Thought I’d share some lessons learned from trying to re-attach the windshield trim. This was my plan, from an earlier post:

>>>…as far as putting the trim back on the windshield, most of the clips are intact, but the ones across the top stuck to the trim, rather than leaving 1/2 on the car. Is there any reason not to just silicone the entire thing back on? … <<<


My plan did not work at all and, although the trim is on, the whole experience was a mess. The shape of the trim makes it pretty much impossible to glue directly onto the car- maybe you could do it with some sort of clamp system, which I do not have. Lessons learned:

1)- make sure the trim is under/inside the windshield wipers. Dumb oversight by me that led to a slight bend in the chrome and a less than perfect fit.

2)- In my case, the entire clip assembly stuck to the trim and ripped out of the seal on the car. fearing that I would break the clip if I tried to separate it, I tried to glue it back on as I attached the trim. Bad idea. Once the adhesive is there, it is hard to see where you are supposed to place the clip. Also, with a slight bend in the trim, it kept popping up and off the car.

3)- Not sure if other people think this would be wise, but if the clips come all the way out of the seal on the car, in the future (I hope there never is a future on this job) I'd cut the seal out from around where the base of the clip needs to mount to be sure it got a good deep seat. Place the clip and let the glue set for however long it needs to, then attach the trim.

4)- as noted in my other post- I eventually discovered that the leak was in the firewall and not the windshield. SO... The biggest lesson learned is that you should be 100% ABSOLOUTELY SURE where the leak is before you remove the trim. You might even be able to pull up only a small section of it, squirt some Goop in there, and cure the problem. It's so easy to pull the trim off, yet such a PITA to get it back on.