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Windshield to door and vent fit

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C

Cutlass

Jedi Warrior
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My frustration level is about at max. After thirteen months, and an embarassing high expenditure, my 66BJ8 is now home from paint and body work, lots of it. Looks great, and the paint is excellent. But this weekend I trial fitted the windshield pillars and vent windows. They interfere with one another. Indeed, the portion of the door at the very front top, just in front of the vent window, hits the pillar, as does the vent window frame itself. I tried spacing the door rearward, but one shim is not enough, and two shims cause the rear door gap to go to nothing. Apparently, I should have sent the pillars with the car for the panel and door fitting exercise. This holds true for both sides.

Moving the doors back would be a nightmare. The only option I've come up with so far is to oversize the pillar mounting holes to allow the entire windshield to move forward about 1/8 inch.

I'm so frustrated with this that I decided to try to install the windshield/shroud seal to relax. You don't want to know.
 
I think I read here recently that the pillar has some adjustment to it. Take it easy and Dave Russel will be by to straighten things out...
 
Thanks, Dave. Wait a minute. You gave me an idea. The bolt holes in the pillars and in the scuttle are 5/16 inch diameter. The Service Parts List calls for 1/4 inch bolts to fasten the pillars to the scuttle. Think this is the fudge factor? I'll give it a try.
 
Yep - the pillar holes are oversize to permit some adjustment. If needed, you can enlarge them a bit more.

Hope you don't scratch the paint!!!
D
 
Just a crazy thought Jim. How would moving the top of the door outward look? If you loosened all the hinge screws except the inner bottom (remove all shims you added), then rotate the top outboard slightly (see attached diagram) That might get you what you need for the door-to-windshield post clearance. Double check that the door doesn't hang out from the fender. Maybe even shim the fender out slightly, the fender bead may hide the sin.
 

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Good ideas, guys. As soon as this episode of The Sopranos is over, I'll sneak out to the shop to play for a few minutes. More tomorrow. Thanks so much.
 
Don't think I need to mention it, but, if you adjust the windshield rake loosen both sides. The glass doesn't like to be in a twist.
D
 
Thanks to all. Using the 1/4 inch bolts helped a lot. It's not quite there yet, but progress is being made. This is a trial fit. The windshield is not yet attached to the pillars. I think I will put it aside for a bit, rather than force a solution. Also, it will probably make a difference when the car is resting on its wheels, rather than on jack stands. But, a note to those similarly situated: If body work is to be done, have the completely assembled windshield, and the vent windows, go with the car. The car I now have has great door gaps with no shims. Even one shim, needed for windshield alignment with the vent window, screws up the rear door gap, and the front gap as well. I think the final answer is to enlarge the pillar mounting holes a bit.
 
Cutlass,
As you have probably noticed, there are several ways to try and move the windshield frame forward. You can loosen all of the nuts and then kind of rock the top of the windshield frame front and back a couple of times to loosen it up and get it to " settle " into adjustment. I had to play with this a couple of times with my car in order to get enough clearance in front of both vent window frames. I did have the glass installed when doing this and I think the extra weight will help yours " settle " into place. One more thing, Make certain you have four or five shims in between the inside of the windshield frame and the car body. If you got you car in pieces, you may not know about the shims. I think they help during the windshield position adjustments.
Ed
 
Ed: The car was pretty much complete when I got it, and it did have one shim per side. They were pretty corroded, so I made new ones from .060 aluminum. Four or five per side? That seems like a lot. I'll have to get the whole assembly together, put it in, and see how much of a gap needs to be filled.
 
Cutlass,
When I tried to fit my windshield I noticed that the gap between the quarter light and the windshield was uniform but the quarter light was leaning to the outside of the car badly. I could not adjust it anymore as the window frame was hitting one of the phillips head machine screws holding the winding mechanism to the door. I replaced this screw with a flat head machine screw and was able to pick up another 1/8" movement and solved the problem. Have a good day!

John
 
Maybe not 4 or 5 but mine had 3 or 4 on the drivers side, 2 on the passenger side. But you knew about them which was my main point. Guess my body was a little on the thin side or the frame a bit on the wide side at the factory.
I hope you have a much easier time installing the seal under the bottom windshield frame than I did.
Ed
 
Ed, I've already destroyed one Moss seal, put an awl through my thumb, and practiced more new swear words than I thought existed. The dogs are just now coming out from under the bed, and my wife and daughter haven't been seen in days. Yeah, I have read all the threads. When the Healey Surgeons' seal comes, it's straight to the professional windshield folks. I sort of miss the dogs. :smile:

Fitting all of this together will have to wait for a little bit. The steel spacer between the pillar and the windsield is returning from the zinc plater next week. And it's off to Sun 'N Fun tomorrow. Just airplanes for a few days.
 
Update: With some careful adjustments to some unseen sheet metal, and enlargement of the mounting holes, and finally careful adjustment of the vent windows, the windshield, vent windows and door trim now seem to mesh. This has been most frustrating. There is a lingering problem, however. The windshield had to go so far forward that the frame to shroud seal overlaps the windshield wiper posts by about 3/8 inch. This leaves a bulge in the seal which is unsightly, and an obvious entry point for water. I'm beginning to think that moving the windshield is not the right idea, but biting the bullet and starting over with the body alignment should have been my course. We're talking thousands of dollars here, no doubt. The moral of my story is to make sure that the windshield is present when the car is in the body shop. Anybody know what the proper distance is from the windshield seal to the wiper posts? Do they ever overlap a bit?
 
Just went through that exercise with my 67 BJ8. I found that the vent window was a little to far forward. I had already noticed the door glass wobbled a little when I rolled it up. I used a rubber mallet and tapped the vent frame back, that cured the door glass wobble and gave me the clearance I needed for the vent to windshield fit. I did have to open up the mount holes on the inside of vent frame with drimel tool.
 
BTW, the botton windsheild seal was one of the hardest pieces I have ever dealt with as well. One end kept coming out (after I wore it out pushing on it) I filled it up with gorrilla glue and clamped it. Not happy with how I did it but looks good.
 
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