Hi All, Since the existing glass was damaged badly last year and inevitably is going to fall apart, I figured I would go ahead and replace it. I already received replacement glass, and it did not come with the new rubber gasket perimeter seal (not sure of technical name). I'm sure the existing black rubber seal is probably quite old and starting to dry rot. Some pictures attached for reference. Has anybody wrestled with one of these before? Would it be wise to try and get a new replacement black rubber seal before attempting to replace glass ? I certainly never replace the windshield glass before, this will be my first attempt. Any tips for tricks or advice or recommendations will be greatly appreciated as usual.
Don't touch it with anything metal if you must pry use plastic. Any window or body shop should have the rubber trim you need.
Thank you Billrog.
I hired a professional glass shop to come to my tractor location and had him install all the glass in the entire cab. I purchased the glass on-line. It was too expensive for me to risk breaking it by attempting to install it myself.. Window gaskets have to fit the thickness of the steel frame the window is mounted in and fit the glass thickness also. I bought a 50 foot roll of gasket material here ---> Trim-loc
Thank you so much Tinkerer. I still need to buy the 'gasket' moulding so I'll check that out. Honestly, after examining the situation earlier this evening, I started calling auto glass shops for quotes on coming out to install. Makes sense to me too now. I've been able to work on a few mechanical items on the machine this far, but probably safer to leave this one to the experts. For the other sections of cab plexi, theyre so scratched and foggy, I'm going to try and give them some love with a headlight restoration kit and bring back their clarity. Just keep giving her some attention and little by little she gets better and better. Just hoping she has a lot of life left in her. Seems like always needing some attention. That was the risk of buying a well older machine (1979). Thanks again for input.
I bought replacement rubber on eBay/Amazon before. You just have to make sure you get the same dimension stuff. I would definitely replace the rubber when you go to put the new glass in, because trying to use old hard rubber is a pain. I've always used WD40 to lubricate the rubber channel where the glass sits and the channel and locking spline to make it easier for things to move around when installing the glass. That's how I learned to do it replacing glass on old postal Jeeps and trucks when I worked in a body shop. I've used the same technique for the times I needed to do it on heavy equipment. With the rubber lubricated you work the glass into its' channel with your hands, then I usually use a cotter pin puller hook (steel so you have to be very careful with it) to work the locking spline into its' channel.
I bought a roll of Trim Lok seal in anticipation of replacing the glass on my Cat. The original window rubbers were hard and stiff. Here is the issue with buying the windshield trim on a roll. If you have square corners you need to miter the cuts, glue the corners. Very difficult to do. I tried it. The glass shop even said they won't use the stuff because it is too much of a hassle with square corners. if you have rounded corners if is not a problem. What the glass shop did was cut the glass 1" bigger so there was 1/2" overlap all the way around. The painted the 1/2" perimeter black and bonded the glass to the opening using urethane just like modern vehicles and equipment. Looks great and if I need to replace a piece it cuts out just like auto glass.
Black RTV silicone was used to seal the square cut corners on my windshield. It is hardly noticeable and has not leaked yet. I tried plexiglass and it was miserable crap to look through. Especially early in the morning looking into the sun. Any glass shop can cut safety glass and it worth every penny they charge for it.
I had the same problem with the mitered corners on my 953 loader when I did it. I just cut the seal on a 45 and used black rtv to seal the miters. Worked well and seamed to be the same thing Cat did. I had a glass shop cut the glass for that loader and it was less than half the cost of the glass from Cat.
I used Urethane on the one glass I reused but replaced the seal. I like the way my glass was done. Simple effective and I can do it myself next time, if there is a next time. One of my doors has an ever so slight twist to it and the glass shop broke 2 pieces trying to fit it. Since the door seals and operates ok I went with polycarbonate.