Hints for installing successfully install a windshield seal?

[dragvw2180]

The original seal w/chrome is a real PITA to install , Dawn dish soap is definately the way to go, works ALOT better than anything else I have used. Mike McCarthy

[Piledriver]

Recently put a fresh windshield frm ISPWEST in my 73 square,had the wife help,basically just appllying light pressure to one side to keep it from sliding away...

Used insulated 14 ga automotive wire and Dawn dishwashing liquid for lube... with about 6" of wire overlap at the start point.
Rubber seal was ISPWEST cal-look style...

Almost fell in by itself, easiest vw windshield job I ever did, and have done a few...(many t1s, couple ghias, half dozen bay busses, first t3)

I do suggest buying a pair of the suction cup glass handler bits from harbor fright so you dont have to directly apply pressure to the glass. Also make for great handles for just setting in place.

[Bruce2]

Sometimes the glass is too large. If so, it will never go in. Sometimes the rubber is too fat, same result. If you have a new window and new rubber, you might want to install the old window if you still have it. Then if you break it, no loss. Once it's in, leave it in for a few months, then remove it and put in the new window, keeping the rubber oriented exactly the same. This will help stretch the rubber into shape.

[raygreenwood]

And.....DO NOT use Vaseline, WD-40...or any kind of PETROLEUM based lubricant. Pay attention to what you use. Download the SDS and read up on what you use.
Automotive windshield and glass gaskets are made of EPDM rubber. The exact same rubber used in brake cylinder seals.

This rubber CANNOT be used with any type of petroleum VOC, solvent or oil. Yeah...you may get the glass in...but if 3 years down the line your seal is mysteriously hardening up....or getting gummy....this is why.

This list of DO NOT USE... includes di-ester oils and motor oils...vegetable oils (olive oil is actually passable). A lot of soaps...especially any with TALLOW, coconut oil and palm oil...will ALL attack EPDM rubber. Linseed oil is a bad one. Just stay away from soaps.

Butter and animal fat are actually OK. Waxes are a big no no. Anything with paraffin....is bad news. Paraffin is a direct petroleum by-product/fuel taken from oil wells as a waste product and refined. Its fuel...a solvent...it eats EPDM.

Ray

[Piledriver]

Antifreeze (preferably the non-toxicish pg type) would also probably work, but everybody probably has a bottle of Dawn for hand (and everything else) cleaner if they work on cars etc. Coolant hoses are epdm as well, at least epdm lined.
Coolant "overflow" hose also works great for master cylinder feeders instead of the "factory" braid covered blue junk the parts shops flog that rots in a year or so.(because ethylene glycol is used as antifreeze as well as brake fluid)

[type36]

I know this is an old post but for posterity, the factory (well in Australia it did) used Glycerol (also called glycerine ) as the lubricant, I have used this exclusively on a ton of cars for 30 years, has never killed a seal , as an example my Bay single cab windscreen was put in 23 years ago seal is still perfect. You can buy it at most chemists/pharmacists in a small brown glass bottle. Most (not all) soaps of any sort have a salt of one form of another in them potassium or sodium hydroxide usually (traditional bar soaps have lye)
personal water based lube is also ideal as it generally has no nasties due to its intended are of use .