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MG MGB Technical - Windshield replacement

I contacted a regional windshield replacment company to see if they had experienced technicians on MGs. They said that their guys could do it but would really recommend I go to a specialist.

So, do I seek someone out for this or give it a go myself. I don't mind the time involved but don't want to end up with a poor job because I'm learning as I go on my first one.

Thanks,
BH Davis
BH Davis

BH - My experience with windshield replacement is that if it is not a real MG shop, that works on MGs all the time, don't let them near your windshield - they will screw it up (I farmed the job out twice and bothe times, had to redo the whole thing myself). If you will e-mail me, I'll send you a write up of my last (and fully successful) attempt at replacing a windshield. It is a long, fussy, frustrating job, but if approached with patience and the determination (and willingness to put the necessary time into it to do the job right), you will wind up with a well fitting windshiled that doesn't leak. Good luck - Dave
David DuBois

If you take your time and get everything centered to within less than half a millimeter (yes that accurate!) it's not too horrible. See the archives for various "squeezing alighning" techniques. I favour the spanish windlass approach (Lenghths of rope wound tight.)
But it's hard work (I've done two now) and I'd happily pay up to a couple of hundred extra (excluding glass) to get someone else to do it(it takes me hours!) . As long as they absolutely guantee that it will not leak and are prepared to reseat and seal it properly if doesn't! I couldn't find anyone who would guantee this and as David implies, there's no point unless they will.

Actually most windscreen places will 'recommend' you take it else where. They don't like the way their employees weep pitiously when given an MGB to do!

Also even the experts sometimes break a windscreen when fitting.
Note the centre rearview mirror strut is only roughly centred, so don't assume and get caught. Also note that there are TWO shimming pieces, two for EACH side (a thick one and a thinner one)when you bolt it back to the car. Discovering this was the reason I got to do this job twice!.
Peter

BH

If youre near Darien you can call Sports and Classics, they are British car, mg specialists. I am sure they can help you.

Les
Les Jacobs

Les,

Thanks. Unfortunately I'm at the complete opposite corner of the state.....just about an hour to Boston.

BH
BH Davis

Probably the easiest solution is to get a used windshield in the frame.
JMcHugh

Hey all,

I pulled the windshield and frame from the car yesterday afternoon. Basically not that difficult a job.

I removed the glove box interior box to get a socket on the right hand upper bolt and the brake test switch to do the same on the left.

Just curious as to whether this is what others would have done.

Thanks,
BH
BH Davis

Go for it BH!
bonnet looks huge its windcreeen, be fun to drive around like that I always think.
I loosened my dash to get at the bolts, but essentially yes.
Take great care to mark the exact centre of the new glass. This can be a little tricky and time consuming to do 'cause it hasn't got any precise corners to give you an easy reference point. Not a bad way to do this is to mark the old windscreen and frame (texta, pensil etc.) then (when it's out of its frame) lay the old glass on top of or under the new glass to mark the new glass. Obviousy makes it much much easier to align glass and frame. Mark top bottom and sides.
Doing up the top and in particular the bottom four screws is where the difficult arises. These were made to fit exactly, with a tiny bit of a squeeze to get the rubber to seal. They also have fine threads. Of course if you are a few mm off centre one side will go in easily and the other side will be impossible because no way is the glass going to slide over in its rubber surround. If this happens just start over. Also be aware that some of the screws are different lenghts, don't lose track of which goes where. Label them etc If you are reusing the old rubber then it's a much easier job. New rubber needs more of a squeeze.
I am also no opponent of silicon sealant, but just keep in mind that unless you are very skilled or lucky it'll take you at least an hour to get the glass into its frame.
You can squeese the side pillars together by tying rope from one side pillar to the other, then winding a large screw driver (or whatever) in it. You don't want to snap your curved windscreen in two so to prevent this;
Place a piece of wood on the outside and centre of the partially assembled glass and frame. Pass the ropes from side pillar to side pillar around the outside of the wood.
Peter

Getting the frame out of the car isn't that difficult, it is getting a new glass into the frame, especially with a new rubber, and the frame back into the car with a new rubber! (Oops, should use 'seal' when Americans are about ...). On a tin dash removing the screws and pushing the fibre-board glovebox back a bit on one side, and removing the fuel gauge and overdrive switch on the other (RHD) is all that is needed to get at the bolts. The centre bolts are actually longer than they need to be, and the screen has to be partially tilted to get them out, and you have to remember to get them back in with the screen partially refitted, as you can't get them back in once fully refitted. Carefull shortening of the bolts, and grinding a point back on to them so as to align the captive nuts, means you can remove the bolts early on and fit them late on.
Paul Hunt 2

Peter - Shims??? What do these shims look like? I've done our windshiled twice and never saw any shims. Perhaps things would have been a bit easier if I had the shims. Also, I used strap clamps in place of the rope and screwdriver to pull the frame together - same technique, different tool, it works quite well. Cheers - Dave
David DuBois

Well, since insurance was going to pay for this I sent the screen and frame to a fellow that had done this "twice". Unfortunately, both of those had reused the original rubber gaskets.

He had a devil of a time getting it together with the new glass gasket. When I picked it up from him yesterday afternoon so that I could do the reinstall this weekend it wasn't completely done. He wasn't able to get the four bottom screws in cleanly and hand't mounted the side frame gasket holding channels.

Last night I spend 2 to 3 hours finishing it up. The bottom screws are now solid and fully seated in their counter sunk holes. I used the approx. 1/4" long and 3/8" long screws. Since he had taken it apart I pretty much had to figure out which screws belonged where on my own. Basically I used the shortest screw that would do the job.

The side gasket channels had been riveted on when he took it all apart. However, the holes are tapped for 6-32 screws so I ground down the round heads of some screws to make a lower profile and then fought the gasket into place. I could't slide it in because the screw heads were still too pround of the bottom surface.

Should I have just gone back to the rivets so I could have slid the gasket right into place?

I got the bottom frame to car body gasket seal back on by slipping it from center to one side and then using a 1" putty knife to force the rubber "T" into its' slot for the other half of the run. This was much easier with the bottom edge of the windshield away from me and pressing the putty knife towards me then the other way around. Unfortunately I didn't discover this until almost done!

Now, my main question is about the thin and thick shims. I can see these on the Moss catalog page, and actually bought a new pair of thin ones. However, I didn't see any of these when I took the windshield off. How do you mount them and/or see if they are already there on the car.

I have to add here that the car had a full body restoration by the previous owner in the mid-90's. However, it was at the body shop for A FULL YEAR. I have found many things that were not put back together correctly......probably due to the time frame between disassembly and reassembly. I can just picture a box of MGB left over parts still somewhere in a corner of that body shop. As such it's very possible the thick and thin shims had been left out during their reinstallation of the windshield.

Thank you to all of your for your encouragement and help!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

BH Davis

BH Davis

Didn't finds any shims (which Moss calls 'packing strips') on mine - unless you count the 1/4" thick or so plates as shims. But then again I haven't actually removed them, just slackened the fixing screw, so the thin strips may well be stuck to the thick ones. Can't find any thin shims in the Leyland Parts Catalogue ... but then again I can't see the thick plates either!

If the thick plates had been left out tightening the bolts would have been pretty destructive to the shell and possibly the screen frame. Unless you knew they were there and/or the fixing screw was loose it is quite possible that they were there and covered in the same layer of dirt/paint etc. as the adjacent body panel.

Thin shims/packing plates are quite possible, the jigs to assemble the body panels weren't millimeter perfect even if the screen frames were.
Paul Hunt 2

David/Paul,
Not so much shims as spacers, better decription.
3/8th thick white plastic spacer.
and a 1/16 th glovebox type material.
They go between the windscreen pillar legs and the car body and the idea is that you can then do up the bolts really tightly without compressing/bending the not very flexible windscreen. If your pillar leg covers are still inplace you may not have seen them and they may have been invisibly glued in place with paint. Without these spacers you are guaranteed to crack your windscreen if you tighten up the bolts. Hideous personal experience speaking here!
Peter

Slightly OT but relevant I think. I have to do this job myself sometime in the future but for now have my windscreen all apart since I need to get new glass for it.

I was wondering what people did to refinish the frame whilst apart? Mine could do with re-anodising but someone told me that can be tricky with old aluminium and he recommended powdercoating. I would think though a layer of powdercoat would make it even harder to assemble the thing though?

Simon
Simon Jansen

Polishing looks realy good. Next time my windscreen needs replacing I'm going to do this. A good product I know of (there are probably others) is 'Autosol SHINE'. Also polished Aluminium is suprisingly weather proof. Orrigionaly I assummed that you would have to keep polishing on a regular basis, wrong. The polish leaves a coating and the surface area is much reduced when shiny.
I've a friend with a Papertiger Catamaran that has polished aluminium beams. This has been pretty thoughly immersed in salt water off and on for most of ten years now, and still looks great. All he does is hose off the salt water.
Peter

Peter, how do you go about doing it? Is it something you can do yourself just with finer and finer grades of paper then buffing with the polish at the end?

It seems on my frame, which I assume is original, only the outside was nicely finished. The inside parts of the frame seem pretty rough to me.
Simon Jansen


I just polished my windshield frame. My frame was nicked and scratched and looked a mess. I'm sure there are a number of ways to go about it, so check the archives, but here's what I did.

I removed the anodized material with Dremel Tool wire wheels and sanding wheels. Then sanded the surfaces by hand with 200, 400, 600, 1200, and 1600 grit wet sandpaper. Some people go higher on the grit to get an even smoother finish. Then three grades of polishing rouges was applied with a soft polishing wheel using a high speed (2,800 RPM) drill. The final step was an application of Mother's Aluminum Polish. The frame now looks like chrome.

Good luck. The effort is worth it.

Chuck
Chuck Hassler

Haven't done it yet!. Waiting until I need to replace the windcreen and I figure it'll be much easier with the frame apart. I've polished up my radiator and that came up looking great with straight polish no sandpaper, in about 5 minutes. There are a variety of aluminium polishes at any auto shop. Also a gear lever extension that was a very rough looking piece of unfinished stainless tubeing. With that, as you guessed, sand paper and then the polish. Only took about 10 minutes to get it looking exactly like the new chromed gear lever knob.
Also tried it on some damage on my untralite minilite replica wheels and (the Aluminium being softer), it was even easier. It also worked well on some plastic switches that had been badly treated at some stage.
My friend with the catamaran said he used very fine sandpaper just like he was rubbing back paint, and then polished with a buffer. With the MG the anodisng will need to be rubbed off, which shouldn't take too long. I intend to start with a very fine 'wet and dry' sandpaper, then polish with the Autosol SHINE, then use coaser (then finer, then finer etc) paper only where I need to.
There seems to be a fashion at the local MG club to polish their coils, SU's etc. and it does look pretty good. I've seen the odd windscreen done as well, which up until I realised, I thought were chromed. Of course the motolita seering wheels are all polished aluminium. Mine shows no sign of loosing its gleam as time goes by.
You are going to need to clean up the frame no matter what you do, so nothing to loose really, and there realy is not all that much metal. Good luck with it and let us know how you go.
Peter



Useful guidance and photos on how to replace windscreen can be found on this link:

http://www.mgaguru.com/mgtech/windscrn/wt_103.htm

Rgds, Gordon
gordon lewis

This thread was discussed between 11/07/2006 and 04/08/2006

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