The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop Rubber And Windows

The last time I did this (about 3 years ago) I used a window rubber piece made by SoftSeal. I've installed more than a few of these over the past 55 years and this was the best product I've used...by a very long shot. It was made for the stainless windshield strip, by the way. I also used their product for the back and corner glass. Very impressed...particularly for the price. Steele is terribly expensive as others have mentioned.

One important tip: As for windshield sealing goop, you can't buy the best stuff any longer (3M discontinued it) and the product made by others is...well some say it is okay and friends who run body shops don't like it. And I should add they tell me they will turn down work rather than use it because it is thin, stringy and messy. However you don't have too many alternatives. If you have to use it (CR Laurence makes it) just mask the area very well and apply in stages if you can...by that I mean install the windshield and rubber first with no sealer and then apply the sealer in maybe 3 stages letting each stage dry before applying the next one---not all at once. There really isn't a great way to apply it. The problem and point of frustration happens when you try to seal the underside of the windshield rubber. It tends to dribble out between the rubber and cab so you get a mess but it doesn't seal very well. 3M's product was mixed with talc and powdered shale and was coarse and not runny at all. I have a tube of "Big Stretch" in black that I'm going to use the next time I do one of these. It cures into a flexible rubber when it dries (takes around a week to dry) and should be a very good alternative. It is water based and I have had excellent results sealing door frames at our house using it.

Please don't use urethane sealer on your windshield rubber to cab. You can use it to seal the windshield to rubber if that is needed but it wasn't really made for sealing the rubber to the cab. It was made for running a bead on the body and laying the glass on top of it...a completely different installation procedure. Also you will not need any sealer for the back nor corner glass and if you are using the chrome-look lock strip I wrote a tutorial about how to install that like a pro maybe 4 years ago. Good luck!