Project 1 from Jason: Windshield Leak Fix.

[Jason]

I was having a problem with water leaking in from rust around my windshield and it started to cause problems with electrical components such as my cluster. Found that there was 3 bad parts that need to be patched and water was actually leaking in where the glue had stopped sticking for whatever reason. The windshield had been replaced before I got the car and when they did it, they nicked the paint and never touched it up or anything causing it to rust and letting water in.

The Rust…


Step 1: Remove wipers, rain tray and windshield. To remove the windshield, I went and got some piano wire for cutting out windows.
Removed Windshield:


Notice all the rust? This is actually not as bad as I thought it was going to be. I assumed there was a larger hole at the top of the windshield however there was not. The seal must have just stopped sticking real well up there. The bottom of the windshield was hardly glued in and there was a little foam strip that I assume was placed in their for wind noise or something.

Here are the holes.. Not so bad.



Next step was to patch the holes.
Hole number 1:

And number 2:


Next step was to clean up some more surface rust. Sand, wire brush and then some dupli color rust fix.


After this, there was a little body filler applied to fill pitted metal from the rust. The metal was not replaced as this is may not be kept after my other cars are done. I didn’t take a picture at this point however. You will see it before sanding or before it all dried in the next picture.

After completion of rust clean up came some primer and then some paint. This is all rattle canned as its temp for at least now. I do not have a picture of the primer at the top edge of the windshield for some reason. Not too sure why this is..



In went the windshield and the filler at the top was sanded. For the rest of the prep and primer and paint steps of the roof I have no pictures. I do have a picture of the top before the car was put all back together.


This was all done on 2 days of work. There is no more water leaking or at least not in this last rain we had.

[performance]

Hmm, something like that happened to my old 190d Mercedes I had.

[Jason]

Hmm, something like that happened to my old 190d Mercedes I had.

Its common when a windshield gets replaced because they tend to hit the paint when removing the glass. That piano wire used to cut out the glass will take the paint off like butter.

Piano Wire:


There are other tools used to remove the glass and they still tend to do the same thing. It basically comes down to how careful the person is that removed it. I try to fold the wire away from the body but you tend to break the wire more or get off your cut through the glue. That wire can cut into the metal if you work at it enough.