1943 MB Replacement Windshield Installation
After market made in Philippines
Problems I had with after market windshield made in the Philippines.
Don't even hope for a bolt on !
3/5/2012
Wrong catch hole spacing on outside.
As can be seen, these holes are not drilled right. It looks to me like they were drilled free hand from the driver’s side of the windshield. What you can not see from this photograph is the hole on the left has been drilled the right spacing on the inside but the drill was not held on a 90 degree angle making the spacing on the outside to close together. This is tough fix. If it was wrong on the inside I could oblong the hole and it would be covered by the catch. On the outside like this… it is hard to cover a bigger hole.
What I finally did was rat tail the left hole out as far as the bolt head would cover. This allowed the bolt to be started into the thread properly.
Pivot holes to small
Had to file out pivot holes to fit the winged shoulder bolts.
They were way to small to fit over the shoulder.
Frame divot to small to slide out inner frame to install glass
No possible way to slide out the inner frame. The divot in the outer frame was too high on the tube. We had to heat the frame and dimple some more tube down.
Further more it took two of us 1-½ hours to beat the inner frame out of its track with a hammer and a 2x6. When we started it only was moving about a
¼ “ at a blow. It got easier after the halfway point. When the inner frame was out we took a big screwdriver and pried the channel apart
a little to make the inner frame slip in easier.
Pivot arms not bent the same
After getting the pivot holes filed out I installed the windshield for fitting the cowl rubber. Noticed right away that the frame was not touching the cowl evenly. I took a measurement from the top corner of the frame on an angle down to the end of the pivot arms and found them to be different lengths by about 5/16”. So I bent the drivers side arm down 5/16” which made even spacing along the cowl for rubber placement.
If you look close in this picture... you will notice that the inner frame sets too far into the outer frame. (bending the rubber seal out) This seems to stem from the top channel being attached too far towards the back of the outer frame. Comparing this after market inner frame to a stock one, I also find the stock frame is made thicker. (bringing the rubber seal forward) So far, I have not come up with a fix for this problem with the after market frame.
4/23/2012
Got the Inner frame back from the glass man and sanded, primed and painted it.
Had the Glass cut & installed in the inner frame here locally. They did an excellent job.
In Lynnwood:
Associated Glass
18930 Highway 99, Lynnwood, WA 98036
(425) 778-2174
In Snohomish:
Associated Glass
201 Avenue D, Snohomish, WA 98290
(425) 483-7043
http://associatedglasswa.com/
4/25/2012
Installing the inner windshield rubber seal
Started installing the rubber seal in it's channel. Soaped up the channel and rubber and tried to slide it into the channel at the cut-outs. Won't work... I found it easier to tip the lower part of the "T" into the channel and work the top part in with a screwdriver. Whole job took about an hour (lots of patience) and I didn't tear the rubber. I left the upper tails long overnight to let the rubber relax before cutting it off. I will leave about 5/8" of the flat part of the "T" on to cover the corner hole. Now that everything is fitted, I can put my final coats of paint on the windshield.
Brass Windshield Latches that came with my original windshield
