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I've got an old Fiat that has been hacked up repeatedly by others, and now is my turn. I'm currently running a cut-down Lexan windscreen, but am considering welding the frame back in and setting it up with glass again. Problem is that while I got a deal on the glass, they want several hundred dollars for the factory windshield gasket and trim. I see on the internet that one can buy universal windshield gaskets for a small fraction of the price of oem. Is there any reason not to? The local auto glass doesn't want to do it and is insisting on factory parts, but I think that they just want to make more money off of me.

I used a universal gasket replacing the glass in one of my Sprites way back when. The trick is cutting the rubber to length so you don't end up with a big gap where the ends meet. I dry fitted mine and added about 3/4 inch.
Be sure to put in the roll in bead trim as it takes up any slop.
Was working just fine when I sold the car a couple of years later.

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OOPS I did it again
http://www.locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=17496

Blood Sweat and Beers
http://www.locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=15216

You want the Steele Rubber catalog. They do all sorts of windshield gaskets. For cars they don't list, if you can send them a piece of the old gasket, they'll try to match it to something that might work.

A while back some of the restomod guys were dumping gaskets in favor of "modern" glued-in glass. This usually required tack welding a lip around the inside of the windshield frame to glue to glass into. Worked fine if the gap wasn't too wide for standard plastic trim, otherwise they had to fill in more of the opening.