So I need to repair my roof, and I don't want to just bondo it. I'd like to weld it all up, cause I don't want to worry about it again. Anyway, I've got a handful of rust holes along the windshield edge, and I'm afraid of damaging the glass. I've heard that removing the glass yourself is a little dicey, and since I've never done it before... So I'm thinking about either crossing my fingers and removing the glass myself, crossing my fingers, welding with the glass in place, or remove my right arm and give that and the car to a body shop to fix What do you guys think?
Removing the glass is easy .. but you have to sacrifice your gasket. Putting back in is best left to the pros and you will need a new gasket.
I've never tanken a Mav windshield out, but when I took the windsheild out of my truck a few years ago it wasn't that hard at all. Just carefully cut away as much of the rubber seal as possible and get inside the car and push it up and out. Have a couple of people outside of the car with gloves of some type on to lift it off the car. Be careful! Man they are easy to crack.
Like Jamie said ... use a razor blade and cut the gasket all the way around the glass after removing the chrome trim ... the glass will lift right out ... Keep in mind after fixing that lip you will need to recreate all of the rivets for the reveal clips used to hold your chrome on ...
You may want to remove your headliner if you are welding up there ... don't want your car going up in flames ...
I've seen screw in rivits for the molding clips. Most glass shops will know about them. That rust is probably alot worse than you think. You mught need to cut some sections out of a doner car. Like Dan said, take out the headliner.
Yeah, headliner and insulation will both come out. Don't think my girlfriend would appreciate me burning the garage down . I'm not sure how extensive the rust is 'till I tear into it either... guess I'll keep my fingers crossed. The rest of the car is fairly rusted, but nothing really horrible. Some minor welding and POR-15 should take care of the problem.
All the way Mat- I'm not knocking the car, so don't take this personal. With rust where you have it I am guessing that there are other places that are going to need attention as well. I don't know your plan, but to do it correctly, you need to take most everything off and out of the car to check for other problems. If you drive this daily, you will not be able to address all the issues at once. I would see if I could get it apart to find the problems. Find someone who may be willing to do this on the side-away from the expensive body shops. Most regular body shops don't want to deal with these types of repairs. They want quick, expensive insurance jobs. There are guys who work in body shops who may be willing to do something like this, or help/advise you how to, for cash-no taxes. You'll make a friend in most cases over a few brews or cokes and some pizzas or burgers as he/She(Jean Doll) helps you work this out in the evenings or weekends. Just my and the way I did mine. Good luck- Seth
M&M, from the pics. i would tape off the molding and take a wire brush on a drill and brush the whole lip. this will give you a better idea of what you are dealing with. once you get the windshield and the headliner out you will see what you have to do. did this car have a vinyl top? ...frank...
Frank has a good idea about the wire brush. I use a heavy duty 4" cup brush mounted on an angle grinder to find hidden rust on body panels. It will rip right into any soft spots under the paint and expose them. My general rule of thumb with rust, is that you only see about 20% of the actual rust that is really there. In other words, multiply by 5 what you are seeing and that is what you really will have to deal with. Good luck, Eric J I have to add to this post - I just looked at your new pictures with the glass trim off. There is alot more there then you think. You will be adding alot more metal into that edge then you may think. Also, in that first picture, it looks like fiberglass was already applied at some time. Looks like the cloth texture. .
