Fixing a broken windshield

[Steve Jelf]

During last September's trip Lizzie took a beating.

A broken top socket caused the top to pull back on the windshield frame enough to crack the glass.

I used the standard Ford universal repair kit to stabilize the upright. It's been on there ever since.

Today I temporarily turned the car into Laurel & Hardy Model T. (The boys often drove a T with the windshield removed to give the camera clear view of them.)

Rust in the break shows that the piece had actually been broken for a long time, with just the glass and brass channel and gravity holding it together.

After drilling and punching out the rivets I had to apply the heat wrench to remove the short piece of upright that was inside the bracket.

[Steve Jelf]

Here are the two pieces of upright together, and the two screws that attach the windshield hinge.

A solid steel piece fits inside the tubular body and the screws for the hinge and the top cap are threaded into it.

Before I got the thing apart I thought I would just make a new upright out of one solid piece. But this part inside the bracket sticks up inside the sheet metal tube. That rather complicates things. I'll have to make the new upright of two sections welded together.

[david_dewey]

Steve,
Find another T windshield frame, I think any year will work, one that has problems of some sort, but has a good straight section long enough to replace your lower w/s section. This will be much easier than welding those two parts back together or making a new part. The filler that the hinge screws go into will slide out of your frame (probably not easily, but it will come out!) and put it in the new piece of tubing.

[modeltbarn]

I can’t really tell the condition of the pieces of the steel tubing from the pictures. If they are solid and it’s just broken In two pieces I think it can be TIG welded fairly easily.

If I see this correctly, the break is at the point equal to top of the bracket, and top of the ‘interfering’ part Is lower. That means any weld inside the tubing won’t be a problem. The weld on the outside of the tubing can be flap disked so it’s smooth. The inside of the channel would be the biggest challenge.... You’d need to do some careful dremel work inside there.

If the steel is solid and you want to try that feel free to email me, I should be able to TIG it pretty easily. The worst case is you’re no worse off than you are now, other than a few bucks for postage

[Steve Jelf]

Find another T windshield frame...

Of course. That's so simple and easy I didn't think of it.
So today I cut a "new" piece out of a junk frame.

Cleaning up the inside of the bracket with some 60 grit.

One of life's exasperating misadventures is dealing with carriage bolts in rounded-out holes.

So today I squared the holes in the left bracket.