Another build thread? Yep, my track-style T

[J. Robinson]

I got my windshield frame and stanchions yesterday afternoon. I ordered the "Performer" windshield from Total Performance and I am very pleased with it. To start with, the Performer w/s is only 14" tall and with the slanted stanchions it lays back about 15 degrees. The look fits well with the track-style theme of this car.

As with all the fiberglass T bodies I have worked on in the past, the corners of the cowl needed to be "massaged" a bit to make the stanchions fit correctly. I began by assembling the stanchions to the frame and then protecting everything with a layer of masking tape. The underside of the stanchions were carefully taped to avoid wrinkles in the tape.

I sanded the cowl corners with 40 grit on a D/A sander and then the windshield was put in place, centered, and anchored to the cowl with 2" masking tape. I also cut a piece of scrap wood and taped it between the top of the w/s frame and the roll bar as a brace.

With everything temporarily in place, I added a masking tape "dam" under each stanchion, mixed up some body filler, and packed it into the gaps under the stanchions. I actually did one side at a time because some care is needed with this step.

After the filler was in place on both sides and hardened, I removed the bolts holding the stanchions to the frame, pulled the stanchions off (the masking tape on the underside kept them from sticking), and removed the frame. The body filler was left with an imprint of the stanchion. It was now just a matter of working the filler to final shape with 80 grit sandpaper.