I've got some wind noise traced to the upper edge of the windshield (taping over that area outside the car kills the noise).

I had in mind to remove the trim surrounding the windshield and see what I could see. Some research told me the trim is easily damaged, and I can't seem to find very much detail on removing it ... a couple of sketches from a Jaguar doc are posted in an older thread here.

Can anyone help me concerning the best technique and tools to go at this?


(Also, I saw a comment somewhere that a replacement windshield installer will sometimes glue the trim on instead of installing it using clips. This a replacement windshield. Anybody know if gluing the trim is common?)


Any help much appreciated.

 

Dennis
I replaced my windshield a few years ago. It was replaced before and the glue had seeped on to the clips. there wasn't many this had happened to but, but to remove the trim with out damage, was very time consuming. I had all of the trim removal tools. If the previous glass installers used a lot of excessive glue it would make it almost impossible to remove the trim without damage. when you pull on the trim there should be a little give from the clips, If the trim extremely solid it's probably over glued. When you install a new windshield you install the clips and trim on the windshield and then glue it to the frame.

 

Thanks for that. It's coming back to me now ... you used to own a shop, right? So more questions arise ...

About how much $ for the trim piece? (This can't be good.)

Do you think it feasable to try to kill the wind noise with everything left in place? This is just half-baked, but I'm picturing maybe some sort of rope-caulk or silicone or something worked down into the gap between the body and the rubber along the outside edge of the trim piece. (As things stand, this rubber just barely touches the body all across the top of the windshield; it can be pulled away from the body revealing a small gap between trim and body.) If I could fill that gap ...

A windshield guy told me the trim piece is just cosmetic .. and does not weather seal anything. The real seal is behind the windshield, said he. Sound right? (So far, the car does not seem to leak water, so I have trouble picturing where the noisy air is going.)

 

I owned a collision center a few years ago, still have most of my tools. Still dabble in painting and restoration work. There's no seal the seal is the glue. Back in the early eighties they started using glues to seal the glass instead of the rubber seals. 3M had the about the only adhesive for this back then. It actually glued the window to the frame so it could be part of the structural design of the body. This was part of the evolution of the uni-body design. I think Tony from Paragon Design said the windshield reveal moulding is not available from Jaguar anymore. The last price I know of was $202.00 a piece. I wouldn't try taking the trim off. Try sealing it with a silicon and a very small nozzle to get under the trim. Tape the painted areas and trim off with masking tape first.
My rubber trim has shrunk a little over the years, Your wind noise may just be the way the wind gets under this rubber trim. your idea of chalking it in place sounds better than destroying your trim.

 

Thanks again.

So I looked a little closer at things and there is in fact a gap between the trim piece and the body along much of the top edge of the windshield. It's just some tiny fraction of an inch, but you can see the clips in there without disturbing anything.

This led me to torture-test for a water leak at a do-it-yourself car wash. All stayed dry.

So I'm going with your advice and will try so seal things up in place. Not sure how best to do that yet, but the problem looks smaller than it did this morning.