Rear Window Channel

Q: Rear Window Channel

Well, it looks like the sides of the rear-window channel in my ‘bird are rusted out pretty bad. The left, and right sides are starting to flake away but the top and bottom part looks okay. It appears as if someone removed the rear-window and didn’t seal it properly allowing water to enter that area and sit and cause rust.

So, my question is what repair options do I have? Could I sand the area out and fill it in with lead? Should I cut apart a junker and weld the rear window area in? Should I just weld in some sheet metal? Should I just have a body shop do it?

A: Had this problem on the 1969 Bird I’m working on now. I went down to the local sheet metal shop and had them bend some 22 gauge metal in four foot sticks to repair them. The “sticks” were bent with a 3/4″ lip (the portion that goes under the window), a 3/4 rise (the portion that the trim clips will be attached), and a 1/4 overhang (I Mig-welded this to the outside along the sail panel). I had to buy a 4×10 foot sheet of the metal. Total cost for fabrication was about $60. For the rounded corners I notched the metal to make a smooth sweep. I followed this with a product called “All Metal” ( a water proof filler). So far it look pretty good but I haven’t installed the clips or window yet. However I don’t foresee any problems.

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