I spent about an hour today attempting to install a new gasket (purchased from Jimmy Carter) onto a new windshield for my 1960 Apache. I was entirely unsuccessful. I believe it would have been easier to placed a full grown tomcat into a plastic bag tail first.
I tried doing the sides first. I tried doing the long straight sections first. It looked like it should work..it just didn't. The gasket did not accomodate well the the sharp curves on the sides. It was difficult to get the glass to seat into the deep track, and even after seating long sections and taping with duct tape I could not get the entire thing to stay in place.
Remenbering that I had heard of installing the gasket into the frame opening, and then installing the glass into the gasket, I decided to try that appoach. Another failure, even more drastic than the first. The slit made in the gasket to fit over the metal flange in the cab opening was clamped shut by the rubber with such force I could only open it with a screwdriver, and only in sections an inch or so long at a time.
What am I doing wrong? Is the gasket too much a misfit for my particular application? My only experience in this matter was that of installing many years ago a used windshield with a used gasket into a 1952 Ford with only a couple of screwdrivers as tools, and it was a snap compared to this.It occurred to me later that it might have helped to lay the gasket out in the sun for an hour or so to soften it. Has anybody out there had experience with a gasket from Jimmy Carter? Right now I am not at all sure it can be made to work..
meansam
