In the vintage car world, restorers recognize these items for use in installing the front and rear glass on a car. The petroleum jelly helps lubricate the rubber gasket when installing it onto the glass, and when putting it into the window frame. The rope pulls the lip into the rubber gasket onto the cars window opening. In the world of Ferraris, these items also brings feelings of trepidation because you never know how your day is going to turn out when you’re installing windows!

A lot of other cars have the same method of installing windshields, but with Ferraris, no two hand made cars are the same. Add to that, reproduction gaskets and glass that can change, and it’s only the beginning of the potential pitfalls. The chrome surround can change in shape and dimension after plating, and can force the gasket to distort or pop out of place. When the car is painted, errant filler or bodywork can change the shape of the window opening, and not show up until you start manipulating the glass into position.

I’ve spent many hours  being frustrated installing glass, like having something move out of place and know the only solution was to pull the glass out and start again. Owners not familiar with these challenges when they look at a bill and wonder why it took several hours to install one piece of glass have to be shown the challenges, but it’s all true!

Every time I start this process, I prepare myself for a potential battle. Sore hands, broken fingernails, and a lot of foul language is the norm, so you can understand my surprise when it only took two tries to get the rear glass into place with a pretty good fit! Riding the wave of this success, I moved onto the front glass.

With astonishment, it went in on the first try! I looked all around for a displaced gasket, or misaligned trim, but found everything where it was supposed to be.

Getting the corner so the gasket to lined up with chrome trim, and cover the bodywork of the window frame like this was perfect.

I almost couldn’t believe my fortune in having this job go so smoothly. With all the whinging about the difficulty of glass installation, I was made a liar about the process. I guess in it was good to be wrong!