Advice on Fixing Windshield Rust? (1 Viewer)

[LazarusTaxa]

I recently picked up a 100 and unfortunately, though the rest of it is quite clean, mine suffers from a terribly done windshield install... pulling the trim reveals the common rust around the side and top edges... Though, only one area is rusted through (Pic below), I've cut away enough of the urethane and seals in the other areas to be 99% sure it's not rust ed through anywhere else. Further, the installer decided to use self-tappers instead of the factory rivets, so I've got additional holes in the A-pillars.

I am well aware that the proper repair is to have these holes welded and all of it repainted. The issue with that is that the welding is gonna heat these areas up enough so that a much larger area is going to need repainting... The entire A-pillar and the roof all the way back to the sunroof. I've gotten quotes from the only two places in town that will do work like this, and both quoted 2500-5000 for pulling the windshield, fixing the rust properly, repainting, and reinstalling the windshield.

I do not want to spend 3K on this right now.. like at all...

What if.. I pulled the windshield, wirewheeled all the way down to good clean metal, and then used epoxy putty or Permatex liquid metal to fill these holes? I'd then paint with a 2K epoxy primer, 2k single-stage top coat, and have the windshield reinstalled. Would this be an adequate repair? Would there be any serious issues with this?

Any insight is appreciated.

 

[Malleus]

IMHO, that would be entirely acceptable, espescially if you used something like a steel reinforced epoxy, which I think performs better than epoxy alone for these types of applications. Something like

This stuff, and epoxies like it, get a bad reputation because it's misused a lot. Lots of end user products are epoxied together; like the honeycombed floor of a Lexus sedan, for example. Toyota chose epoxy instead of welding because it provides a premanent flexible bond, whereas welding would not. It also serves as a sound dampener.

Remember, you can also solder or braze metal. Welding is not the only way to repair metal, it's just widely used because there's a lot of utility in it, and a lot of money for manufacturers and sellers. For repairs like this, if I wasn't going to epoxy it, I'd silver solder it, after prepping it as you described, of course.