry for water
1. Between glass and the black metal trim which I think this is called the ‘reveal’
2 Between weathertrip and topside of the black metal trim.
I could glue the whole thing with sikaflex and probably guarantee no leaks but would probably never be able to remove the trim without a lot of damage if I had to replace the windscreen again.
The trims are discontinued so I don’t think this was a good option.
Any glue of lesser quality than sikaflex would let water through in time.
If I used No Glue, at least the water would drain away quickly!!
I decided to use a thin bead of butylmastic, (5 year guarantee- so I guess it will let go in time) between the metal trim and the glass.
I’m hoping that this will stop or slow down water entry.
Theoretically because the butyl mastic stays soft in the centre, it will make it easier to remove the metal trims without damage.
I soaked all the screws in lanolin and sprayed them with lanolin after inserting.
I stuck 2mm foam under the metal strips where they touch the metal frame, as a second barrier to water ingress at this first layer.
Weatherproofing of the second layer is all up to the rubber weatherstrip.
I put some butyl mastic on the two top corners where they leave the side track and go to top track, otherwise it wasn’t glued except for the bottoms which apparently need a drop of glue. I managed to get new Christmas tree plastic plugs (6 needed) from Repco.
From posts I’ve read, there was some possibility that the roof wouldn’t go back on because the new weatherstrip might be too firm, same as the doors being hard to close when the weatherstrip is new. Apparently there is an adjustment under the upper plastic trim, but mine went on with no problem.
After I spent hours cleaning the old tracks, I read that carby cleaner does the job really well, leaving the original paint intact.
I greased up the new weatherstrip with Hydro Seal Silicone O ring grease and it went back into the track easily, starting from one top corner. One thing i should have done was mask the glass because the weatherstrip flopped about on it while i was fitting it, and the greasse was extremely difficult to remove from the glass – but I am assured now how well it will stay on the rubber!
