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rebuilding the ditch witch :P


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:D well, the rebuilding has started after my little run in with the ditch last week...

 

had the auto glass guys come out to salvage a good windshield and cargo window from one of the parts cars to be transplanted into Hildy (short for Brumhilda, my 89 GL wagon)they also removed the cracked glass from Hildy so I could do some rust repair.

 

Only one problem tho - WAY more rust than I had anticipated! NOT pretty at all...

passenger side lower corner is by far the worst, but the entire bottom edge is pretty bad...:eek:

 

"A" pillars are decent, top edge has a couple of bad spots, but easily fixed...just that bottom edge that is gonna be a nightmare...

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thats a thought, but i took a look at the area in question on the parts car that windshield came out of - that one is in 1000% better shape, so had delusions of cutting that one out and putting it in my car...only question i have is how does one "cut" the spot/pinch welds along the inner edge without major distortion???

 

i dont need the whole piece, just the portion close to the windshield...

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The best way to remove spot welds is to drill them out. If it is an option, though, then cut that chunk out of the other car. That way, you can keep the proper shape and thickness.

As said, I wouldn't use the whole thing, just the section you need to repair on your car. If you can stagger the cuts between the upper and lower pieces (make the lower piece wider than the upper piece), welding the patch in will be much easier.

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4x4 welder - ok, so if I am following you right, i want to cut my car where the green line is shown (there is a slight ridge at the upper edge that would make a great guide) the pinch welds i was asking about are shown as green dots...anyway, cut my car on the green line...donor car would be at the yellow line on the lower edge, upper edge would have to be pretty close to the green line again...obviously this would continue all the way to the drivers side...

section outlined in red is gonna need total replacement, be it from the donor car or creating a patch...thinking donor car would be best, for the shape...

zzz

Phizinza - wish I knew somebody that could do it for me, would get done a whole lot quicker!!:D but since money is more of an issue than time...well guess i will have to do it myself. besides, i like having the satisfaction of doing stuff like this myself. :cool:

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This rust around the windshield thing had me wondering what was going on there. On my cars, some have it and others have none.

 

I'm out in the yard one day and an old friend stopped by and wanted to look at the cars. He's been a body/fender guy his whole life. I asked him about that issue.

 

He said it's caused by cutting out a windshield and not primering/painting/prepping the area. Bare metal from the removal usually from a knife used to cut out the old glass.

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interesting...very possible the ol girl had a windshield replaced before i got her...good info to know too...

 

the parts car we took a good windshield out of had had it put in less than 6 months before we aquired it...might be why it is still in good shape under there. it does show signs of beginning to rust, but no where near as bad as mine...

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