Hey guys,
Great discussion going on here. It sure is refreshing to see mutual respect between everyone on this site. Compared to other sites that have adopted the "I hate everyone that asks a question!" motto.
I will chime in on this a little too.
I have a 62 that of course came with the OEM 1 piece "curved" glass. Albeit broken. So, I investigated buying a new curved piece and the price was extremely prohibitive at $478. That darn supply and demand thing again... So, I went with 2 piece glass at $20 each. At first I went with the early 2 piece rubber with the little strip in the middle we are all familiar with, but I could never get it to seal properly around the edges. No matter what I did, it leaked badly. It was like a science project inside my wagon every time it rained. And you may notice that the early rubber is quite small, which doesn't help. The other thing that was really disappointing is that the center piece of rubber was too short, which clearly indicated that aftermarket tolerances are not as good as OEM. So, after about a month, it started to tear at each end. It just wasn't going to work. Pretty lame.
So, I decided to buy the 1 piece rubber, which is much more substantial. I had to have the glass cut down about an 1 1/2" to fit the new rubber. Then I siliconed the center. It looks pretty good, but I have to say that I am not impressed with the quality of the aftermarket rubber. The corners don't stay locked. They pop out all the time and in fact never really lock in correctly. I had a professional glass place do it for me and they weren't satisfied with it either. I could have just ordered universal rubber with the locking strip from the glass place and it would have been better.
So, all of the ideas you guys have been discussing here are possible. I have tried each one and if it weren't for poor quality aftermarket components, they would all work and look great.
The next step I am going with is to totally remove the gasket altogether and have 2 new pieces of glass cut to the exact size of the windshield opening and then have them glued in just like they do on all the new vehicles today. I talked with the local glass place (2 different ones in fact just to confirm that it wasn't a bad idea) and they said they have everything to do it right and make it clean. Then it will never leak and I won't have to deal with the ugly rubber gasket. It will also maximize my visibility.
For the heck of it, I plan to go one step further. I am going to design a 1 piece exterior trim piece that will go over the outside to cover the edge of the glass. Not required, but it allows me to be creative. I will have it cut out on the waterjet table and it will have a small Willys logo cut into each corner. It will be cut from 1/8" aluminum or stainless material and will be about 1" wide. Sort of like the frame around your glasses. I may even include the center piece down the middle to give it that vintage look with a twist.
I will post photos of it when it's done.