Hi Ken,
For many years my TR4 hasn't had the windshield finisher strip in the
rubber (N/A last time I rebuilt). I recently stripped down the
windshield/frame and here's some observations:
The strip serves to expand the rubber a bit & make it a tighter fit both
on the glass & on the frame. I found some pretty bad rust on the frame
under the rubber which is due to gaps where rubber wasn't tight against
the frame & allowed water to get in & trapped. This is most likely due
to the lack of the finisher strip combined with insufficient sealing
gunk (note the technical term) used in those areas.
I never had problems with loose glass or pine needles, but the gap never
really fully closed, either. Also, I don't recall ever seeing water get
into the car, at least not past the rubber windshield seal, just seems
to have gotten as far as the frame itself.
IMHO, use the strip - if you prefer the blackout look, paint it black if
it's the plastic variety, powdercoat or paint the S/S type, or you could
cover either type with blackout tape available at many auto parts
stores.
It's been a while, but I've installed on other folks cars and ISTR
carefully using a rubber mallet to tap in place & a bit of Vaseline or
WD-40 (NFI, yada) to help it. The S/S type always seemed to need some
bending & tweaking to get them to fit just right.
You may already know this, but, if you buy a new one, it will almost
certainly be the plastic variety and supplied a bit too long so you can
cut to fit. Be sure to cut it extra long, as long as you can jam in
there, as they tend to shrink over time and gap at the center joints.
Alan Myers
San Jose, Calif.
'62 TR4 CT17602L
Beth & Ken wrote:
>
> Do I really need to use the finisher strips on front and rear window
> gaskets? I like the all black look much better. Does it add any
> support/stiffness that's needed? If any of you have gone sans strip, does it
>pretty much close up, or does it fill up with pine needles and such?
>
> ken shapiro
> baltimore
> 1970 GT6+ KC81872L
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MZ
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