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MG MGB Technical - Installing BGT rear hatch glass.

Just a quick check on the recommended use of sealant: rubber seal into frame first, with non-setting sealant; then glass into rubber seal with more non-setting sealant; then locking-seal; then pay someone else to fit the shiny metal trim???
PS - mine has the heater element, so I've remembered to pre-fit the wires down the side of the rubber seal.
Thanks for any experience and advice. Regards, John.
J P Hall

Not done a rear screen but that is how my front screen has been done - more than once.

The bright trim is the hardest part, especially with new rubber. Took the same fitter about three times longer than the time before when he had been able to reuse the rubber and trim.
paulh4

I found the rear screen quite easy to fit. You have the sequence right - rubber into frame, then glass into rubber, then the lock strip. However, the metal trims, on both front and back screens, can be a real pig to fit. I failed at home and asked a local windscreen place to do it. They quoted three hours and took three days. They reckon they had never done anything so difficult, but only charged me for the three hours they quoted.
Mike Howlett

My advice is to re-use the original seal if at all possible. Even if it looks "dogeared", the new ones are so rubbish, inflexible and inaccurate that they usually end up looking even more dogeared than the old one .
Allan Reeling

Thanks Paul, Mike and Allan - some experienced and familiar names.
The prospect of fitting the brightwork is certainly daunting - everyone says it's about the worst job on the whole car ... but then they said the same about fitting a new Webasto, and my trimmer mate (who had never heard of a Webasto) and I managed to do that.
The trouble with living here in tropical North Queensland, is that there are NO tradesmen who have any experience of my funny old cars, so necessity is the mother of invention, and as I approach a slightly early retirement (end of this year), I love improving my skill-set.
It looks as though we're all agreed that sealant should go in both the seal-to-hatch interface and also the glass-to-seal interface. Allan, I bought the seal about 4 years ago (!), and have had it sitting around an old screen, keeping its shape as well as being softened with rubber lubricant. Hope springs eternal ... !
Thanks for your advice as always, gentlemen. Regards, John.
J P Hall

It's an interesting point regarding sealant. When I broke the screen on my Elan, the windscreen guys who fitted the new screen used a new rubber and no sealant at all, and it has never leaked. However, I used the black goo when fitting the BGT's screens and they have never leaked either!
Mike Howlett

John,
After agonising over several pots to tea, when recently re-fitting screens on a GT, my mate and I tried, not only "stringing" the glass in BUT stringing the bright strips as well. It worked beautifully, we used thin electrical wire. This was using the original, and still supple, seals. Have a good look at your seal, particularly the recess for the strips. On the newer ones I've had, the depth of this recess has been VERY variable!!
Allan Reeling

That's not a bad idea, Allan - I guess you worked the wire into the "glass side" of the rubber seal first; put the "paint side" of the brightwork into the rubber; and then pushed the brightwork down into the glass side of the seal while pulling the wire upwards?
Would like to try this method, if you could confirm the method for me. Regards, John.
J P Hall

(sigh) you GT owners don't know when you are well off ... try fitting a roadster windscreen and you'll see what I mean :-). As did and MGA friend, decided the A windscreen wasn't nearly as bad! Especially when Mr B Odge has been there before and mangled all the corner brackets.

BTW, whether to reuse the old seal depends on how good it is. When the seal gets old and hard it's very difficult to get the bright trims out in one piece. Apart from hard rubbers not sealing well, the trims are much more expensive than the seal.
Paul Walbran

Hmmm, depends. I refitted a roadster screen single-handed in a few minutes - but that was using the old apron seal. A subsequent refitting with a new seal was a very different kettle of swimming things, as was reassembling the frame.
paulh4

I may have a GT now, but I did my old roadster's screen some years ago, and yes, it was a pain. Getting the frame squashed up enough to put the screws in was the first tricky task and involved rope tournaquets. Then putting it on the car with a new apron seal was ghastly and involved my wife sitting on top of the frame with her feet on the bonnet to provide enough downward pressure. You can see why manufacturers now use bonded-in glass. When my modern VW needed a new screen it was done in a very short time.
Mike Howlett

John, I rather remember doing it the other way round as the outer, paint side, lip has less behind it.
Paul, the screen just done was on a '76 GT, definitely the original seal. My GT is even older. 73, I only used a new seal because I had it and assumed I was doing a better job, how wrong. I need to replace the screen and the old seal is being used this time!
Allan Reeling

This thread was discussed between 10/06/2016 and 16/06/2016

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