windshield/back glass sealant

[RICH MUISE]

So what are you guys using for sealant for the windshield and for the back glass. I know it's been discussed before, but I'd like to do it again since I'm finally at that point.

[Ford Blue blood]

Rich I use a eurethane sealent designed for out doors, glass and steel/aluminum.  Lowes has the stuff.

[gasman826]

Are you referring the sealant used between the rubber gasket and the steel of the window opening.  The window opening are so rough that the gasket will not seal without help.  It appears that the factory used the same grey stuff that they used to seal the side moulding clips.  That grey stuff looks, smells, and acts just like plumbers putty!!  So, does the gasket seal to the new glass without help or are you using the Lowes stuff on both sides of the gasket??

[Ford Blue blood]

Yes and no.  I put the pull cord (I have had great sucess using teflon insulated 18 ga. wire for this) in the rubber then fill the channel with the sealer.  Then pull the cord out as you normally would.  The sealer kinda acts as a lubricant as well for seating the windshield after the lip is pulled in.  The stuff is slow to cure (about 12 hours) so you have bunches of working time.  It wipes off with a gas soaked rag really clean (carefull on the inside!) and cures to a very flexible but thouroughly sealed gasket to fill in all those humps and bumps Ford was kind enough to give us.  I do not seal the windshield to rubber.  Have not had an issue with that part sealing 100%.  I do let the car sit in direct sun for the remainder of that day and all of the next.

[glen b henderson]

Back in the day, water leaks were a common problem on new cars. Ford had a liquid rubber product that came in a pint can, it had a nice metal pump with a long nozzle that could be inserted between the seal and glass to inject the liquid into the seal. Common practice when a new car was being prepared for delivery was to run a water hose around all the glass to check for leaks. No telling how many cans of that stuff we used back in the 60's.

[Partsman]

3M makes a sealer called bedding compound.  We always used that when replacing glass that were set in rubber weatherstrips.  The stuff in the pump can was the same stuff.  It is no longer available.  If you use urethane it can be very hard to remove and does not always flow as well into irregular surfaces as the bedding compound.  The bedding compound stays soft and moves with the body if there is any flexing.  You can buy it in a tube and uses a caulking gun to apply.  I always apply to the pinchweld and then install the glass.  I can be a little messy but seals very well.  We get a lot of rain here in the NW and it holds up well.  You can usually but from bod and paint suppliers.
Bill

[RICH MUISE]

A friend was telling me of a product I think he called "flow crest"..sounds like the product Glen was talking about...he said it screwed on to a pump and was very fluid. I googled it but came up with nothing. My main concern with being messy at this point will be the back window at the top, where the headliner wraps around the mounting flange for the rubber back glass seal...I'll have to remember to protect the headliner with masking tape when I do it. In fact I was looking for a black sealer, but now am thinking a clear one may be better just in case I do get some on the headliner.
I'm going to check out that stuff at lowe's. I did find a local source the Dow Corning #795 stuff that worked great on my vent windows...it is a silicon product they use to set in the heavy store front window into the aluminum frames.

[glen b henderson]

I know the glass companys use some stuff in a caulking gun form, the seal on my F250 W/S came loose, just happened to be by the body shop one day when they were replacing a W/S. I asked if he could replace the plastic trim piece on my W/S and he came out with a battery powered caulk gun and sealed it up, haven't had a problem since (that is with the W/S) rest of the truck not so much. I am so PO'ed with FoMoCo now that I don't even want to talk about it. I'll just say 6.0 Powerstroke (pos) and leave it at that.