Installing the front and back window is something I wanted someone with experience to do. With the ease of messing things up and having leaks later, or damaged trim, I figured I would be better off with a pro. Unfortunately, even a pro can’t correct for bad reproduction parts.

From a distance, it doesn’t look bad. Or, if you don’t know what correct looks like, you might not notice. With the quality of the rest of this restoration, I definitely notice the problems with the trim.

First, the windshield went in easy. Mark is a pro and made it look like child’s play. He clearly knows what he is doing. This gave me confidence with the project over all. He also brought his own window clips to sprinkle in with the poor quality clips available today. I picked up a couple different packages, but neither were as good as the ones he brought.

When he started placing the trim, he pointed out some problems that were going to cause him issues with the install. One was the curve of the lower trim. This is a solid piece that goes across the whole cowl. Where it bends in on the ends, the lip was folded further because of the bend. It was going to mess up the way the piece set.

You can see how it raises up significantly off the window gasket near the left center. The passenger side is snug against the gasket, as is the driver end.  Other than it not sitting, it went in fairly well compared to the rest.

Continuing up the driver side, you can see the snug fit to the body at the bottom, moving out to about a quarter inch gap at the top. This puts the corner noticeably out of the pocket it should be in the window seat.

Here you can see the gap on the corner. Going across, it quickly closes up. The bend across the top section is not deep enough to set correctly. Like the bottom, it isn’t formed correctly to have the seat ridge ride at the correct angle to be mounted correctly either. You can see where it pulls away at the seam in the center as well.

Looking across from the passenger side, you can see similar corners. Other than the corner being wrong, the rest of the passenger side piece fits pretty well. It needed some reforming in order to be at the correct angle to meet up with the clips though.

Focusing on the corner itself, you can see a significant gap along the top, and a similar gap on the side top as the driver side.

The passenger side wasn’t bad over all. The main issue was where it met up with the top. The contour lines didn’t meet up.

Now, like I said, it may be all good enough for some projects. If you just want something inexpensive that looks better than an unrestored original, it gets the job done from a distance. But I notice the gaps. I am going to have to get the original parts I have repaired and polished and replace the ones that went missing during the body work.

Also, this is a pretty good job considering the materials. The installer was a skilled professional, not me trying something I watched on the Internet and tried the first time.  Even then, some of the new trim was so difficult to get in place, it has some dimples from the installation.

I will circle back again with another post when I get to round 2 with the originals.

Parts

• Front window molding set