Rusted wiper cowl panel - repair suggestion

[Floridacatfan]

I apparently had water caught in the wiper cowl and covered it up with silicone 5 years - it has become a rust through situation - the surface is below a stiffener and difficult to work with. There are 2 spot welds where the corrosion was worst - I don’t have a welder and the shape is tough - any ideas would be helpful

 

[Floridacatfan]

Ideas ? I think I’m going with breaking the spot welds on the stiffener and sliding a thin piece of stainless steel in with seam sealer

 

[Floridacatfan]

I’m not giving up on this - I have some thin stainless steel and I’m gonna treat the leftover sheeyt metal with por-15 - I’ll probably need to pull the sheet steen down with ss screws - I haven’t selected a sealer yet - I basically have lost all the cowl sheet metal

 

[broncc]

Oh jeez good luck. I'm just now starting to investigate my wet floor and I am really fearing the worst. I hope mine is not this bad! I am terrible at removing the ranger dashboard and cracked one at the junkyard :'(

 

[Floridacatfan]

It’s been a nightmare - I will prevail

 

[broncc]

Well my worst fear was realized... I'm in the same situation as you. Currently about to get the hurricane but I'll keep you updated as I make the repair. The dash came out really easy.

 

[Floridacatfan]

Please do - it’s a similar situation only you have better access and you probably want to spend the money to have a sheet piece welded in - I had to pause a bit to take the gf on vacation but I’ll press on this weekend. If you want to fix it on the cheap there are some thin stainless sheets on Amazon

 

[broncc]

Turns out welding is hard! Its gonna be a few more days of practice pieces before I start chopping up the bronco. I'm not a great welder by any means and I borrowed a gas bottle for this, so its unfamiliar.

 

[broncc]

Well now that I repaired the floor damage its onto the hard stuff! My truck is basically as bad as floridacatfan's. My question is how do I remove the windshield trim? I'm trying my damn hardest not to have to mess with the original glass in my car. If I can get a better angle with the trim off and I manage the welder heat I might be able to do this and keep the seal in tact.



This is the driver side bottom of the windshield. I marked it in blue.

Sorry for bumping such an old thread. I only have a few hours after work to get this project done.

 

[Shran]

Personally with rust that bad in that spot, I would have the windshield removed and fix it completely. I bet you have a pile of rust there all the way up to the lip. FYI the windshield is glued into place with urethane sealant... looks kind of like caulk.

Sheet metal welding takes a lot of practice. Try not to do any butt welds if you can help it, those are very difficult to do without burning through. Overlap any patch you make and just do spot welds every 2-3 inches until you have the whole joint filled, then grind it smooth (or not if it's hidden.) It takes some practice to get the voltage and wire speed set just right for spot welds like this. One other trick is to keep a wet towel on hand and cool off every weld as you work - that helps to avoid warping the metal.

 

[broncc]

I have been butt welding the whole floor pan with reasonable success so far... I really don't want to remove the windshield because I was reading horror stories in another thread. I just need to figure out how the trim clips on.

 

[Shran]

I use an interior trim clip removal tool, a thin pry bar will work too. Start at one of the bottom corners and insert your pry bar between the trim and the windshield, on the inside - against the glass, not against the body. Gently pry upwards. You will feel the clips start to come off - stop if you start bending the trim. As you start to get the trim separated, you'll see where the clips are and where to pry next.

 

[broncc]

I've decided to take it all out! Its all junk so I'm converting to bluetooth firewall.



This affords me a great opportunity to re-engineer. Do I repair the firewall to how it was done at the factory or do I make the bottom one piece and weld the firewall to the new bottom of the trough?

 

[broncc]

Windshield out as soon as I have a friend to help!

I don't know what the people I was reading about were on but you can definitely pull a windshield without damaging it.... I have to replace this one its scratched and delaminating.

 

[bobbywalter]

Definitely build it to suit. Stock sux.