OT vintage car rear glass and windshield seals

[jimcav]

My Avanti is a car I infrequently drive, and can’t in the rain because it leaks. I can’t see where the windshield leak comes from, but water just comes in under the dash. The rear window seal has some obvious gaps—pic attached. I read online about “flowable” silicone—has anyone used this and would it make future removal difficult? Thanks for any collective wisdom on the subject. Also if anyone has a favorite chrome product, mine is pitting and I just use Meguire’s stuff from local O’Reilly auto store.

[Dave]

If original seals can't be had, a professional glass shop may be able to remove the windows and install with modern urethane caulk/adhesive. When I built my fiberglass body hot rod, a combination of a universal rubber edge molding and urethane was used. I had to do it myself.

The problem may be in finding the right shop. Those that specialize in replacing modern car windshields usually won't touch this kind of job. New windshields only need urethane adhesive/caulk to hold them in place.

https://forum.studebakerdriversclub....nti-windshield

[robt57]

My kids DelSol had exact problem on removable top gasketing. I did a temp fix of custom cut gorilla tape after solvent cleaning. It lasted 3 year, and still looked decent when the car was sold.

Easily removed with some blow dryer heat.. Also used it on cracked trim piece around elec antennae where water was getting in, same result.

[choke]

Very cool car.

A long time ago I worked in a shop for a couple of years doing auto glass. I don't know if that has a rubber gasket or not, but my guess is no. I can't really tell from your pictures. If there is no rubber, the proper way to fix it is to cut the window out, clean it up and fit it with new butyl tape. Any glass shop should be able to do that with no problem, though if it has been leaking for a long time you may find more rust than you want.

If there is a rubber gasket, then you need to source new ones and have the windows removed and then installed with the new gasket. Again, it's a simple process and anyone who knows how could do that in your driveway.

I would not use urethane if I had a choice, it makes it much harder to remove the window if you ever want to do so in the future. Urethane was just starting to be used when I worked there and it was a major PITA.

Edited to add: I guess I should have searched before I answered. Curiosity got the best of me and it does look like both the front and rear window use a rubber gasket. https://avantiparts.biz/windshield-s...anti-63-to-87/ https://avantiparts.biz/rear-glass-s...anti-63-to-89/

[AngryScientist]

Agree that it is a cool car!

The obvious risk is breaking the glass when doing this kind of work, I'd be nervous about removing the windows to fix this properly, I bet those are hard to come by.

[choke]

Originally Posted by AngryScientist

Agree that it is a cool car!

The obvious risk is breaking the glass when doing this kind of work, I'd be nervous about removing the windows to fix this properly, I bet those are hard to come by.

While there's always a chance of that, it happens a lot less often than you might think. The windshield does sometimes crack, but usually if that happens it's because it had a problem already. I have never seen a back glass break when being removed/replaced (the windshield is laminated glass, back and sides are tempered glass).

[fmradio516]

please do report back if you get anywhere with the flowable silicone. my grandpas car(convertible) has a hard top and the rubber seal shrinks over time and when it rains, it develops a drip on the driver/passenger sides right into your lap.

And the replacement BMW small piece of rubber strip is about $1000 IF you can find it in stock somewhere.

[verticaldoug]

The correct answer is don't drive it in the rain. Are you a cretin?

My dad was a big fan of Studebakers. He had the V8 Commander Coup in the mid-50's. He had a lot of stories of him and his friends in the cornfields of central minnesota in the 50's. Surprised he never killed himself.

The Avanti was the last car they made in the last year of the company's existence.

[jimcav]

I will continue to do research, and the easiest obvious solution (especially where I live) is to not drive whenever rain is possible. I only discovered the issue b/c I had to go to the DMV--made an appt b/c the DMV is such a pain: it happened to rain on my way home.

My worry was not rust, as the car is fiberglass, but for the electronics behind the dash --the bulk of water I saw was behind the area where the radio and AC are located. I grew up in IN, where Studebaker was HQ'd. I'd see a few of these every now and then. The company died in '63, but cars continued to be sold until gone. Mine was made in '62, but is considered a '64 b/c that was when it 1st sold.

I've always loved the looks, and it was designed by the guy who did the Coca Cola bottle. I'd not have done the LS3 restomod and big modern wheels the prior owner did, but whoever he used did amazing work on the body, paint, frame, etc. Unlike my trans am, which always has a tiny oil seep, it doesn't leak anything.

[C40_guy]

I thought those wheels looked a bit modern!

I would call a couple of good restoration shops...they may run into this issue regularly.

[djdj]

I'd search for an Avanti discussion forum. Those types of forums typically have a wealth of knowledge from people who may have dealt with the very same issue.

[froze]

https://www.studebakerparts.com/stud...-83avanti.html

To do it correctly, replace the windshield seals and the rear window seals.

You should let a professional do the job, if you break the glass it will cost about $340 for the front to replace a clear windshield, but depending on your tinting or tinting and banding combined, it will go up from there, but not a lot more.

The gap you have is caused by the original caulking has dried out, so that should be replaced, if you are trying to get the car into concours condition you will need to use the type of caulking that Studebaker used, if it's just a fun car you can instead use Permatex Flowable Silicon windshield glass sealer part number 81730-65AR, it will work better.

I had a gold 63 (Supercharged version) myself for quite a long time, sold it at the Auburn auction about 5 to 6 years ago along with some other cars I had. I got lucky and neither the front nor the rear leaked, most however do leak. I didn't do anything to keep it from leaking, it just simply never leaked. With my engine I did have to replace the seals with better modern seals, once that was done, I never had another oil leak. Studebakers in general were known for leaking water and oil. These cars are now 60 years old, seals are well past their maximum life expectancy, and some leaked right out of the factory!

Even though the body is fiberglass the trim is not, neither are the A-pillars, and neither are the hog troughs (torque boxes), those hog troughs are known to rust out, and they are very important, they have several body mounts fastened to them, those troughs rust out and you have an easy $5,000 into replacing them the last I checked, but with inflation probably closer to 7 maybe 8 thousand. Someone some years back had a way of doing away with the hog troughs, as great as that sounds don't do it, the car will no longer be worth as much since it won't be original. If yours is rusted but the body mounts and the rest of the frame is good, you can now buy stainless steel troughs, not sure what they cost probably a couple of thousand each. Classic Enterprises has the boxes, should you need them.

Your car looks to be in superb condition, maybe you don't have any rust problems with those boxes, mine didn't either but a lot of people had that problem. I kept my cars in a climate-controlled pole barn a friend of mine had when I moved to Indiana from California so rust never became an issue due to the car was first sold in California where it stayed till about 20 years ago when I moved I decided to drive all the cars across the US one at a time of course, instead of hiring a covered car carrier to drive them all back. Once here in Indiana into the climate-controlled barn they all went.

Your biggest concern right now is the A-pillars, if you don't get those window seals replaced and sealed up correctly you will rust those out. If the vinyl covering looks and feels lumpy, you have a problem, and you better correct it fast.

You know more about your car than I do, so you might already know you don't have a rust issue, just saying if you do, bite the bullet and get it repaired fast.

[jimcav]

I remember moving to Indiana mid-70’s and if we missed our exit on 69 there wasn’t another until Ft Wayne! The prior owner put a ton into this car, not just the LS3 engine upgrade. He was about to do the interior when he passed. The body and underside are amazing. To my knowledge it has had the one exposure to water, and I appreciate the caution and will check and keep checking the A-pillars.

[froze]

Originally Posted by jimcav

I remember moving to Indiana mid-70’s and if we missed our exit on 69 there wasn’t another until Ft Wayne! The prior owner put a ton into this car, not just the LS3 engine upgrade. He was about to do the interior when he passed. The body and underside are amazing. To my knowledge it has had the one exposure to water, and I appreciate the caution and will check and keep checking the A-pillars.

Those are beautiful-looking cars, they even look modern enough for today's cars!

LS3 is not an upgrade, what that did do was lose its vintage value, sorry to say, most people want an all-original car when they're investing in something like that, you will never get the money for the car that it could fetch if it was all-original. BUT, if that car is a daily driver when the weather is good, and you don't have it for an investment, then you will be fine.

All my cars were 100% original, which is why at the auction my cars, and those of my deceased friend went for a lot more money than others did who had the same cars on the block that weekend.


The only thing I did to all my cars was to put out the stock points and put in a set of Pertronix electronic "points", did that for better driveability and never had to fool with replacing, and gapping the points, or condenser. But, when the cars went to auction I put the mechanical points back in and put the Pertronix kit back into the boxes and placed them in each car so the new owner could convert it back to electronic if they chose. Certain buyers know a lot about cars and what to look for, and they will scrutinize everything before they consider bidding and how high they'll bid for a car. One of my cars sold for a lot more money than the auction people thought it would go for that day, two people ended up wanting it badly and one won, I'm not at liberty to say who won the bid, but he is a very well-known person in the world of movies, he bought quite a few cars, 4 to be exact, which is a lot for one person, and he already has a sizeable collection. 4 may not seem like a lot of cars, but when you consider how much he paid for them, wow! I got to talk to that guy for quite a while, a seemingly nice guy, but all we talked about was cars of course, he had my phone number, told him he could call me anytime if he had any questions, but he never did, which I kind of expected.