Auto Progress – FX

Pukad windscreen frame

OK, it’s been almost 4 months since I’ve posted anything about my cars, so I’ll write up on what I’ve done to them in that period. With the white FX16, I believe I last left off pulling the windscreen out after cracking it looking for the source of water leak. Following that, we stripped the frame down to metal and I went at with a whole assortment of fiber wheels, wire wheels, grinding wheels and took down what rust I found. Revealed a number of rust throughs, good to catch it now as most of them were not yet hugely major.  It was actually a number of weeks and stretched out over months before I progressed with this. Inbetween was a combination of working on other car, bike riding, and lazyness.

After that initial grinding of that first picture, I went back and cleaned up the holes for patches. The right side for some reason seems to have more problems here. And of course those top corners, all the FXs I’ve had develop problems there. Here’s a tip for anyone with a Corolla of this vintage. Drop your headliner (be prepared to go to Toyota to order replacement clips as I’ve destroyed 11 out of 12 clips removing them) and pull out the foam blocks stuffed into the corners of the roof. I don’t know if it was some kind of vibration or noise dampening thing, but those little sponges serve to hold moisture and encourage rust in those roof corners. I proceeded to cut some patches and then make a lumpy mess of welds and holes. Yes, this image is intentionally not very close up since I’m not proud of the welds. I’ve got a ways to go before making beautiful welds. I actually spent the next couple weeks grinding down, trying to weld over pinholes only to create bigger holes, glopping gobs of weld over those, grinding down, then grind away and reweld new patches. It was rather frustrating, but also learing experience. Tweaked the welder setting a bit and that seemed to help. Finally got it down to a point that I felt it was good enough. Far from perfect, but nothing a little plastic wont fill in and cover up. Which is what I spent the following week doing. Lot more forgiving.

The end was in sight, so I figured it was time to pull the good windscreen out of  the spare parts FX. I had the tool and one practice session. I figure I knew the theorems and could chance ’em. So one evening after work I took the windscreen knife to it. Wow, this sealant was a lot tougher. This windscreen was actually replaced just before it came to me, so it was almost brand new, and I guess the sealant was still quite fresh and tough. I eventually worked the blade through successfully, but it was so tough it was bending. I got one cut in through a third of the top edge. I move over to the other side and tried to work the blade through the sealant. It was proving close to impossible, the blade was totally bending and not penetrating at all. I pulled out the heat gun and tried heating up the area of the sealant and the blade. It eventually seemed to help and the blade started going in. The moment it pentrated through there was the totally disheartening moment of seeing that thin line of a crack appear in the glass. I’m sure if you saw me you would have seen me literally deflate. At least it happened at the start and not the end….

So now I had to call the mobile glass guy and see if he could get the glass. Wonders of wonders, his warehouse had it in stock. Dave said he figures it is the same as other Corollas of that year, but I’m not so sure. Looking up in online databse brings up different numbers. Anyway, within a day of calling him, he came over and had it installed. I met up with him that evening and talked story for a bit. Got the inside scoop on tool, they use the same tool, but they take their blades to a grinder to thin and smooth out the blade profile. Oh well, maybe next time, although even then he said its not a guaranteed deal.

With the windscreen taken care of, I tackled a rust spot that I noticed had developed in the corner of the sunroof opening. Yes, I like the sunroof, but the bane of them is rust problems. I ground out the rust and was left with this small hole. I was in a quandry to attempt a weld patch on this. It was a small spot on a odd shaped piece, and to clinch it there’s rubber sealing adjacent to it. I decided to fill it with the short strand fiberglass filled body filler instead. I got that done, and later sprayed some LPS3 into the inside seams to try and slow down any rust progress from the inside of the body.

So the status on the FX is that I’m waiting on new headliner clips from Toyota to put the interior all back together and switch back to daily driving it instead of the AE86!