How much does an L series windscreen cost?

steptoe · Post by **steptoe** » Sun Aug 26, 2012 9:52 pm

Marine repair workshop, fibreglass supplies in the yellow pages.

Be prepared to do a few layers as it can droop down into the rust holes, set quickly sand her down again with painters roll 120 grit, start again, set, sand, layer and just shape it to the surrounding steel with say a block of timber or steel, whatever fits in - file.

Dunno about the bonding nature of the windscreen seal but they just heat 'em up with a 12V battery until the goop up and bond I think

Silverbullet · Post by **Silverbullet** » Sat Sep 15, 2012 2:52 pm

I got the resin this week, nearly $80 for 1.3kg and required hardener. Also got some fiberglass cloth just in case and some disposable brushes. Still need to get cotton flock (cotton ground into a powder) which will give me a putty like consistency and add alot of strength.

Got down to taking away the plastic bits on the car today to grind away and find some metal to stick to, and oh boy it's worse than it looked. I found where all the old metal had gone; there was a pile of rust flakes in the air con intake ducting. The dremel certainly earned it's keep today I went through about 10 cut off wheels removing the worst bits and a whole grinding stone to get rid of the surface rust and the black oxide layer that rust converter makes. Got rid of most of the old sikaflex and found some of our old friend body filler on the drivers side to boot. At the sides it's relatively solid and I found some good metal for the epoxy to bond to. Ground away as much as I could in the holes to fill in later.

In the middle however there is a sort of support structure which looked like it was supposed to support the bottom of the windscreen...kinda hard to describe but the 2 legs of that weren't attached to anything. There is something to stick to in the very middle, but in between that and the sides there is fresh air. Glad I bought that glass cloth now

I dunno how well this whole adventure is going to end up, but I'm pretty much committed now so we'll see what happens.

YouTube · Post by **El_Freddo** » Sat Sep 15, 2012 11:18 pm

Good stuff mate. I'd be keen to see some pics of your efforts as you progress further along

Cheers

Bennie

Silverbullet · Post by **Silverbullet** » Sat Sep 22, 2012 2:33 pm

Here you go then Bennie, some pics of where I'm at. I didn't really want to post pics of what it looks like at the moment because it is so bad, might get discouraged by the responses to the absolute destruction of the windscreen frame

Bloody rust, it really is cancer for cars.

Today I was going to begin fiber glassing, but I didn't manage to get any cotton flock (structural filler) which meant I couldn't thicken up the resin, which it turns out is far too runny to use as it is. It is for soaking into glass cloth after all. I'll get some cotton this week and then I can make the resin into a paste which will hold it's shape. This can be used to fill gaps and bond things together turning your resin into a kind of putty or glue, but also adds tremendous strength.

I managed to get some good mild steel sheet from work, a bit thick though at around 1.5mm. The only other thing in the scrap bin was too thin. So to fill in the gaping holes of nothing-ness I made a cardboard template, cut some steel and started hammering; it's very theraputic

Got one side pretty much done, the piece will act as a bit of support to fiberglass onto, and add some strength hopefully.

If I had a welder I could probably cut the whole lot out and weld in a new piece without taking the dash out, and it would be better than doing this but I don't want to spend that money right now. And if this doesn't work, I've lost a rusty car but gained some experience

What I'm left with after grinding and cutting alot of the rust out

In the middle; there isn't much left!

Replacement piece, hopefully!

steptoe · Post by **steptoe** » Sun Sep 23, 2012 8:02 am

I have measured this era sheet metal and came up with 0.9mm if that helps.

Nothing but encouragement for you to practice on something you consider throwing away if it don't work - while yer at it - maybe a custom drop top ?
Now that'd make the joe pubic look at an old l wagon cruising around 4" lower roof line

Silverbullet · Post by **Silverbullet** » Sun Sep 23, 2012 7:55 pm

Haha yeah that would make a few people look, especially when it breaks in half after going over a small bump

Your're right it's great practice before I start on the real project car, the whole fabricating of new sections malarkey doesn't seem that difficult as long as the shapes are relatively simple.

Silverbullet · Post by **Silverbullet** » Sat Sep 29, 2012 7:46 pm

Well I got my micro fiber blend this week so today finally got into filling in the holes. When mixed with the very liquid epoxy you get a consistency ranging from tomato sauce to peanut butter...so the bag says

The appearance kind of reminds me of clagg, that wonderful paste we used to use in pre-school. And you can use it as a filler or as a glue in itself. Sets like concrete too.

So the first layer is down and I'll continue tomorrow after this lot sets.

The magic powder

Piece of steel from last week thoroughly glued into place front and back, well end up being almost completely encased by the end

Other side; I went a bit overboard here and ended up cleaning alot of the excess away and smoothing it a bit

New piece I made today for the other gaping hole

Drivers corner, all holes completely filled

More over the weekend as we progress...

steptoe · Post by **steptoe** » Sun Sep 30, 2012 7:49 am

don't instructions say something about bonding to porous materials? I guess you have some pores in that steel frame

Silverbullet · Post by **Silverbullet** » Sun Sep 30, 2012 1:55 pm

Bahaha good one Jonno

Nah basically the resin will bond to steel, and I tried to get as much shiny steel showing through as possible all over so it bonds properly. Today now the resin has set somewhat I tested it's strength by yanking on my tin pieces...the steel it is glued too will bend before the resin lets go, it is strong!

sven '2' · Post by **sven '2'** » Wed Oct 03, 2012 3:04 pm

phillatdarwin · Post by **phillatdarwin** » Wed Oct 03, 2012 5:52 pm

i got one in Darwin that good it just getting them out with out braking it ..
find some one that can ship it to ya for a good price and not brake it . pm me for more info

Silverbullet · Post by **Silverbullet** » Wed Oct 03, 2012 5:54 pm

That's a bargain Sven but I bet I couldn't get one out without breaking it

And phil thanks for the offer but I've already got one still wrapped in plastic sitting in the back seat, which is partly why I'm going through all this. If the mobile guy hadn't left it in the back seat this car would be on the scrap heap by now.

phillatdarwin · Post by **phillatdarwin** » Wed Oct 03, 2012 5:57 pm

just look your thread glass want take to steel for to long got to spray putty it first so it will stick and seal it to the air .. .. Look into it lots as i got to glass up my RX wear the rust is in my boot and gards .. And all the fiberglass guys hear tell me spray putty it first or under cote .. sorry to tell u this .... after i see all the work u done all ready ..

Silverbullet · Post by **Silverbullet** » Wed Oct 03, 2012 6:16 pm

I had worried about the glass and sealer bonding to the fiber glass properly. But when the glass goes in new they only seal it onto painted metal anyway, so if I paint the fiber glass properly I should have no issues...?

steptoe · Post by **steptoe** » Wed Oct 03, 2012 10:28 pm

so ...it is different to fibreglass filler bog / frog bog ?- as it sticks best to bare steel

YouTube · Post by **El_Freddo** » Wed Oct 03, 2012 11:05 pm

Very game mate! Keep up the good effort, if you can patch that you'll have an easy time with other rust situations that can be sorted with fibreglass

Looking forward to seeing the finished result.

Cheers

Bennie

Silverbullet · Post by **Silverbullet** » Thu Oct 04, 2012 5:27 pm

steptoe wrote:so ...it is different to fibreglass filler bog / frog bog ?- as it sticks best to bare steel

I think the "fiberglass reinforced" bog is just normal bog with glass strands in it, a bit stronger but still not strong enough. The epoxy resin used in proper fiber glass does form a proper structural bond to bare steel. That's why I've ground away as much rust as possible and paint in areas to expose bare metal. If you just pour resin over rusty metal it will keep rusting underneath and eventually the resin will delaminate from the steel.

Cheers Bennie haha after this I won't be repairing any more rust with fiber glass

as soon as the car drives I'm buying a decent welder and a 15kg wire spool

One bad thing about this cotton powder; once it's set properly it's almost impossible to sand by hand as the paper just bounces over the top. So I will be using either an angle grinder with sanding wheel, the dremel or a very narrow belt sander to get a uniform smooth surface.

YouTube · Post by **El_Freddo** » Fri Oct 05, 2012 5:12 pm

Silverbullet wrote:haha after this I won't be repairing any more rust with fiber glass

What about other things though - like moulding a bonnet scoop/vent? Maybe a custom snorkel... The mind boggles!

Cheers

Bennie

Silverbullet · Post by **Silverbullet** » Sat Oct 06, 2012 12:35 am

Oh NOW you've got me thinking

Looks like I'm going to have plenty of resin and cotton fiber left over, oh the possibilities

Silverbullet · Post by **Silverbullet** » Sat Oct 06, 2012 8:42 pm

Apart from pulling the power steering pump out of this car today I decided to finish off most of the glassing around the windscreen. I made up a huge batch of very thick putty and spread it over the entire length along the bottom to fill in every crack crevice and low spot that was still left. Then I took the smooth side of a plastic knife and very carefully smoothed it all out to be all relatively the same level and angle all the way along. I left it up a bit to sand back later and get a smooth finish. If there's any low spots left after that I'll spot fill them as necessary. Still working on which method I'll use to sand it; it will be a power tool of some sort.

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How much does an L series windscreen cost?

Timing!!