The top of my windshield has come loose. Do I need to get a special adhesive, or would a strong bead of silicone be sufficient. It certainly doesn’t seem to be a high stress application.
Thanks in advance for your input.
Dennis
IMO, if you dare, your best bet is to pull the windshield, clean up whatever they used to stick it in place and use some real urethane auto glass mounting adhesive all around under/between where the window sits on the car like how a “real” car windshield would be mounted. Just shooting silicone caulking into the gap probably won’t hold well because there won’t be a big contact area for it to grab on to and silicone doesn’t really hold that well and you probably won’t be be able to get in there well to clean the area with acetone or the like to get all the grime off.
The manner in which windshields were mounted in the early 2000’s GEMs was horrible. People have found insufficient urethane adhesive was used to ahold the glass, sometimes even double sided foam tape was used, Trim has been found held in place by barely a dab of adhesive, or just the tabs.
When I scrapped my 2002 eL a few years ago, I asked a friend who is a glazier to come pull the windshield so i could save it. It took him all of about 5 minutes to pull the windshield intact. We found dried up adhesive that wasn’t adhering and the double sided tape just like other people had found. Nor really sure what was holding that windshield in anymore… It basically came out clean after he pulled the trim and ran a flexible long knife under it from the inside but hit no resistance.
If you do try to pull the windshield or have someone with experience do it, and it shatters on you, you can have the one I saved. As I no longer need it as I don’t have a classic body GEM anymore. It’s just hanging around for a rainy day were the right person needs it.