The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk After-market stainless windhield trim? 52 half-ton

Does anyone have experience with installing after-market SS windshield trim? I'm going to have to replace the windshield in my truck and would like to add the SS trim, but I'm concerned about the quality and fit of repro trim. Would I be better off to try and find an original? How about windshield rubber? Are the Steele gaskets really that much better? point me in the right direction!! thanks pat

I have heard nothing but high praise for the Steele gaskets, though I have never used one. Don't know about the repro trim. Original is always the best way to go, but may be hard to find. Maybe you'll get lucky.
Jeff

PJS: I'm also at that point on my panel. I have one decent side and one bad side. I think finding GOOD used ones are almost hopeless.

The new ones are about 80 bucks plus shipping....I saw some in the swap meet but the guy wanted $75 for them. If they were in good shape I'd say OK as they are probably a lot "heavier" weight than the overseas crapp.
Maybe someone who has purchased the aftermarket will chime in here. I'm interested to.

I have the aftermarket S.S. trim installed on the 52.
there are pics in my photobucket (page 3).
Fit was good and it seems of decent quality.
One tip I found that helps considerably, I took a pc. of scrap carpet and layed my window glass down on it and installed the rubber gasket an worked in the S.S. Trim including the S.S.Center strip on a sunday and let is just set there durin the week while I was workin.
That helped all the pcs. kinda conform an get the shape they needed and with a partner (my son) the next saturday we just picked it up as a unit and installed it...went pretty smooth.
Tim

Tim, you wouldn't be headed down my way anytime soon would you?

Alvin,
Check out page 3 in my photo bucket, it was a pretty easy install nothin like the rear slider and chrome lockin strip ...that was a PIA!
LOL
Sorry Alvin bought 12 hrs down and 12 hrs back to run down an help ya put in the glass.
maybe next year ?
Tim

Tim, it may just be the picture angle but the stainless in your pics looks "wide". Is it wider than usual?? Probably not but it just looked that way.

Looking at all those pics again gives me hope that I'll get mine finished..... one day!!

Well Alvin that I DO NOT KNOW.. it lookin to be wider ? ..it is the S.S.Trim from Classic Parts & supposed to be the same as factory ...BUT WE ALL KNOW HOW THAT CAN BE!...lol
My 52 didnt have that trim when I got it so I have nothing to compare it to...I just threw a set of calipers on it ..it measures just shy of 9/16 of an inch wide.
The trim was onna my easiest installs as far as glass went ...an it looks darn nice compared to the plain rubber gasket in my opinion.
Tim

.... Tim, thats the width of my old one, pretty much! I guess its just the light/angle of the pic. I have the new gasket and glass I just need the stainless piece. I guess I'll have to throw the hint out to the kids for Fathers Day!

It does make the old gasket look better!

Ok...so what about the glass? Did you order it from Classic too, or buy it from a glass shop? Is all the "catalog" glass Chinese? Does it matter on flat glass? Whatta ya think?

pat

Buy it from a local shop but look around. You will find big differences from shop to shop!!..... if you have more than one.

I got mine locally.....but I did buy NEW windshield from a fellow bolter who had given up on a project.

IF and that's a big IF you can find good original trims the ONLY surefire way of saving them without bending them is to cut the rubber.
Once they're twisted or bent it's pretty difficult to get them back into some sort of useable condition.

I get this a lot at my work, I do a fair bit of classic work i.e. old Jaguars,MGs etc.
Well meaning customers tell you ,OH I've got the original trims,only for me to get there and find them bent up like a pretzel!!
I can't comment on the repro AD trims but I do know the aftermarket Jag trims are garbage.(Chrome plated bean cans!) :mad: Unlike the originals which are Stainless.

I'd be interested if others could comment on the New AD trims if they've used them.. I need a set of them myself.

I used a repop trim on my truck. Just like others, I needed to reset the windscreen, and thought I'd dress it up a little. I also used a cheap gasket. I was by myself, and it was 50 degrees out, with no garage. I put it all together in the house in front of the fireplace... I also wiped the inside and outside of the gasket with AC Delco weatherstrip lubricant, which is a silicone emulsion. I makes hard rubber pliable.

I'm happy with the trim. It looks nice. There is a little "pucker" at each lower corner. I just filled the pucker with butyl goop. I don't know if a more expensive gasket would have helped. My father is restoring a 1954 Monarch SunValley, and he bought his rubber from Steele. It does generally seem nicer than what I had to work with.

All said, I don't know if the repop is chrome or stainless. I have not seen any tiny rust spots on it yet, unlike any of the other repop stuff, like my dang front grill.

Jock,
If ya want i can get some close up pics of my aftermarket (ClassicParts) S.S.Trim pcs.. installed so ya can take a look, let me know ?
Tim

Come on guys, ya all been around long enough to know that SS is usually non-magnetic. Just take a magnet to it an see if its SS or just plain chrome plated steel. Be nice to have someone take a caliper to the original and compaire it to the reproduction. Most of the repro tin I've seen is 20% to 30% lighter than the original stuff.
DG

OK Dennis,
heres the poop..
S.S. magnet will not attach.
Trim is .068 thick by my calipers, so lets say 1/6th., I have NO STOCK stuff to compare it to so I can not say what the factory thickness was.
so there we have it for all to see.
Tim

Great work Tim, thanks, probably a type 304 SS and if that aftermarket molding is a full 1/16" thick that's some beefy molding. I'd bet the originals were no heavier than that. I wouldn't be afraid to use it on a truck of mine, that is, if I had a 5 window I was restoring.
I got stuck with some rear fender center braces from one of the vendors that were so thin I could bend them in my bare hands, they went in the scrap.
And if you can get that for eighty bucks that sounds like a bargan to me, if anyone doesn't thing so, just try to make it your self.

Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

The repro. trim I bought fits decent. Go for it.

Sad part for me is I have a good right side but the left side looks like someone only replaced that side windshield and cut little nibs in it about ever 4inches on the back side as if it work it into the gasket. Its a POS but I believe I could use the right side.

Oh well, I sold a piece or two this week and the money is going for a new repop from one of the vendors. Just depends on price, discount and shipping cost!!!
I'm ready to put in some glass.... just about all of it!

FYI I just went to Classic Parts website and they have the trim on sale for $74.95....I might have to do it!

pat

PJS: don't forget to ask for your 10% stovebolt discount. It'll help off set the shipping which I hate :mad:

Edit: JimCarter has them for $79 and they give bolters 10% discount and only charge for ACTUAL shipping. I would bet they all come from the same place. So, do the math and see who wins!