Under Windshield Rust Repair Recommendations and Progress

[orwell84]

[fredybear]

Strip it bare and fix, like so.

Acid strip. Best to do this outside

JB Weld your holes

Epoxy, Epoxy and brand new. Good for another 50 yrs or till the rubber rots and no one fixes it.

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1955 Beetle
1960/63 Beetle
1968 Beetle
1971 Beetle
1973 Beetle
1971 Bus

[Bnanwel]

I have to respectfully disagree with JB Welding the holes, especially if simply slathering over the top. While an epoxy-based filler is less hygroscopic than polyester fillers, it still falls waaay short of simply welding in new metal. It’s NOT that difficult. Why does everyone treat learning to weld as rocket science?
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‘72 Karmann Ghia Conv.
‘73 Karmann Ghia Coupe
‘74 Karmann Ghia Coupe
‘70 Deluxe
‘72 Deluxe

[wrxnofx]

Okay, I received the replacement part from Klassicfab, and it arrived without trauma.

In looking at this new part versus the existing bus, I see 2 main differences:
1. On the new piece, the sill in which the windshield and seal sit in is flat. On my bus this sill is bowed upward slightly. That is, it has a slight convex contour to it.

2. On the new piece, there is probably 1/2" space between the bulge for the wiper hole cutouts and the round edge where the sill begins:

On my bus the pic here doesn't show it well but there is virtually (if any) gap between the bulge for the wiper hole cutout and and round where the sill begins:

Does this seem right to you guys? The sill bulge versus flat is the biggest thing that I'm not sure about. Or is this just much ado about nothing?
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1977 VW Type 2 Bay Window Westy FI

[skills@eurocarsplus]

hard to tell in the photos what you mean, but the wiper 'eyebrow' looks right to me.

your nose looks to have a ton of paint/filler which may distort the profile of the wiper arm area.

at the end of the day, it won't make a difference
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[wrxnofx]

Thanks, Skills! Kind of what I was thinking but you guys are the experts. Appreciate the feedback.
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1977 VW Type 2 Bay Window Westy FI

[orwell84]

I would strip the rest of tubular section of the nose so you know the condition of the metal.

[914guy]

The windshield repair was the first that we did. We bought a spot weld drill bit, and removed all spot welds first. We then cut out the rusted areas below the spot welds.

The Bus Depot piece worked well for us. We painted the nose, and, when everything was exposed before welding, we put a rust convertor inside.

It was straight forward to put a windshield in as the inner piece was good and not rusted. We lined up the outer piece and welded it in.

Mike

[Joey]

[wrxnofx]

Wanted to catch up on this thread and my progress. It's been slow-going, as the boss put a stop work order on the bus this winter to do some house projects.

In short, thanks to you guys and a buddy I took the plunge, set my balls on the table, and cut into the front of the bus.

I ordered the patch panel from Klassic Fab, and we cut the bus away based on what was still good and what the patch panel consisted of. You can see what looks to be a bunch of JB Weld oozing down the inner surface on the passenger side from the previous "repair" ...

We trimmed both the patch panel and the bus to make a good fit and clamped it into place. We measured at 5 locations in the windshield opening before cutting out the old. Then those measurements, in conjunction with using the wiper arm mounts, were used to locate the patch panel.

Some of you had suggested cutting the patch panel across the front of the bubble. My buddy thought it would be easier to hide any imperfections using the bottom of the bubble so that's what we went with.

Here is the piece tacked into place:

At that point my buddy left me to use a welder for the first time. Not the prettiest or best thing in the world, but stitched along the entire length:

Then got out the grinder and detailing file sander tool I bought for this job. Once ground down, I found some pinholes and proceeded to take a step backwards by blowing holes in my fresh work trying to fill in the little pin holes. My buddy came back and helped me out. I'm mostly happy with the edges, though if you look along the bottom of this first edge I might have a bit more sanding to do (though opinions are appreciated as to whether or not this is good enough):

I have zero experience so I'm really hoping that body filler will smooth out the underside seam a bit. I don't really know how perfect the metal has to be. It does wave in and out a bit as you go along the bottom and the seam profile differs a bit because my buddy had to add more weld in a couple areas to fill in the holes. I have a bit more sanding/grinding to do and think I can clean it up a bit more, but I'm also afraid to go too far. The pics don't really show the detail, though you can click on them to view a larger image...

My buddy said he'd come back and help with the plug welds that still have to be done along the top lip.

I feel... okay about this repair so far and there is obviously a very long way to go. I wish I could have done better but what's done is done I guess.
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1977 VW Type 2 Bay Window Westy FI

[Bnanwel]

That’s looking good. I trust you did a “dry fit” of the windshield before final welding, just to be sure. Keep up the good work!
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‘72 Karmann Ghia Conv.
‘73 Karmann Ghia Coupe
‘74 Karmann Ghia Coupe
‘70 Deluxe
‘72 Deluxe

[wrxnofx]

More progress pics. I applied the clear coat this evening. A couple runs that I'll sand out.

Having never done anything like this before (welding, body filler), I'd say it turned out "okay".

I'm rather disappointed in the paint match. I don't know if the problem is coverage or just poor matching from the scan of the existing part at the paint shop, or something else. This was all done with the Spray Maxx rattle cans. I'm also pretty disappointed with my shitty blending. I didn't know a good spot to blend on the bottom and my reverse tape job really didn't give the wide blend gradient I had hoped for.

Fiberglass body filler followed by Evercoat 157 filler. I went with the "less is more" mantra. Where we did the weld at the bottom made bringing back the body line literally impossible, and that is a valuable lesson learned.

Epoxy Primer applied:

Filler Primer applied:

Somewhere during base coat application:

Final Base Coat applied:

Clear Coat applied and Spot Blender:

Tomorrow I'll wet sand the blend area and polish, then install the dashboard and front trim.

Following day the windshield. Wish me luck. New seal is already on the glass and ready to go.
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1977 VW Type 2 Bay Window Westy FI

[orwell84]

Looks great from here. No one learns this stuff overnight and that is a difficult repair. You dove in and got it done.

Paint matching has never been easy and it’s gotten worse. For years, I was able to get VW orange in PPG shopline. It was always a good match to the factory color and consistent over the years as I painted bits and pieces of my bus. Then they stopped making it and I had to buy it online. It doesn’t match, so I have a cab door and a slider that are a lighter shade.

Yours actually looks like a pretty good match. Spray cans can take more coats to hide and get a really saturated color coat.

[Bnanwel]

Nice job!
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‘72 Karmann Ghia Conv.
‘73 Karmann Ghia Coupe
‘74 Karmann Ghia Coupe
‘70 Deluxe
‘72 Deluxe

[wrxnofx]

Here is a more close up pic of the paint match:

Final steps here...

Runs sanded out and paint wet sanded, wiper motor installed, squirters installed, dashboard installed:

Windshield installed and out for first drive of the year:

Regarding the windshield installation, I was kind of shocked with how easy it went.
I used this video as my guide and string trimmer.

Link

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1977 VW Type 2 Bay Window Westy FI

[Bobs67vwagen]

Looking very good nice work. I am sure you probably learned this from doing this job, but patching in a welded repair is always easier on a flat surface as opposed to the contour you chose. Replicating body contours are challenging for an experienced bodyman, and as you found out they create more work in trying to get back to that. Even experienced painters have trouble with spot blends, so all in all your hard work came out very nice. By the way my 71 bus had this same lower windshield rust. My method was remove loose rust, transform the rust with ospho, fiberglass cloth and resin, body filler, sanding and paint. This was probably not as long lasting as your repair, but it was done in 2 days, windshield back in and driving. Good luck-Bob

[frankvw]

I want to give a compliment. a job that you never did before, no experience and a result like this ? I think a very nice job.

[OB Bus]

[Bobs67vwagen]

Very funny OB bus. That's how I feel about repairs I do today at 73 years young. I lived in OB in the late 70s on Saratoga. The Original poster deserves much credit here for perserverance and a job well done

[wrxnofx]

Thanks for the kind words, guys. Really appreciate it.