The13Bats

So my pillars have surface rust and a few small holes also a few small holes under the fender bonding pad riser thing,

Who has actually tackled this and what did you do,
I have my own ideas on a fix but wanna see what guys who been there did that did

When factory new was water not suppose to get inside the pillar or was it okay and it drained iut the bottom?

terrys6t8roadster

I had an experienced welder just weld up the holes and low spots. One area the hole enlarged to about 2 inches long and 1/2 wide, made up another piece of metal to fit and welded that in. Grind as necessary. Some small low areas just used filler to smooth out. When all done a special primer is needed [urethane?], check with the glass installer for their recommendation. T

BBCorv70

You may be interested in checking out this fellow's web site, logging his project. He did some extensive repairs to his birdcage. Windshield frame specifically. He shares a lot of his experiences. A member on CF as well.

http://www.corvette-restoration.com/...upper-corners/

kenba

If there are rust holes & rust other places there is NO way to stop it with just filling the holes & coating it with some rust proof. Replace the whole windshield frame. Water gets up under the molding & runs down both sides rusting the top frame & the two side pillars. After replacement make sure plenty of dum dum is used to seal the molding so water cant be forced under it.

20mercury

My experience similar to terrys6t8roadster:

I had a 68 base roadster and 72 LT-1 that I pulled the windshields out and had some holes in both in the windshield frames in the areas where the glass would contact the windshield frame.

The 72 had about a 1"x3/8" hole in the A pillar, and a couple holes in the top cross piece, 2"x3/8" and 1x3/8" +/-

The 68 was similar but maybe one less hole in the top cross piece.

The rest had some surface rust here and there but still good.

So, I filed out some windows where the holes were back to good metal and carefully fitted some replacement sheet metal inserts and my professional mechanic friend mig welded them in. Welding a little at a time, trying minimize the heat input and alternating sides.

Then ground reasonably smooth, enough to get a good windshield seal, then POR15.

I think it is good to use some judgement here and get somebody who has fixed windshield frames with experience (on old cars, not just Corvettes), to look at it. This frame was never very stout metal to begin with, forgot, but less than 1/8", might be 1/16 thick, check it. And you want to see how much flex and integrity you have over the whole frame. Check out a known good one for comparison. You can also spray rust convertor in whatever holes in the frame you can find. And good to keep this in perspective, lets say you have a few holes, (many have them and either do not know or "deal with later") and the frame feel pretty solid with mostly just surface rust and a few holes, it has held up 40 to 50 years to this current condition. So, you just patch carefully, paint as best you can and you are probably good for another 20 to 25 years plus you are not going to leave it out in the weather and run on salty roads anyway which is so much the better. Judgement call, my opinion, hope this helps. Good luck and hope yours is not too bad. Not sure about the intended drain design, but they leaked OEM or otherwise, ha!

oldgto

Our windshield frame was bad at the top, and there were a few small holes on the bottom edge. We replaced the upper corners, and welded in new metal in the places where the holes were. When it was all done, I filled the top channel with electrical duct seal.
When we bought the car, it was already pretty much stripped down, and easy to see the damage, so we knew going in what had to be fixed. And, because we had to remove the front clip anyway, the repairs at the bottom were easy to get to.

The13Bats

Thanks all

I hope i didnt give the impression because i asked how people have done this job i was a glass, metal novice,

Over 35 years ago I started into body work and with metal repairs and can do them which last decades so there is no reason i would consider replacing the windshield frame because of some surface rust and a few holes,

I got lucky mine isnt as bad as the links car or even jims,

The link was great very down to earth realistic and not trying to make it all epic,

I like the idea of filling the frame with something like you did jim, i can see some might get freaky with that idea but if care is taken on repairs and sealing water isnt going to get into the frame this time, so filling it is a nice upgrade,

Just because it's factory doesnt make it best every time as far as im concerned gm dropped the ball with that riser the fender bonds to at the windshield base, its attached to the bird cage with rivets and any sealer gm used is dried up after the years, rivets get loose water drills in along side the kick panel, it cannot be fixed with the front clip on unless you cut the rear fender tops, hackjob.

The metal where that pad rivets on is always rusty on a non restored unrepaired car its a roll of dice how much rust.

Like many things i repair i overkill it and i will with this as i see its what others do each in their own way...

ENCSDOUG

My body shop found some small rust holes and cleaned them up, treated, glassed and painted. It turned out well.

540 vette

How much water do these restored cars actually see. Most are never driven in the rain or in any bad weather.

kenba

If one lives in the southwest maybe not but if one lives like I did in the Midwest & drive the car it will get wet. My guess is that we are talking about Corvettes that are being repaired as drivers NOT trailer queens. I personally never bought a Severely rusted windshield frame but for those that do I still say to replace the frame rather than patch.
PS A good way to tell if there is rust across the top even if there is no visible rust on the pillars is to run your fingers behind the covers next to the glass on top of the windshield frame & feel for rust. Sometimes it will crumble off in your hand.

joewill

of course beware of replacing windshield frames.. then you get yourself into removing and replacing the vin tag, and its rivets, which opens up a slew of legalities and vehicle devaluation.

patching and filling rust holes would only minimally restore the integrity of the windshield frame.. you hit a good bump, your windshield may crack..

Mr D.

Mig welder or two part epoxy putty. POR-15 has a two part epoxy putty that dries hard as a rock, you can drill & tap it.

Vibguy

I have this job looming and kind of dreading it. I was planning on welding in patches like the link provided by BBCorv70. My question for those that have gone that route, how sensitive is the windshield sealing to a potential uneven surface after the welding and grinding?

The13Bats

In my original post i said some surface rust and a few small holes after the link and jims pictures were posted i said mine wasnt as bad as either of those,

Never did i say mine was " severely rusted". There are threads where guys are tackling that extent of rust damage thankfully not me.

I do not believe in those examples, the link and jims car that the repairs left any integrity issues, the repairs are very sound .

Vbguy,
Your question about the repair surface and sealing is a good one,
I need to do far more research but the way the windshield is installed its somewhat forgiving, i dont mean we can have quarter inch bird **** welds but i believe if it is reasonable ground it will be fine,

oldgto

We replaced the corners, because there just wasn`t enough to patch too there. However, in between, along the top, it was sound enough to weld in new metal. Weld, grind, weld some more, grind, so the patch is well connected. I have no issues with the integrity.
As for cracking and sealing, you need a pretty thick bead of adhesive to get the glass to lay up where it needs to be, so that your stainless trim meets the glass as it should. I used small rubber blocks as spacers to determine how high off the channels the glass needed to be to get the trim to fit. So there should be plenty of cushion for the glass to ride in.
If you put a thin bead and lay the glass in, good luck filling the giant gap between your glass and stainless trim!

The13Bats

I asked you in private but good info to share,

What did you treat the insides of the windshield frame with to kill rust inside it?

oldgto

Yes, if you get it fairly smoothed out, with the thickness you`ll need in the adhesive, the glass should lay in nice for you.

oldgto

"Ospho".... I LOVE that stuff! I treat ALL my metal with that. If you apply paint over it, you need to wipe off the excess film first though.

The Phantom

Ahh Bats the dreaded bird cage repair, being that this is what holds the body together it is one of the most important structures on the car. I was unaware of the damage my car had on my inspection, I think I would have brought one of those flex cams to snake up the A and B pillars, not that it would have shown everything but I might have got a better story of the condition.

Anyway the top frame was not rotted but the corners were also the lower inner and outer drivers side windshield frame and the inner passenger windshield frame A pillar. The bottoms of the a pillar though surface rusty were not compromised, I did add a reinforcement bracket just to beef it up a little.

So one product I used was Rust Converter, it kills the rust and converts it back to a workable metal I believe much like Navel Gel does. As its a rattle can product I was able to coat most of the interior and exterior surfaces, I repeated the procedure several times before cutting or welding. Once the product had several days of working time I cut out and repaired the weakened areas I coated the area with a zinc weld through primer before repairing the structure. I followed up the repairs with a few good primer coats and a hi build black enamel.

The finished repair is strong and sound, not bad for old guy I'd say, is it permanent ... well as the saying goes "Rust Never Sleeps" I could rip the entire body off the cage and I'm sure find more excitement but I believe that would just be excessive, as many have said these car are approaching the 50 year mark there will be lots you don't see maybe better to let sleeping dogs lie.

I have considered an oil spray follow up once the body is in finish paint.

Dave

oldgto

Dave... what you did is pretty much what we did. I think the Ospho is a similar product to the rust converter you mention. You got much better pictures than we did though.