For all the tennis fans out there here is one of the hundreds taken by my wife on Monday.
Sorry no pictures on this posting,(PICTURE NOW ADDED HERE AND OTHERS ARE IN THE UPPER POSTING) Caroline my partner in life has taken the camera to Wimbledon to watch an Australian play Tennis. All my pictures from this weekends vehicle work went with her.
It was time to fit a new windscreen rubber to the pick up. The glass was being held in place by a vast quantity of silicon sealant, no rubber at all. Now I have heard this is a nasty job, I have done a couple of J types before and many one piece later Morris Minors. I also worked at a FORD garage in the early seventies I changed many a screen there. I work better on my own, so dreading the worst I checked the owners club forum site on windscreen replacement. Here are a few of their comments to give you a taste of the job.
The rear is manageable with a bit of help, but having done a SII front windscreen once I'd ask the garage. It took 4 people and was a pig to do I had a very enthusiastic windscreen fitter do mine. He spent all morning around my house and still wasn't satisfied so he had the car in his workshop for most of the following day and fitted it to his satisfaction.
The pattern windscreen rubbers are also a lousy fit, mine is all out of shape in the bottom r/h corner and still drips despite lashings of sealant.
I agree, an awkward job. I cut about 1 1/2" off each end of an old scrap pillar and the inside strip. I then fitted the two halves of screen together and tightened up the pillar. Then I fit the rubber to this and put the string in place, don’t forget to put thin string in the chrome slot at this point. This makes it possible to fit the screen in one piece similar to the 1000 screen, though obviously from the inside. Once in place the cut down pillar can be removed and the gap should be correct for refitting the proper one. I had 2 goes at this before I was happy and then sealed the edges all up with 3m sealer. Messy stuff!
Mine is also a poor fit inside but looks fine outside. I was told by one trader to glue the edges down inside.... I'll tell you now(Having been there three times) the replacement rubbers are more than useless, they do not fit, the slots are too tight and they don't close up onto the car frame at the corners, and therefore don't seal properly, its time the suppliers did something about getting a better pattern. There's been several discussions, regarding the best method. The last time I did mine I put the glasses into the rubber, fitted it to the frame from the inside without the central filler(the glasses touch so be care full) then fitted four straps, two on each glass through the gap at the centre and round the side frame and over a period of a week gradually tightened the straps and progressively pulled the glasses apart, until I could fit the inner strip, then the outer.
Then using the stuff they use to fit bonded screens to modern car stuck the corners bottom and top of the rubber to the car, lengths of timber pushed onto the rubber and onto the garage walls works to hold it down. Still drips slightly in heavy downpours on the move, fortunately not when just standing. Once you have done this then you can fit the chrome strip. Another story and another easy job.
So I thought we might be in for a game with this, the workshop manual, states assemble it all on the bench, with a dummy spacer between the two panes of glass, offer up the assembly (2x glass, 1x rubber 2x chrome inserts) and from INSIDE the car hold in place. Then using the string threaded in the slots, push from inside and second person from outside pulls the strings to pull the small lip over the body lip. EASY.
Well I started this job on Friday night but had to give up, due to failing light. One of the pieces of glass was on the bonnet of the car and slipped off, it hit the bumper and then the ground but did not break or even chip, good old laminated glass.
Saturday morning, saw me with a new plan. I cut the rubber so I now had one length, using super glue I fixed the rubber in a couple of places. Just the smallest amount of glue on the upper edge of the drivers side to hold the rubber in place. Now the side and bottom rubber section would stay in place so using a suction pad, (one I had for lifting and fitting floor tiles) I offered up the pane of glass from the inside. With plenty of lubrication and a metal knitting needle to poke/lever/ease the rubber lip round the glass edge, the pane slid into position. I then was able to (from the outside) pull the centre edge of the glass with both hands. I then had to re-seat the inner rubber many times as the glass settled in.
I then repeated this with the other pane, not so easy, as the first pane restricted just how much I could get the glass vertical. Slowly the more the glass shifted to the left, the more the glass became vertical and so it would move further to the left etc etc. Once in place the outer chrome trims were fitted, these were badly out of shape, and in fact came from another vehicle. They should be "C" shape but they needed lots of tweaking. Still they went in no trouble, rather too easily in fact and tended to "POP" up a bit in the lower corners. I may try to reform them some more or get out the dreaded silicon mastic and "give them a squirt" to hold them in place. Caroline wonders why I fitted them, they are after all so discoloured they are nearly black themselves and blend in with the new rubber rather well. Well they will do till some better ones come along.
If your bored, play spot the errors, with the above vehicle, front badge is wrong, that one's off an FG Morris lorry, 2 of the six DZUS fasteners on the front panel missing and holes filled, Rear vehicle badge, looks odd and is in the wrong location, no door retaining spikes on rear wings, Cab interior unpainted, wrong side lamps fitted or wrong lens. We could go on, at least its on the road but if I'm going to pay over £2K over the odds for the van, it should at least be correct!
As you can see the brick has been removed, the gap between tailgate and pick up side is alright on the off-side, so we must now turn the vehicle round and repeat the repairs to the nearside.
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