Windscreen

Ages ago, when I was a restoration newbie, my enthusiasm rather got in the way of my talent. That is to say, I had no restoration talent at all. The result is that peculiar feeling of being embarrassed at your previous "work" 15+ years and experience later. And so it is with the winsdscreen surround on the TR7.

It's not the lower area we are looking at here, it is the upper. The inner windscreen surround is hanging down and all rusty.

My TR7 was endowed with a short Webasto sunroof, which let the sunshine enter the car when open and the rain in when shut. So, after stripping it, there was no surprise to find the upper inner horizontal "beam" of the windscreen surround (the bit which the rear view mirror attaches) to be in a very holey condition. At the time I thought the panel was removable in an isolated section, so set about drilling out spot welds and generally cutting. It was only when I had done this that it dawned on me that this section cannot be removed on its own without removing the entire roof panel, as the inner windscreen surround is one big item spot welded together to which the outer is then welded. So what I succeeded in doing was cutting out a chunk of the car on one side, leaving it flapping in the wind. I left it like that for 15 years as it was better "out of sight, out of mind" whilst I welded up the rest of the car.

Fast-forward to now and I have nearly finished the welding on my car, and it has taken years.  Amazingly I am now back where I started, and the horrible windscreen situation is no longer out of sight - it is the only bit left to weld. But what a job.

Looking into the windscreen aperture - see said panel hanging down

Taking photos of the panel whilst the car was on its side was the least of my worries, but hopefully these give you an idea of the level of grot.

The first job was to make what is left of the panel structural again (i.e. attached its ends to where they should be attached) then repair it in situ. That's what I should have done all those years ago.

After a clean up, you can see water damage the water had done over the years.

So, I made a start today by cleaning the panel up and welding it up at its ends and tacking it in place. Next job is to cut out a repair section from a scrap windscreen surround, and fix the newly secure rusty panel.