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Fitting Your Mini Windscreen, Rubber Seal and Insert Filler Strip
To take out the windscreen the first thing to do is to extract the filler strip from within the centre of the rubber seal running around the edge of the glass. This is easy, get a screwdriver under the end and lift it enough to get hold of it and just pull it out.
If your windscreen rubber seal is perished and has lost its flexibility it is not so easy to extract the glass. If you are going to replace it with a new one you can cut the outer lip off with a knife, or some of it anyway, and the glass will slip out more easily. If the rubber is not old it will be nice and supple and you may prefer to reuse it. In either case push the glass out from the inside of the car at one end until the glass is exposed enough to get hold of with both hands. Then just pull the glass out.
When replacing a windscreen it is best done on a warm day or heated garage. To replace the windscreen and rubber seal first of all fit the seal to the windscreen surround first. Do not attempt to fit the seal to the glass first. You will need some lubricant and the best lubricant to use is soap. Soap will not harm the paintwork or the rubber and can be easily washed off afterwards. I use Camay but your favourite soap will do just as well. Do not use washing up liquid which, surprisingly, is nothing like as good a lubricant. The best way is to put a bar,or a piece, of soap in a mug with a little water, about an inch, and agitate it well with a paintbrush. This will make a nice lubricating liquid and you can use the brush to apply it. Paint plenty of the soap into all 3 crevices of the rubber seal. If it starts to dry just spray some water on it. One of those garden spray atomisers are handy just to keep it nice and moist and are cheap to buy.
You can then insert the glass starting from the bottom right or left hand corner of the seal pushing as much of it in as you can until it becomes difficult by which time you will need a tool to pull the top lip of the seal over the edge of the glass. I would not advise using a screwdriver because the sharp end could cut the rubber. A piece of wood, nice and rounded and tapered at the end, would do just as well as long as it has no sharp edges and is big enough to hold. A spoon handle, desert or table, is also a useful tool for the job and can be smuggled from the kitchen choosing the right moment. Go all around the glass until it is fitted.
Finally you need to fit the windscreen rubber insert filler strip. You will need a windscreen fitting tool to do this. These can sometimes be begged, borrowed or stolen from your local windscreen replacement company or it might be possible to bribe them to do it for you.
Finally it is a good idea to place some windscreen sealant under the outer lip of the rubber windscreen surround. This will not only guard against leaks but will help protect the metal frame of the windscreen front panel from corrosion which is more prevalent the later the manufacturing year as the factory tooling wore out.
A few useful
facts: All Mini front windscreens are the same size for all manufacturing years
1959 – 2000. Therefore the wider windscreen rubber seals used on the 1990 Minis
to the end of production in the year 2000 are interchangeable with the narrower
windscreen rubber seals of the earlier Minis and vice versa. In my opinion the wider windscreen rubbers used on the 1990s Minis which were designed to protect the metal surround from water and corrosion infact do the opposite and trap moisture between the rubber lip and the metal surround consequently causing a situation where corrision is more likely.
The rear
windscreens fit in exactly the same way as the fronts. They were narrower for
the Mk 1 models, 1959 – 1967. From the Mk 2 Minis, 1967 right through to
the year 2000, they were wider. The profile of the late and earlier rear mini rubber windscreen seal was the same. They were different lengths.
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