1986 Toyota MR2 - an uncontrollable evacuation of the bowels

The windscreen is bonded in, if its leaking at the top then its likely corrosion causing it, needs investigating or it can end up like this (if it isn't already)

I'm sorry I was right would have been nice to be wrong on this occasion, unfortunately I've seen it before on more than 1 MK1.
However given where you started and where you are now I'm sure you'll do a great job of dealing with it Better finding this now rather than when you have painted the rest of the car.
The red car in the first picture belonged to Coverco (Tommy Ogle) this was it about the time he sold it in 2013
( obviously after he restored it)

You’ll have to forgive my lack of action over the last few weeks. It’s not that I’ve been doing other things. I’ve been doing nothing.
I was in work a few weeks ago and came home with what turned out to be Covid. No great surprise. It’s the beginning of the flu season and sickness is running high at work.
Anyway, Covid for me was just a nasty cold this time but it did knock my stamina and general motivation back a bit. It’s probably one reason I’m a bit down on the car.


Ok, so let’s investigate this leak. I want to confirm that it really is the windscreen aperture and I want to know how bad the problem is.

You see, to fix this properly means taking the glass out and I’m not doing that coming into a stormy and unsettled winter. In fact I want to get the car back on the road so I can recover my relationship with it a bit. Ideally I want to stabilise whatever the problem is and buy myself a couple of years.

The windscreen is bonded into the hole and some trim makes it look pretty. To get a look I need to remove the trim.





The two side mouldings are an easy win. They are just screwed on. The upper moulding should be held in by a series of clips. However my car has had the windscreen replaced at some point and the clips frequently got damaged, lost, and broken so the trim is likely to be bonded to the car. If that’s the case then I’m in bother because it’s not coming off without a fight.

It turned out that the left side moulding was stuck to the windscreen adhesive. In fact the adhesive seems to be better stuck to the moulding than to the glass.





Really??? Yes, really.
When the new windscreen was fitted the chap must have put the glue on the glass rather than on the car. He must have run the bead down the very edge of the glass. Now that’s a problem because the glass is wider than the structure of the car and he got it on 6 or 7 mm offset to the left side. That meant that the adhesive on the left side only got a passing contact with the car and didn’t stick properly.





I’m fairly sure if I gave that a pull it’d come out for the whole left side of the glass. Should make it easier to get the glass out without breaking it though.
For the record, as well as getting the glass offset to the left of the car it’s also slightly rotated anticlockwise so it’s low on the drivers side. I mean it’s not terrible but it was clearly done with a greater emphasis on speed than finesse.

Predictably the top trim was glued in and was a right pain in the biscuits to get off.





I think I’ve got it out without mangling it too much. I’m not sure I could get a good replacement.

Underneath the channel was completely filled with glue. I thought whey’d have spot glued it in but, nope. The windscreen chap didn’t want this trim coming off again. Ever.





The goo got cut and ripped out so I could see the increasing entropy hidden beneath.





Well it doesn’t look great. And, yes, there is a hole.





No great surprise as it’s right by a rust blaster on the roof. I tidied up the visible part of it a while back. Partly to make it look a little better but also to hold back the damage. Too late I guess.
The hole is about an inch and a quarter long now I’ve poked it a bit. When I’d finished poking it I stuck some gaffer tape over it and went inside for a little weep.

So what’s the plan? Well the first thing is to think of some sort of plan…
I’m going to spend some time properly cleaning it all out. Then, assuming it’s not completely spanked across the whole width of the car, I can get a load of Hydrate 80 on it to hold back the rust. And then some epoxy primer to keep the water off it. That should stabilise things.

Then I’m wondering about fibreglass to bridge the hole… Dunno. Depends on how bad it all is when I clean it up.

James

Must have overlapped your last post, a bit to late for the above now

Liked your last post for sympathy !

The British Isles are a difficult place for cars. The sight of that wet rusty gully and the hole is tough to behold.

John

funnily enough my astra had a 2mm wide gap down the near side window edge ,and hence had filled the floor with water and shorted out the electrics under the carpet , hence cheap car .

its a real dilemma isn't it , clean ,and fibreglass and fill , or take out screen and weld in a solid bit. .

My vote is:winterproof it and fix properly in the spring, it will niggle away in the back of your mind if you ‘bodge’’ it now 🙂

My tuppence worth : I only have to think back to the front bumper to know you will sort it properly, given that, I wouldn't do anything that isn't easily undone but make it watertight for the winter. In the better ? weather get the screen removed and do a proper job of repairing it 👍 If it was mine that would be my plan 😎

This is a realy nice project! I've rebuild a couple of 4AGE's 3 years ago.