Originally Posted by
gmwillys
This is a common problem with the windshield to cowl latch alignment. The arms of the windshield tend to get bent or flex when the windshield is stored flat on the hood. This also happens if the windshield is stored off of the vehicle as well. The tubing that makes up the arms will deform if dropped or banged around when moving, or even if the windshield is stored on the mount arms in the corner of a storage shed. Our '46 didn't have a windshield frame when purchased back in the 80s, but through a series of horse trades, one was acquired. It took a bit of gentle heating in the radius of the arms to bring it back into alignment, to which after a few trailer rides, it's due to be tweaked again, because the latches are not quite in line again. If you do not want to apply heat to the windshield arms, you could apply tension with a ratchet strap and pull the windshield into alignment. In your case, the side-to-side alignment isn't far off at all. The new seal isn't quite as tall as the old dried out rubber seal that you are replacing, but it is close. The key thing would be to check the angle of the lay back of the windshield. I don't have the degrees of the angle that it should be, but over time it might have laid back lessening the angle that the windshield stands up. To fix that problem, again you can apply pressure forward with ratchet straps to pull the top of the windshield forward to roll the bottom forward to make the needed gap for your latch to work effectively. Just for a bit of useless knowledge, the later CJ3As and the remainder of the flat fenders went to a more durable square tubing arm configuration that hold up better to the life of a functioning Jeep. With that being said, the last picture is of an M38 with the square tube mount, but with poor storage of the previous owner, the windshield is severely out of square.
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