This weekend I removed my windshield and rear glass. After cutting the rubber I found no sealant where the glass goes into the weatherstrip but found quite a lot everywhere else. Some of it is a black tar like material (hard to get off your hands) and some of it looks like a gray rope caulking. It was really packed up in the chrome trim and just about hid all of the trim clips. Could someone tell me what this stuff is? I'll be needing to know when I put the glass and new weatherstrip back in.
The greyish colored stuff is seam sealer and the black, sticky stuff is windshield urathane. The seam sealer is used around the areas were metal meets metal to prevent water and moisture from getting between them, and the urathane is used to prevent the windshield from leaking after it is installed. The seam sealer may have also been used to hold the molding clips in place. When you re-install the windshield, you will need to have the urathane replaced, or else you will have water problems. When we install a windshield on a Maverick, we run a strip of the urathane around the opening of the windshield and another strip inside the edge of the gasket after the winshield is in place. You can also apply a strip of the urathane inside the gasket before slipping it around the windshield if you wish. If you are doing the job yourself, just keep this in mind, the urathane is messy with a capital M. It can be removed with paint solvents and lots of rags.
Jean, are you only using the black urathane then? From what I scraped off yesterday, it looked like the gray material was originally layed down on the steel windshield frame, then the weatherstrip was installed and then the black sealer was layed down last and sealed everything else. Is this urathane something that I can get in an auto parts store or do you get it from a paint supplier? Are you using the gray stuff at all then?
The grey stuff is seam sealer to seal the two pieces of metal where the top meets the windshield frame. This stuff can be found else where in the car, can be used to seal the seam between new floor pans etc. Metal to metal contact like what was said before. It's not for sealing the windsheild to the weather stripping or anything of that nature. However if you scraped it all out you might want to put some new sealer in there before installing the windshield. The urethane black sealer can be found at your paint supplier. Some auto parts store's do carry it but some dont, so best bet is the paint supplier.
When I clean a windshield opening out, I will replace the seam sealer that I have removed. I usually scrape it off because I'm looking for rust that can form under it. I just run the seam sealer in the two areas where the metal seams meet and smooth it out with some paint solvent on my fingers. ( another messy job). Now, I need to correct myself on how we use the urathane. After I re-read what I had written, I realized I told you the wrong thing. I'll get it right this time. (I have more coffee now.) After the seam sealer is applied and allowed to try, we lay the windshield in it's gasket in place and THEN we apply the urethane around the outside of the gasket, making sure to fill the space between the gasket and the opening. We then will also run a thin strip of it between the glass and the gasket for good measure. Sorry for the confusion there. The urethane can be bought at Car Quest, NAPA, or any store that carries automotive paint supplies. Both the urethane and the seam sealer we use is made by 3M and comes in a tube that requires a calking gun in order to apply it. The seam sealer can also be bought in a can and applied with a brush if you want to use it that way instead.
One more thing. Put all the molding clips in place before appling the urethane. It will be next to impossible to find the studs for the clips with the urethane on top of them.
I would have guessed that, as I was popping the trim pieces off, I was simply shedding these clips and leaving them behind. It looked like all I had to do was to reinstall them in the trim pieces and snap the trim back in place to the little studs. I'll have to do some dry runs to practice catching the clips before I do the final install. Thanks for the help.
