Hi to all. I am new here and new to owning a Jag. After 30 years of desire, I have finally dived in and bought myself a fairly tidy '85 XJ6 in metallic blue. She is stock standard, has had most of the rust removed etc etc. I have already fixed or worked out how to fix most things that need fixing just by reading this forum. You guys are great :-)

Now to my conundrum. Surprise surprise i am getting plenty of water inside my car when it rains, and it is coming from the windscreen. The passenger side is coming from the top of the screen (used a garden hose to diagnose) and the drivers side (RHD) is coming in from around the bottom as far as i can tell. The rubber and chrome around the screen is in fairly good condition. I have lifted it up in places and there is no sign of rust under there. I want to know if I can just lift the rubber, inject in a whole pile of RTV windscreen sealant and push the rubbers back into place?? Will this work or would I just be wasting my time? I have talked to a local autoglazier, who said to get him to remove the screen, buy a new one if he breaks it, then get it re-bonded etc. He also wants an arm, half a leg and probably some other bits of me as well (read EXPENSIVE!!!).
I don't need this fix to be a for ever fix, just a year or two while I scrimp and save enough to strip and restore her.

All thoughts and suggestions will be welcomed gratefully.

 

Being where you are I guess not driving in the rain is not an option?
Coming from a bit north of you I know you get about 5 months of rain(may-Sept).
I would be trying the RTV first.

 

Yip, at least 5 months of the year. And to make matters worse, I don't have a garage or carport to put her under. she is sitting out in the weather at all times (until I get a car cover anyway). Thanks. I will probably give it a go over the weekend if it is dry.

 

Good luck with a dry weekend, the last year I was in Tauranga playing rugby(1987) we played 26 games straight in the rain.
I'm off to the new member area to welcome you and add you to the NZ forum roll call thread.

The experts shouldn't be too far away with advice when the sun rises in the northern hemisphere.

 

Series 3 windscreens are a PITA as the aperture was not designed for a bonded screen. Corrosion occurs at the lower corners where water gathers, and can then let in water. Generally speaking unless the screen has been out in the past the factory sealing lasts but water gets round the side via the corrosion holes. Most screen fitters are reluctant to work on the screens of these cars as it is so easy to end up with the sealing compound not sealing all the way round.

I think at some point you will need to remove the screen and deal with the corrosion but try RTV for now if you don't have the cash to pay the screens guy. There shouldn't really be any risk of breaking the screen. A Stanley knife can cut the seal from inside the car, leaving the bottom then it can be pushed out carefully and the lower part of the seal cut. You'll have to cure all the rusting, and may have to weld in some new metal before the aperture will be ready for putting the seal back. I would say the best way to proceed is to take out the windshield yourself. If the car has to be left in the open, you'll need some fairly thick polythene sheeting to cover the aperture from rain ingress. I did mine in around 1997. Funnily enough, I drove to the windscreen shop with the screen in the car, and found that once the car fills with air it wasn't too draughty at around 30-35mph !!

What you can't see until you get the screen out, is that there is an inner seal that goes around the aperture edge on which the screen sits, with the sealing beside it. This prevents the sealing from being squashed too much when the screen is put back in. Once it's all in, the chrome pieces are inserted into the soft seal that is gradually curing as you work. The chrome pieces are also a PITA to get right ! Be particularly careful when removing the screen to make sure you don't bend or distort them. Its best to cut the seal from the inside leaving the chromes and sealant on the screen that you remove afterwards.

 

Well, i removed the outer rubber seal, cleaned under, rust treated the area and filled it with rtv sealant and pushed the rubber seal back in. It looks good and will find out in the next few days if it's helped at all. I hope so.

 

This may be a little late, but i had bookmarked this thread on the xjs forum that had good info on windshield seals

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...se-help-63898/

Ive read on various postings here and elsewhere that the inner seal/lockstrip that mates to the windshield and stainless often shrinks with age and heat And needs to be pulled out and reinserted after putting down a bead of sealant, then the gap needs to be filled in with a seal from a donor. Ive also seen just about everybody swear and cuss at having to put the stainless trim back on, so I've put this on my "one of these days" list

 

When I repaired my Xj6 's windscreen channels, I had a good experience installing the stainless trim. The key was, to spend time on getting the right/tight fit to the edge of the glass prior to applying the sealant. I had cleaned all of the old adhesive off of the stainless and twisted tweeked it back to a shape, where on a trial fit, it sat down and slid into the correct position around the edge of the glass. I rested the glass on 3 small spacers that allowed it to sit centered in the aperture.
The windscreen was installed, but no plastic finishers were used,...I simply squirted a small bead of 3M windscreen sealant around the circumference, laid in the glass, pressed it down, more sealant, inserted the stainless and seated it, then filled the aperture full of sealant on either side of the stainless. Wiped off excess sealant using Mineral spirits and clean rags.Car is dry (3 years now in Seattle) no leaks. No plastic finishers drooping at the windscreen corners.

I had several small holes in the corners of each windscreen and almost no sealant at the bottom of the rear screen. I cut the old sealant with a small serrated steak knife. Works.

 

Alyn,
what do you mean by "plastic finishers" ?

can you post a picture ?

thanks

 

This is a Jaguar owner's best friend.
I have used this with best results.

 

Simple stuff. Windscreens on Series 3 cars have glass , stainless trim, and a "finisher" between the stainless and the glass and on the other side of the stainless trim, is another plastic finisher between the body and the stainless.

They are made of plastic, and they age, "weather" and shrink . Noticeable at the inner corners of the screen as they pull away from the stainless. Droopy.

Plastic finishers. This was Jaguars solution to using a bonded glass method of attachment, on a car body that has windscreen apertures designed for a rubber gasket, as was used on series 2 and earlier cars.

The large void on either side of the installed stainless trim indicated something was needed to give the car a "finished" look, hence the term "finishers".

The other alternative would have been to fill the void on either side of the stainless trim with an abundance of sealant and then judiciously wipe away the excess, leaving just a thin bead of sealant showing. Not practical on a moving assembly line. So snap-in finishers were used,... 2 per screen,.. inner and outer.

No finishers (this is t what I did on my Jag)

(Easy to do... if you are replacing the screen yourself in your garage. ( or wherever you do your work). I have a garage but when I did the windscreen re install on my Jag, I did it in the back yard on a warm dry day).

Unfortunately the finishers also trap water underneath them and eventually rust forms in the channel and water leaks through to the interior, rust forms on the exterior bodywork at the wind screen lower corners. My theory is,.. if the channel is waterproofed by filling it to the brim with sealant and discarding the "finishers" no more leaks and a nice dry car. That is where I ended up. No finishers / dry car.

 

Simple stuff. Windscreens on Series 3 cars have glass , stainless trim, and a "finisher" between the stainless and the glass and on the other side of the stainless trim, is another plastic finisher between the body and the stainless.

They are made of plastic, and they age, "weather" and shrink . Noticeable at the corners of the screen as they pull away from the stainless. Droopy.

Plastic finishers. This was Jaguars solution to using a bonded glass method of attachment, on a car body that has windscreen apertures designed for a rubber gasket, as was used on series 2 and earlier cars.

The large void on either side of the installed stainless trim indicated something was needed to give the car a "finished" look, hence the term "finishers".

The other alternative would have been to fill the void on either side of the stainless trim with an abundance of sealant and then judiciously wipe away the excess, leaving just a thin bead of sealant showing. No finisher (this is t what I did on my Jag) Not practical on a moving assembly line.

(But doable,.. if you are replacing the screen yourself in your garage, or wherever you do your work. I have a garage but when I did the windscreen re install on my Jag, I did it in the back yard on a warm dry day). So snap-in finshers were used,... 2 per screen,.. inner and outer.

Unfortunately the finishers also trap water underneath them and eventually rust forms in the channel and water leaks through to the interior, rust forms on the exterior bodywork at the wind screen lower corners. My theory is,.. if the channel is waterproofed by filling it to the brim with sealant and discarding the "finishers" no more leaks and a nice dry car. That is where I ended up. No finishers / dry car.

 

Great description Alyn. Got a pic of the, uh, "unfinished" windscreen?

Ya can't earn windscreen god title without pics

 

The front windshield on my coupe was the hardest windshield I have done. It has three clips that go through the gasket and the steel lip in the windshield frame. It keeps the windshield from popping out when driving at speed with the side windows down. Apparently it was a problem with the prototype. Between that and the fat Triplex glass it fought me the whole way

 

I have used this also many times on different vehicles, whilst I have found it to be Excellent its a bugger to get off when cured.....need to get it right first time.

 

Also gloves are a must when using sikaflex as it will stain your fingers etc. and will not wash off!
Great stuff though.

 

Here is a picture of the roof line near left side of rear windscreen. FWIW Mineral Spirits will dissolve this stuff if you get at it with a clean rag dampened with Mineral Spirits. . I left a bead about 1/8 inch wide as seen in the photo. Car is bone dry inside.

 

The great thing, about Sikaflex, is that it remains very flexible.
I have used it for over 30 years and have checked 20 year old material and it is still soft.