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After hitting a feathered friend (don't know how friendly he was) bust out my windshield on my charger, I had a local guy come and install the new glass with a new rubber seal that I provided. He refused to use any kind of sealant (even though I had the correct liquid butyl that the factory service manual calls for and showed him the manual pages also) and said if it leaks that he will come back. Blah blah blah, hes been doing this 30 plus years blah blah blah and has never had any leaks. Knowing that it would probably leak and I would never use this guy again, I watched him closely how he installed the glass and he was even telling me exactly how he was doing everything. He said the key is to keep the rubber lubricated with something (in his case, he used foaming glass cleaner) and slowly work the rubber and glass in occasionally smacking the glass with the heel part of the palm of his hand to "set" the glass in place. Two hours after he left and still feeling steamed about him not doing it the way the FSM said to do it, I pulled all the trim off myself and went at it. Got the windshield out no problems and laid it on a piece of foam rubber on my roof of the charger. I then removed the rubber gasket and wiped down the area where the gasket went in place and then used the liquid butyl all around it focusing mainly on the bottom channel and bottom corners. I carefully reinstalled the glass the next day after the butyl had a chance to set up a little and to this date, no leaks!


The professional installer in my previous post started out by telling me that Safelight would not allow him to use the butyl tape. Their policy was to cement the windshield in with urethane. The policy claimed that that needed to be done to "preserve the integrity of the unibody construction". I argued that may be true for modern unibodies but mine was engineered for the butyl tape and that is what I wanted installed. I was ready to just give him the money for the windshield and have him leave it for me to do but he gave in. I had already purchased the 3M butyl and he went ahead and used it.
Craig

Last edited by denfireguy; 07/31/11 09:12 PM.

2014 Ram 1500 Laramie, 73 Cuda
Previous mopars: 62 Valiant, 65 Fury III, 68 Fury III, 72 Satellite, 74 Satellite, 89 Acclaim, 98 Caravan, 2003 Durango
Only previous Non-Mopar: Schwinn Tornado