P15 Center Bar Gasket Replacement Question

[Norm's Coupe]

Late last fall I noticed I sprung a leak at the windshield center bar. Probably due to when the Fulton jerked off it. Was getting ready to order a new center bar gasket from Steele and that should solve the leak problem.

The question is. Has anyone done this without disturbing the rest of the windshield gasket, or removing the whole windshield? I was planning to just remove the center bar and old gasket, then inserting the new gasket and new center bar. Don't know why that can't be done, but just checking to see if anyone had tried that before.

[bob westphal]

I would imagine it can be done but I think anytime you mess with the already sealed glass areas you messing around in Pandora's box! Have you tried to seal it with a good windshield sealer like a pro shop would use? Not the stuff you buy in the store! Before I did anything I would take it to my local glass shop and get their opinion. My local shop has sealed some leaking glass areas of old cars like ours for free just to get to play with an old car and it has taken just a few minutes to do.

[Norm's Coupe]

Bob,

I'm sure I could probably seal up the leak with some sealer. However, the outside center bar has been pitted ever since I bought the car in 1995. I found a nice NOS one a little over a year ago and have it on the shelf. Didn't want to mess with the windshield unless something happened since it wasn't leaking then, so never put it on the car. Now the center bar is leaking so I may as well kill two birds with one stone if possible. I guess if no one else has tried it, I'll be the genie pig. What's the worse that can happen? 1) still have a leak when done. 2) break the seal on the rest of the windshield and have a bigger leak. 3) break the windshield. Or, on the positive side stop the leak. The new center bar rubber is only $15 so not much wasted there if it doesn't work. Really don't need a new windshield, but that wouldn't be so bad either. I do have a slight amount of hazing in one corner. Not enough to worry me, but if it breaks then I could replace it too.

If it works out, the center bar is the last piece of pitted chrome on the car and it will be gone in the end. Plus at the same time I can paint the inside center bar to match the windshield molding on the inside. Didn't do that before for the same reason I didn't want to replace the outside chrome center bar.

So, I'm going to try this. Just wanted to know if anyone else had success doing the same thing.