Volvo Amazon Windscreen Frame

Volvo Amazon Windscreen Frame - Further Repairs

We are into spring and I have been able to spend some time working on the nearside (UK right hand drive car) windscreen frame. This was considerably more extensive than the corrosion damage on the offside, with the biggest challenge being that an area of the lip had completely disintegrated. Before I proceed, I must apologise as I have been a bit lax with the camera and I have not documented this as comprehensively as I perhaps should. Anyway... back to the welding.

First, I cut away the rot from the inside bulkhead pressing.

Then using my DIY sheet metal folder along with the shrinker/stretcher, I fashioned a repair piece. There was just about enough of the outer lip remaining to get the shape and depth; I also took measurements and made card templates from the offside window frame corner.

With this welded in place, I fabricated the first of two sections for the outer lip, again using the shrinker/stretcher tool and referring to the templates and measurements from the offside. Once confident of the shape, I cut away the remnants of the old lip and tacked in the new piece.

Given the complexity of the shape in the corner of the windscreen frame, it became necessary to add some cuts to achieve the tightness of the bend and keep the shape.

Here then is the reconstructed corner. I am quite pleased with this and although I need to spend some time cleaning up the welds, the shape is looking pretty good and the metal is sound. I have also repaired a short section (out of shot) right in the centre go the frame, which in comparison to the corners was a doddle.

The windscreen frame repairs are now complete. This is a big tick off the list and definitely feels like progress. The next thing logically would be the battery tray as this would mean that everything forward of the A pillars is sorted. However, this looks like a pig of a job to fabricate, I haven't quite figured out how I am going to do that.

Maybe someone out there has a scrapped shell with a serviceable/recoverable battery tray? Unlikely, but you never know...

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