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8/05/26: I wanted to share a major milestone on the truck project. Today, with the help of my grandson and his friend (yes, I took all of your advice and I am really glad I did), we successfully installed the windshield!

Neither of the boys had any experience installing a windshield, and my only background was watching my instructor do it back in trade school, plus a few hours of YouTube videos. Despite that, we dove right in.

I had previously set the glass into the gaskets along with the new stainless steel trim and the pull-rope. With the three of us working, we started at the bottom and worked our way up both sides, alternating a few inches at a time. Everything went smoothly until we hit the top corners.

The passenger side wasn't too bad, but the driver's side gave us a real fight. The glass had shifted almost completely out of the center groove of the gasket on the top side. We ended up using two suction cup glass handlers, and after soaking the gasket down with glass cleaner, we managed to slide the glass back into place. I also discovered a great trick. I used one suction cup handler on the inside pulling hard, while my grandson pounded on the outside handler with his palm.

As we got close to finishing, I noticed the trim on the driver's side wasn’t seated deep enough, which I think was causing the gasket not to seat fully. Once I spotted the issue, I soaked the gasket with glass cleaner again and slowly worked the trim into place using light taps with a rubber mallet and a microfiber cloth to protect the finish. After that, using my newly discovered trick, the corner slid right into place.
We did run into one minor thing: in both bottom corners, the outside of the gasket puckered just a tiny bit. I’m hoping a few good days sitting out in the sun will relax the rubber and smooth that out—fingers crossed!

I still have the center SS trim to install, but I wanted to polish it first, before Install it.

Looking back, I probably should have bitten the bullet and bought Steele Rubber gaskets, but at $180 plus shipping, that was a pretty hard pill to swallow.

At any rate, I’m not building this truck to compete in a Concours d’Elegance car show, so I am just plain thrilled that this major milestone that I was sweating about, is finally complete.