Both inner and outer lower corners of my '71 coupe were badly rusted and needed to be replaced. I didn't want to remove the entire fender to gain access and I'd heard that some people had accomplished the task by just remocing the upper tip of the fender, so I set out to do it that way too. I didn't find much info on exactly how to do it and what was involved, but posts from member Arg0413 in his 1971 LT-1 Resurrection thread helped. I hope this thread will provide lots of specific information to help others who might be facing a similar situation...


Inner corner was rusted through



Inner corner donor replacement



Inner corner damage & replacement piece shown from outside



Outer corner damage shown with inner corner removed



Closeup of outer corner damage



Outer corner replacement piece. The upper curve and raised flat portion of 68-72 corners are different from 73+ and are not available from the vendors. I was lucky to seure this one.



Remains of rusted pieces that were removed



What is left after inner & outer metal corners are removed



Scraping tool and heat was used to break the glue holding the fender to it's bonding assembly.



Splitting fender from underlying bonding assembly



Once the upper fender tip was cut and removed, its bonding assembly was revealed. It's attached to the metal outer corner with 3 rivets.
Fender cut was made shallow in the bonding strip area so the lower assembly wouldn't be damaged. When I finally cut the bonding assembly I left about an inch of the bonding strip exposed to aid in the fender tip reattachment.



After the bonding assembly was cut and removed, damage to the hinge pillar was revealed.



Hinge pillar from my donor assembly showed similar damage



Pillar rust hole was enlarged a bit and a small patch piece was welded in.



"While I was at it," I also welded up the access hole in the side of the windshield side frame. Hopefully this will prevent any future water intrusion.



Lower side frame holes welded up


More to follow...

 

Big project and good photos for those contemplating doing it in the future. Thanks

 

Hello,

Thank you for taking the time to take the photos and post them.
Your photos show what a serious piece of work you're doing!!!
Nice!
I think it might be helpful to post some photos that have the camera pulled back a little to give a better sense of just how all these pieces fit together as you progress.
Again ,thank you!!!

Regards.....

 

You're welcome - hopefully it will help others

Thanks Alan. I'm honored to get a compliment from you! Unfortunately, except for filling the gap on the fender cut, the progress on this is finished. I took photos as I went along and waited until now to start the thread. Most are close ups to show detail, but as I continue the thread I'll look for pics that may show better views of how it all went together.

 

Hi, posting some pictures from my windshield frame repair


LH corner seems to be bad


RH looks better



Rust in the upper corners and frame as well





Front clip and firewall removed for better acess


Replacement parts was ordered from U$


Reinforcements added to keep the pillars in place




LH pillar repair



LH completed with parts from old corner and new 73-



RH much better, just a pinhole in the inner corner


Welding completed, now some clean up and then epoxy and paint

 

Hello,
WOW!!!
Serious work you've done there.
Now that's RESTORATION!!!
Regards...

PS: With all that rust in the cowl what do the bottom of the hinge pillars look alike?
I'd think that water had to go somewhere?

 

Nice job, but that sure looks like it was a TON of work! I'm glad mine wasn't so bad that I would've had to remove the entire front clip like you did.

 

Thanks Alan, I was lucky, no further rust in the bottom of the hinge pillars or birdcage. Just some surface rust, easy to clean and treat with rust converter and paint.

 

Of course "life" gets in the way of working on vettes, but it also gets in the way of posting on this forum. I've finally found the time and gumption to continue with this 'how I did it' thread...

Lord M showed the "conventional" way to do these lower windshield corner repairs by removing the entire front clip to get access. My intent is to show another less intrusive way if the rust damage is not too extensive. I think that just removing the upper corner of the fender is easier BUT it does introduce the need reattach the cut piece back into the proper position and then deal with ensuring that the cut doesn't telegraph itself through the finish paint.

While researching how to do my repair, I had a difficult time finding out the exact shape of the bonding panel that supports the upper fender tip. I didn't find any good pictures of the support on the forum or the vendors' parts diagrams. So to ensure I had a good plan for how to make the fender cut and placing it where it could be reattached fairly easily, I had to use lights, mirrors, and my sense of touch reaching under the fender from the wiper bay to determine the bonding assembly shape.



Here is the bonding support piece exposed after the fender tip was removed. It's attached to the metal outer corner with the 3 blind rivets shown. The actual bonding surface is shaped like a #7.



This view angle shows the vertical(ish) bonding surface (A) of the support piece. Item B is the side edge of the original metal outer corner that in this shot has been bent down & outward so I could better visualize the structure and rust damage.



This shot was taken after the inner and outer metal corners were removed and the fender cut made. It shows the bonding support piece (C) and the 3 rivet holes, the hinge pillar where it merges into the windshield side frame (A) and the rear vertical portion of the wiper trough (B). You can see the two rivet holes where B was riveted to the metal outer corner piece. D is the fender cut itself.



Top view of the bonding panel piece. Fender cut is visible along bottom of photo. Just below and slightly left of the 3 rivet holes the top edge of the wiper trough rear vertical wall is also visible.

Note that the fender cut was made shallow in the area where it was over the bonding strip so as to not cut the strip itself. I did this to keep the bonding support piece as rigid as possible to better aid reassemble and because I still wasn't sure of the shape of the assembly down near the floor of the wiper trough and how it was attached in that area. Once the fender was cut and removed, I was able to better see the details of the bottom of the support assembly and determine where to cut that to gain access to the metal outer corner piece once the 3 rivets were removed. Both the fender cut and the cut to the underlying bonding support were made using a cutoff wheel on an air grinder.




This shows were the fender cut was made. After viewing the underlying support assembly, I wish I would have made the cut closer to where the red line is. That might've given me better access to the lower forward flange of the metal outer corner where it goes across the top of the hinge pillar but may have also required cutting aportion of the wipoer trough also.



Photo of my outer corner replacement piece. My cut didn't give good access to plug weld this small circled portion of flange across the top of the hinge pillar. I welded up the holes where the spot welds were cut out in this area to strengthen the flange here before it bends vertically down the inside of the hinge pillar.



The top of my cut was 6" from the rear inner corner tip while the bottom was 8" from the rear outer tip. A better cut line might've been 7.5" and 10" respectively or somewhere in between


After removing the fender tip, I was able to visualize where to cut the bonding support piece.


Where to cut the bonding support to provide the best access to the outer corner while still be able to reattach it so as to provide the best support to the fender tip when it is reattached?



Blue line 2 is where I cut the bonding support piece. Yellow line 1 is the fender cut. Red line 3 is the top edhge of the vertical rear portion of the wiper trough.



Close up shows 1 - fender cut, 3 - wiper trough and 4 - metal outer corner flange. 2 is the remaining portion of the bonding support piece after it was cut. A small piece of 3 was removed to allow a plug weld just above the #4.



Another view of the bonding support piece cut line. Had I made the fender cut more forward, I would've been able to also cut the bonding support piece further forward also, but that small flange portion of the metal outer corner that was circled in a previous photo still would've been covered by the wiper trough and I didn't want to have to cut that also



The cut piece of the bonding support assembly



The three rivet holes in the bonding support piece didn't match the three holes in the replacement outer corner. The holes in the support piece were filled with VPA and then new holes were drilled to mate with the existing holes of the replacement corner.


To ensure the cut fender tip piece could be reattached back in its exact correct position without worrying about the width of the cutting disc, I figured out a way to premake a bonding strip held in position with cleco clips BEFORE the fender cut was actually made. This would allow the fender tip to be cut without the new bonding strip in place. Then the strip could be glued to the stationary fender using clecos to hold it in place. After that, the cut fender tip could be glued to the new bonding strip and the olriginal underlying bonding support assembly using the clecos to hold it in the proper position.



Fender covered with foil to prevent fiberglass resin from sticking to it



A few layers of glass matt and resin formed the bonding strip with the proper curve



Strip shape was trimmed to fit on the underside of the fender then holes were drilled through the strip and the fender to allow placement of the cleco clips



Unfortunately, the holes didn't line up when the bonding strip was moved to the underside of the fender. Therefore, the bonding strip needed to be held in position under the fender while new holes in the strip were drilled using the previously drilled fender holes.



That resulted in two sets of holes in the bonding strip, but they didn't impact the strip's integrity and won't be seen.



Bonding strip held to fender with clecos



Bonding strip held on fender tip with clecos


To be continued again...

 

OK, I'm back from vacation and it's finally time to finish this story!


Outer corner clamped into place



Outer corner plug welded in



Anti-rust treatment & plastic wedge applied



Fender tip and bonding support piece clamped back together using remaining original placement markings. Tape positioned some small self-made fiberglass bonding tabs that will be used to mate it to the fixed remaining support structure that is still in place. This was done in order to be able to position the support piece properly so the 3 rivet holes could be drilled in it to match 3 holes in the outer corner.



Small bonding tabs for joining the cut support structure to the fixed structure



Bonding piece cleco'd to fixed fender



Then cut fender tip with support structure clamped underneath was cleco'd in place



Temporarily mounting the support structure in place allowed me to re-drill the 3 rivet holes in it from underneath



3 redrilled rivet holes in the mounting structure show the different hole placement between those of the old and new outer corners



Mounting structure was then riveted onto the outer corner. A bonding tab (under the spring clamp) was used to glue the cut piece's bonding edge to that of the fixed support structure.

Once all the outer corner work was done, I could then finish replacing the inner corner...


Weld-through primer was applied to flanges that were to be plug welded. Anti-rust paint was applied to the rest of the inner corner.



Inner corner clamped into place



Inner corner plug welded on



Gusset clamped into position for welding



Inner corner and gusset were then painted

 

Next up was to finish joining the cut bonding/support piece back to the remaining fixed structure...


Self-made bonding strip was glued in to connect the fixed and cut support bonding flanges.



In places where the small bonding tabs weren't practical, foil was wedged under the gaps between the fixed and cut support pieces as backing for the application of VPA



Edges of the cut were beveled before the VPA was added



VPA sealed the gap nicely and sanded down well considering it won't be seen. The gap in the bonding flange at the bottom of the photo was filled with VPA later.


After the bonding support pieces were rejoined, actually reattaching the cut fender tip was next on the agenda...


Glue was applied to half of the fender cut bonding strip which was then cleco'd into position then clamped.



Once that adhesive set up, the cut fender tip was ready to be glued back into place. Adhesive would be applied to the fabricated bonding strip and the #7 shaped bonding flange of the support structure.



With the adhesive applied, the cut fender tip was cleco'd into position and glued edges were clamped



Edges of the joined cut were beveled for the VPA



First VPA application had some low spots



2nd VPA layer still had low spots



"Finished" cut repair feels smooth, but it will be readdressed when the entire car is stripped and ready for final painting prep...

Only time will tell if this repair turns out OK. Regardless of that, I hope the info in this tread might help anybody else contemplating using this method of replacing the lower windshield corner without removing the entire front clip!

 

Going back to the photos showing restoration of the windshield frame. Since you're going to have to buy a new windshield, I would have bought the windshield before starting the welding/replacing of new sheet metal parts. This way I would have been sitting the glass into the frame as I made the repair to make sure the windshield glass fit exactly. It needs to lay in the metal frame, and before adding foam damn strips to the glass, make sure that the glass touches the metal frame equally around it's entire perimeter. I replaced my windshield glass and I was surprised how close and exact the glass fits in the metal frame. As you weld in pieces and rebuild the frame this exact fit can then be duplicated as you complete the repair.

 

Good points that I hadn't worried about - or even thought about actually. I only had to replace the driver's lower corner and since the rest of the windshield frame was rigidly held in place (both upper corners solid, coupe center T-bar, and both hinge pillar connections), I wasn't too worried that anything would shift enough to affect the fitment of the replacement glass. The lower frame stayed firmly riveted to the wiper trough structure and there was a locating hole in the outer corner that ensured proper placement onto the hinge pillar/windshield side frame. I was fairly confident that the windshield mating surfaces remanined in their proper positionings. With what you mentioned, I'm hopeful that the glass will lay correctly.


Green punch through outer corner locating hole into hinge pillar ensured proper placement.



Circled area was the only glass mating surface that was replaced and existing fixed structure on both ends hopefully ensured proper placement.



Once outer corner was welded back in, inner corner only provides support - no glass mating surfaces. Alignment of access holes in both the hinge pillar and inner corner provided positioning cues.

 

Thanks for all of this extra information, things I didn't know before. Also, the photos also.

 

You're welcome. Hope you find it all of some use...

 

https://cscreproductions.com

Another source for window corners and other body parts. In fact, I believe these guys make a lot of the parts for the big box corvette stores

 

Thanks, I wish I had found them years ago when I was searching for corners for my '71. At the time, all I could find were corners for 73 and later cars...

 

Agreed.
I have never seen new 68-72 windshield corners before!
Great find!