Itinerant Air-Cooled

Tomorrow starts the Colin visit to replace the cracked windshield in Samantha. The channel underneath scares me like a GEX engine on a highway miles from home. I will take pictures, I hope it is not a nightmare under there but I expect the worst.

Por 15 and fiberglass mat cut into tiny strips/pieces! No one will know. You can even patch small holes with JBWeld, I did it on the Squareback windshield area. File to shape. It will last a lifetime.

I'm in the same boat Sylvester. Recently bought the seal. That's as far as I've gotten. One for the back, too. Of course I have been busy of late (he rationalizes).

Looking forward to the pics!



neal

Me too! I recently took out the windshield so I could see. It was shattered. What seals are you using and where did you get them?

Fairly confident they are West Coast Metric. But I will confirm.


neal

I put up the Bat signal last night.



This is the windshield we will be taking out. The replacement is a windshield I found in the hills from a Westy donor. It has the shading on the top. I will let you know what the maker is, it is upstairs under a cover. The seal was Wolfsburg West. Colin mentioned them, I looked them up and ordered it last week. Five days and it was here, correct order too.



I have to go buy some odds and ends before Colin gets here, I will keep you all in the loop.

Sylvester wrote:

Fix yer wiper while you're at it, too!

sped372 wrote: Fix yer wiper while you're at it, too!

It shall be korrected at vonce.
Herr Kolin

use plenty of rust converter, try to get some to the underside. mine lasted 3-4 years before starting to bubble and lift. i used rust converter, marine tex, etching primer and 3-m steel tape, blended with short strand tigerhair to blend. i had to drive it those 3-4 years during my daughters winter break. she's all done now, summa cum laude and more. if ya never see road salt, probably last a lot longer.

sped372 wrote:

Sylvester wrote:

Fix yer wiper while you're at it, too!

This is definitely a no slack zone! That was an old photo, I had since corrected the alignment of the wipers. Colin arrived with Diet Coke in hand and desire to knock out Samantha's rusty windshield lip and install a crack free windshield. I was taught the one man approach to removing the glass and thus saving the seal. My seal is not too bad looking, I may use it again or save it for Colin's 2025 IAC trip if needed. Here is what we saw, we started flaking off the rust and getting to the metal.



Heartbreaking to say the least, but we got to it before more damage was done.



The center and the right were worse off, I even had some rust on top.



After rust removed and catalyzed. I put on the repair screen to cover the holes. This lip bend would prove to be a pain later on.



Here is Colin applying the "Pig Slaughtered Pink" to the top covered areas. Colin should be a classical artist, he can blend paints with a look of Monet.



Here is Bondo (TM) going in.



Here it is before I primered it.



Today we sand the primer, apply the topcoat, then put the windshield in. I did not know that with a used glass, you have to be extra careful since it now has pits from hits on the glass, and the structural integrity is compromised. Let's hope it goes in smooth!

im not looking forward to doing mine. still have the original glass on the windshield, but im guessing the seal MUST have been replaced at some point.

thanks for sharing. I to have considered doing the 2-day project one of these years to get the skills needed for this job, so I could then repeat it on the other 4 windows that desperately need it.

I wanted to tackle this with what I had in the time I had with Colin. As it is, this is not easy what we did this weekend in even a split day I did with Colin, and it did take all the time we had. I will do a full write up with pictures starting tonight. I drove Samantha to the bus station today, with my new used windshield and seal. What a beautiful, uncracked, view I had rolling throught the backroads of Georgia today!

Sylvester wrote:I wanted to tackle this with what I had in the time I had with Colin. As it is, this is not easy what we did this weekend in even a split day I did with Colin, and it did take (more than !!!) all the time we had. I will do a full write up with pictures starting tonight. I drove Samantha to the bus station today, with my new used windshield and seal. What a beautiful, uncracked, view I had rolling throught the backroads of Georgia today!

This sill was perfectly easy to repair, and the dimensions were maintained at factory spot-on for an excellent fit. This seal looks factory installed ... except for a prior repair weld glob bump along the inside left a-pillar. Once again, I strongly recommend that we be conservative, Conservative! conservative, with our decisions. I have had my fill of "professional" repairs that miss the mark by millimetric miles.

No, I prefer amateur mechanics who know and love what they're doing . . .


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For me it wasn't too hard to cut it out and weld in new fresh metal that fits perfectly the same as OEM.

Turned out nice and off you go.

Patching is fine, a composite that will last longer than metal. It's hidden under the windshield seal anyway. I think you guys should have used POR15 however, that rust will come back.