Windshield Replacement - The first thing to do is not to try to remove the stainless trim on the top and the bottom of the glass while it's in the car, you will ruin it. The trim on the "A" pillars is first to come off. It's held on by little sheet metal screws. The part that the weatherstrip is glued to is separate so be careful if you're not intending to replace the rubber. You may have to anyway because if the weatherstrip was also glued to the pillar itself it will probably tear because you will need to do a little prying where the trim meets the inside of the "a" pillar. It looks like you should be able to pull the "A" pillar trim out without disturbing this stuff but chances are there is calking that will make slipping it out very difficult. On the subject of calking, there may be some between the pillar and the trim, so you need to work the piece away from it. But you have to pull it toward you to slip it off the molding that's going to stay on the car. A little heat from a blow drier should soften up the calk and make it easier to pull out. Depending on how much and how well the calk was applied it may feel like this piece is still bolted on but I assure you the only mechanical connection is the sheet metal screws. I heard an extreme case, on this board, where someone used construction adhesive or silicone calk under there. Hopefully no one has done that to your car. The right stuff when you replace everything is 3M Strip-Calk. Readily available and there's always someplace to use it so spend the $12 and buy a box for the tool box. Now to the inside, I would remove the rear view mirror, sun visors, and the center switch panel. The switch panel can hang, but when it's bolted up I think it will make the install a little harder. At this point you can place your palms at the upper edges of the glass and push. As Mike Baker suggested you can slit the rubber seal but you may also slit the widow frame's vinyl covering because it lays under the seal and wraps right around to the front. Once you overcome the adhesive and the glass starts to move it's coming out. The stainless can be removed now. It's designed to lock in place so it will not pull straight out. Just spread the seal open to release the trim. Good time to polish the stainless and clean the glass. I got a new seal from SASCO and it fit perfectly, I had one that I had gotten from Expressly Avanti a few years ago and it would not stay on the glass. Applying the seal to the glass is easy when it's the right part. It stretches around and holds itself in place like an elastic band. The shop manual says to use Butyl Tape to seal the weatherstrip to the glass. I didn't use anything. I cannot say yet whether this is a good idea or not. I have no water leaks and the trim locks everything in place so I'm not sure if there will be long term negative effects. Take some dish detergent and squeeze it in the channel the stainless goes into. When the trim is in right it lays tightly against the seal. To make sure it's locked grab the seal from the bottom palms up and thumbs on the trim. Push down on the trim and roll the seal a little. Kind of like the motion you would use on the hand grips of a motorcycle but with your hands upside down. You can feel when the molding and seal "snap" together. All the while making sure that the seal is still positioned properly on the glass. This is not as complicated as it sounds, just real hard to describe. The top trim is easy, the bottom is a little tricky at the spot where the glass is notched. The seal isn't molded to the shape of the glass at this spot and it wants to stay in a straight line. Install the 2 pieces of trim on both sides of the notch and then the little pieces that connect these two pieces to the notch piece. Push them as far as you can on the outside pieces. Push the seal up into the notch and with your third hand install the trim and slip the connecter pieces onto the notch piece. I did this without a helper but it would have been much easier with someone to hold, push or slip at this point. OK, assuming the body cavity has been cleaned and your ready to install - stop and call up 2 helpers. While they are on their way over, take the 3M Windshield Bedding and Sealing compound that I forgot to tell you about earlier and run a nice 1/2 bead on the outside of the window channel on the body. Put a good size dollop at each corner. Take some masking tape and following the line that the old seal left on the interior trim mask all around and back at least an inch or two. There will be glop on the rope and it will spread over the interior trim. Tape a couple of plastic trash bags on top of the dash. I used nylon clothes line but any rope will do I ( wouldn't use the plastic stuff because you want something that isn't stiff ) and stuff it into the rubber seal. You want the two ends to cross over each other at the bottom and into the channel about 6 inches or so overlapped. Get your helpers away from the football game and have them position the glass over the opening. You get in the car. Sitting on the console is the best place with a leg on each side. Put the glass in bottom first and at an angle. The choreography that you want to achieve is as they are pushing the glass in and down you are pulling on the rope. The rope is going to "lift and separate" the seal so it fits over the body channel. Make sure the bottom is seated as far down as it can go. Coordinate their pushing with your rope pulling. It doesn't have to happen in one continuous motion. If you need to stop to get in sync it's fine. Once the glass is in and the rope is out some taps with your palms around the perimeter should finish the seating. All that's left now is to replace the side trim. If you end up replacing the weatherstrip on the "A" pillar rough it up with some fairly corse sandpaper where the adhesive will go. 3M yellow has worked well for me. It seems like some of the reproduction rubber is impossible to make stick if you don't brake the glaze where the adhesive goes. It's really not difficult. Installing the trim on the glass is what took me the longest. ---------- An option for the front and rear Avanti windshields is to 1. Leave the windshield in place 2. Cut out all of the old gasket reachable from the outside of the car only. You will replace the void with black 100% silicon rubber, so enough of a depression must be created so the silicon is retained. 3. Thoroughly clean the resulting depression, including the car's paint and the stainless steel window trim. 4. Using high quality masking tape, mask on either side of the depression where the old weatherstripping was removed to keep the silicon from going where you don't want it. 5. Apply silicon - I use the 10.3 oz tubes in a caulking gun - smooth out with the tool of your choice (I use the cup of a plastic teaspoon) and remov e the masking tape by pulling it off horizontally (almost folded over on itself). Do all of this within five minutes of applying the silicon, = or it will set up too much to correct mistakes. 6. Do about 1/4 of the windshield's circumference at a time. Any more = and th e silicon will set up too much. This is all trial and error for getting good at it. Both windshields in = my Av anti are done this way and haven't leaked a drop in seven years. Previously, I had three leaks in the back and two up front on my '63. If you get good at it, it will look excellent, even close up. When I was having the car judged, no jud ge even noticed it, to my knowledge. Chris Altenburg Joel: One thing you MUST do if you don't want your front or rear windshields to leak, is to use glass bedding and glazing compound. 3M makes the stuff, = and it is applied from a caulking gun. I know people that have not used it, and their windows always leaked. Most auto parts stores either stock it or can order it; the store I go to ordered it for me.... probably abou;$5-8 a tube. Otherwise, just follow the shop manual, as Chris says below, and yes, you really do need two other people to do it... two on the outside of the = car, on either side, and one inside to pull the string around the rubber and make sure the rubber lip seats on the body opening. Yes, Christopher is right. Don't use a heavy hand. I only provided my assembly line story as a point of interest, not a reccomended installation procedure. I'm sure they were frustrated with = the amount of time it was taking to install the backglasses on the assembly line , and the rubber mallet method was devised to save time, but certainly not mater ials! I work for a major auto glass company. I am not an installer, but I do = know t echnicians who have done Avanti backglasses. If they get a request to do one, i t must be brought into the shop and they block the morning or afternoon off just for that job. They are not fun. They are a two man = set, at least, if both g uys know what they are doing. Follow the procedures in the shop manual. As an aside, I call as a salesrep on a gentleman whose father was one of = the workers at Studebaker that set the backglasses in the Avanti. As you may know one of the early problems was the backglasses blowing out of the car at high speeds. T hey re-engineered the clearances so the glass had a tighter fit. It was so tigh t that the production line couldn't get the glass into the cars even following e ngineering's procedures. The assembly guys came up with a solution, so my custo mer says. They built a catwalk across the top of the glass installation station , and put a guy up there with a big rubber mallet. Two men would line the glass up, then stand = back, and then the guy overhead would whack the backglass to s et it into the gasket. His father said they only broke maybe 2 out of 10 or so. Believe it or not! And don't get heavy handed trying to force the windshield into place. It would surprise you how easy it can crack. A well-known corollary to Murphy's Law is that the more it costs the easier it will break. Joel: One thing you MUST do if you don't want your front or rear windshields to leak, is to use glass bedding and glazing compound. 3M makes the stuff, = and it is applied from a caulking gun. I know people that have not used it, and their windows always leaked. Most auto parts stores either stock it or can order it; the store I go to ordered it for me.... probably abou;$5-8 a tube. Otherwise, just follow the shop manual, as Chris says below, and yes, you really do need tw o other people to do it... two on the outside of the = car, on either side, and one inside to pull the string around the rubber and make sure the rubber lip se ats on the body opening. Lew I found that the use of a liberal amount of windshield sealer in the weatherstripping groove allowed the front windshield on my GT Hawk to slide into position with a small "POP." We used three people to do it, myself inside with the string and two friends outside, one on each side. At $350 for the windshield, I was very, very cautious about where we pushed and where we pried. It didn't break, though the old one cracked as I took it out.

On an entirely unrelated issue, I am about to attempt installation of a new front windshield on my '63 GT Hawk. I have never done this before and, though I have read and re-read the shop manual's instructions numerous times, the task is daunting. I broke a windshield once just pressing a rear view mirror into place from the inside, so I can appreciate how easy it is to fracture these large pieces of glass.

-------------- First, you want to use 3M winshield bedding glaze from your caulking gun, and lay a thin bead in the inside (glass) channel of the rubber. after installing the rubber on the glass, you then want to wrap string around the rubber seal, inside of the outer channel.
Next, you lay a fairly liberal amount of bedding glaze in the windshield openings face, and using three (3) people, lay the assembly against the opening.

It is much easier with three people -- one on each side of the car, pressing in on the windshield; the third person must be inside the car where you can gently pull on each loose end of the string, which pulls and lifts the inside lip of the rubber channel over the windshield face opening.
As you pull upward on this string, have your helpers on the outside press in at the edge of the windshield at the point that the string is attempting to lift the rubber over the windshield lip.

It really does go in smoothly and quickly.

-----------------------------
Cris

Drive out to the airport and find a friendly A&P mechanic. Distract him in some manner, and dig around in the bottom drawer of his toolbox. You should find a spool of black, flat waxy cord. Liberate enough to go around the perimeter of your windshield a few times. ( This stuff is called "rib lacing cord") Better find an older mechanic. The kids probably haven't laced too many ribs. If you have read the manual, you will know how to use it. ( I have some if you need any).
Avoid silicon sealers. They work great, but you will never paint the car again sucsessfully with out stripping it. Get the expensive black stuff in a caulk gun that the glass pros use. Put a lot of paper over the inside of your dashboard, ect. If you don't get the stuff all over yourself and your car, you did not use enough. ( I know, the pro's don't make a mess, but after you have put in a few hundred, I am sure you won't either.)

Finally, I recomend that you carefully inspect the edge of the new WS for ANY roughness, chips, ect. Use course grit carbide sandpaper, (the black stuff again) and polish it away completely, and then a bit more.

If it pops in easy, it will not matter. If you have to struggle, at least you have increased the amount of stress the glass will take be
fore it cracks .

I have had good luck so far and have not damaged one, but it can happen. (Since the glass shops will not guarranty against breakage during removal , I figured that I might as well give it a shot.)
Are you reinstalling your old glass? If you need to save it, Snap On makes a great tool for cutting the old rubber channel away. Works great. You can borrow mine if you wish.

Take it to a glass shop. It is well worth every gold bar they charge you.< br>

Peter C.
Herb,
Thanks for the advice. I bought some twine that should be strong enough to do the job, and I did get the professional bedding compound - you're right, it did make a mess.
Now I need three people. Well, two, as I'll be the third.

======REMOVAL Remove the inner mouldings... take a RAZOR KNIFE- box-cutter works best- and cut the inner flap off of the windshield and rear window gaskets, Sit in the center of the seats- and push the glass out using your feet.. Steady pressure works best. DO NOT flex the glass at all, or put too much pressure in any one place- keep the pressure even. Have someone on the outside to help guide it, and catch it once it "pops". Ray =========== Leave the glass in, and mask it well. Get a supply of fine cord, or insulated wire. Weed-wacker line or automotive hookup wire should work. Use a blunt tool like a screwdriver to work it in under the edge of the window gaskets, so it hold the lip of the gasket slightly off the metal. You can then sand and paint a bit UNDER the line of the rubber. The resulting paint job will look like you'd removed the rubber completely, and you will lessen the risk of the paint beginning to peel from a bad edge at the rubber. Gord Richmond --------------- --------------- I'm glad to see some one else know of this technique. We do it all the time at the shop. The trickiest part is after the paint job, it is a good idea to go over the whole gasket with a razor blad just beneath where the string is so that the paint will not pull off when you pull the string. Go slowly and it will be fine. -- JT ------- ---------- I can see what you mean, JT. The razor blade would reduce any tendency of the string adhering to the new paint and peeling it out of the gap. You could also use a putty knife to hold down the paint immediately in front the string as it emerges from the gap. If you maintain pressure on the painted metal, the string will detach from the paint rather than detach the paint from the body. Of course, one should carefully and thoroughly sand the area of metal revealed by lifting the window gasket, so the paint DOES get a good "bite". Gord Richmond ----- And maybe add a tad of sealer when releasing the weatherstrip after painting. Don't need to aggravate a stray leak. -----