That's how I roll. I will destroy any number of illustrations, letters, relationships, headliners . . . in the restless search for perfection . . . windshields, anyways,
I did not exactly ruin anything this time, but holy crap how close to the edge do I have to skate?
I yanked the too-big-incorrectly-formed windshield after a week because the seal was all pulled away at the upper edges (I hate that) and the headliner was way too close to the ceiling with that support bow jammed too far forward because of the TMI headliner had incorrect dimensions between each panel:
Here's the BobD. Note that the seam is in full view behind the visors, which are fairly close to the headliner. Heck, note the windshield seal in its full seated glory:
Now look at this poor Chloe. The windshield seal is about to pop free, the headliner seam is above the visors where its bow is crammed against the roof and the visors levitate in space:
Well, I :
a) found rust! under the windshield after only ONE car wash,
b) twisted the aluminum trim in the windshield rubber when it sprang off the glass
c) ripped the headliner a little "de-laminating" it from the adhesive caked on the windshield opening
d) trimmed the headliner bow too short in my effort to get it unjammed from the roof in its new TMI-mandated spot.
Without any tension, now it will not stay at all, it just droops.
I'm thinking, "I really do hate my OCD loser self after all."
1) The *original headliner* was not that bad to begin with!
2) The replacement headliner maybe looked a little dorky to ME, but geeze, now WHAT?
After a severe self-chastisement, I came up with work-arounds.
a) repainted the windshield channel and promised NO SHARP INSTRUMENTS at install time.
b) carefully closed the wound in the trim piece, now safely ensconsed in the rubber
c) see *
d) sawed two little blocks of wood that fit in the headliner bow channel and drilled little headliner bow holes to exactly the depth I want for just the right bow tension so I could pull the headliner down to the windshield opening just as much as I wanted to get the space over the visors to BobD perfection. Damn if I didn't, either. Plus, the tension I needed to drop the headliner down closer to the visors allowed me to *pull the ripped headliner clear of the car where I could trim it off and have a new shot at bonding to the windshield opening. Only took a DAY of tedious wood block drilling, and some new stapling (!) of the headliner seams where the shoddy TMI stitching kept unravelling.
Good enough, leave it ALONE, Colin.
Did you see that windshield seal in the above photograph? It's fully seated now. I sanded that Chinese windshield from 5:00PM to 11:45 PM last night. Every 30 minutes I would see Progress! because I would have to razor off the laminate plastic from the diminishing edge. I only trimmed halfway to the marker line in the below photograph. Terribly tedious, but I wanted that windshield to fit correctly. Had to listen to the "hit radio" DJ field calls from broken-hearted or love-besotted teenagers:
Gave up on the speaker wire glass installation cord. It was ruined, anyway. Walked to the Pensacola Hardware Store. Got some parachute cord, heck, only 15 cents a foot.
Ever make someone laugh until they cry? I must have hit the cashier in some deep recognition place.
He says, "That'll be $2.62."
I say, "$2.62? Oh man, I am going to have to refinance the house . . . AGAIN."
He was trying to keep it quiet, but couldn't stop laughing.
Windshield went right in. See, you drive up to the wall. Stick big ass 2x4 between wall and glass you have just propped on the channel. Clapboard wall allows you to Kustom-Adjust the push. Pull parachute cord. Windshield IN:
It's good enough, leave it alone. Get to the leaky vent windows . . . . quit giving wcfvw69 a hard time . . .
Colin
BobD - 78 Bus . . . 112,730 miles
Chloe - 70 bus . . . 217,593 miles
Naranja - 77 Westy . . . 142,970 miles
Pluck - 1973 Squareback . . . . . . 55,600 miles
Alexus - 91 Lexus LS400 . . . 96,675 miles
