Your Opinion: Should Voids Be Displaced with Sealant On C3 Windshield Frame.

[Roger C.]

Just replaced the horizontial member of the windshield frame for my 1973 coupe.

The old one was completely rusted out.

There are all kinds of valleys and voids in the member that can hold water therefore causing rust and leaks.

Has anyone completely filled those voids with sealant rather than apply sealant according to the AIM.

Would there be any cons to doing that.

Thank you.

[Steve L.]

Re: Your Opinion: Should Voids Be Displaced with Sealant On C3 Windshield Frame.

Roger,
I took apart my ws frame last summer This was untouched frm the factory .My left frame was filled with the factory adhesive that as still very pliable. This part was still like new-with no rust. However, the right frame had almost no adhesive and has a lot of rust and perforation.

When I rebuild the rust, I'm gonna fill every channel as much as possible.

I'm guessing that the factory worker got lazy on the right side and very liberal on the lef side

[Patrick H.]

Re: Your Opinion: Should Voids Be Displaced with Sealant On C3 Windshield Frame.

I did this on a 72 a couple of years ago. I filled the channel between the glass and the upper frame with lots of Strip-Calk, and also filled in the area under the upper trim. I believe I used over 20 feet of material in there as I did not want it to ever get in there and rust again.

Patrick

[John H.]

Re: Your Opinion: Should Voids Be Displaced with Sealant On C3 Windshield Frame.

Part of the '68-up factory process was to "paddle" the squeezed-out Thiokol (later, urethane) adhesive after setting the windshield with a wooden tongue depressor, from the top edge of the glass to the corner of the rabbet in the opening (the corner formed where the opening flange changes from the same plane as the glass to perpendicular to the glass) to fill any voids. On steel cars, Fisher Body also added a liberal application of a non-hardening brown sealant (we called it "bear grease" in the plants) applied with a flow gun across the width of the windshield opening at the bottom just before installing the reveal moldings; don't recall if that was done on the Corvette or not.

[Steve L.]

Re: Your Opinion: Should Voids Be Displaced with Sealant On C3 Windshield Frame.

Roger,
I took apart my ws frame last summer This was untouched frm the factory .My left frame was filled with the factory adhesive that as still very pliable. This part was still like new-with no rust. However, the right frame had almost no adhesive and has a lot of rust and perforation.

When I rebuild the rust, I'm gonna fill every channel as much as possible.

I'm guessing that the factory worker got lazy on the right side and very liberal on the lef side

[Terry M.]

Re: Your Opinion: Should Voids Be Displaced with Sealant On C3 Windshield Frame.

Roger,
I took apart my ws frame last summer This was untouched frm the factory .My left frame was filled with the factory adhesive that as still very pliable. This part was still like new-with no rust. However, the right frame had almost no adhesive and has a lot of rust and perforation.

When I rebuild the rust, I'm gonna fill every channel as much as possible.

I'm guessing that the factory worker got lazy on the right side and very liberal on the lef side

Two factory workers Steve. The guy ont eh right was lazy. The guy on the lef did his job like he was supposed to. Probably a newbie.

[Steve L.]

Re: Your Opinion: Should Voids Be Displaced with Sealant On C3 Windshield Frame.

Two factory workers Steve. The guy ont eh right was lazy. The guy on the lef did his job like he was supposed to. Probably a newbie.

Sad but funny.
Never thought of that but it makes sense.

The difference between completely filling in and filling only a small amount makes a difference like night and day and a postive testament to completely fill in the channels.

[Terry M.]

Re: Your Opinion: Should Voids Be Displaced with Sealant On C3 Windshield Frame.

Sad but funny.
Never thought of that but it makes sense.

The difference between completely filling in and filling only a small amount makes a difference like night and day and a postive testament to completely fill in the channels.

It does, but in defense of those guys and their colleagues -- I would bet none of them figured the cars they were building would be "on the road" or in storage 40 and 50 years on.