After a recent storm I noticed that there was water on the inside of my windshield. On inspection I found that the moldings on the side was held on by screws, which is not supposed to be the case. I also sprayed some soap to the outside perimeter of the windshield and used a a blower from the inside to see that there were a lot of spots where the soap was bubbling up. Which means air is moving between the inside and outside of the windshield. I had also cleaned out all my drains to make sure that wasn't causing any issues. Well called my glass guy and they were able to squeeze me in. I was initially thinking they could just run a sealer on the inside of the windshield to help seal it but they advised me against that. They explained that air/water might be getting in because there was a break or delamination of some sort with the sealant and to properly diagnose the issue the windshield had to come out. Made sense to get to the root cause of the problem and I'm glad I did.
With the windshield out they pointed out where there was surface rust that was forming which was causing the glue to delaminate . Also the glue the previous installer used apparently wasn't the right one because it was hard and brittle.
All the surface rust was removed and a rust inhibitor was used to help prevent it from happening again.
I also asked them to use some rust inhibitor around the holes where the molding goes that the previous installer had used screws for. with everything dry, fresh windshield glue the windshield went back on.
I chose to give it a couple of days to make sure everything was cured before the moldings went back on. This also gave me the chance to do the soap & air test again to verify that there were no leaks. No leaks and the cabin felt quieter!! Onto the moldings.
I wasn't sure if the holes for the moldings were bigger since they used screws earlier so I went ahead and ordered an assortment of black aluminum rivets along with the OEM rivets and new moldings. The OEM rivets unfortunately did not fit, the OEM rivets had a rubber collar so when the rivets are compressed the rubber makes contact with the metal to prevent paint wear due to vibration and hence rust formation. To help replicate this functionality I used some RTV in the holes prior to using the aluminum rivets.
With the outer moldings secured I'm going to wait till I finish doing some wiring to put the inner moldings into the channels to complete the job.
It was a hassle to deal with this but I'm glad this happened sooner than later. The rust issue would've been significantly worse and might have been a bigger hassle to get fixed correctly. For now I believe everything was done right and happy with the outcome.
-AJ Abraham
@flawless_fitment
@aj_ls460
@aj_lx470
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