1990 Volvo DL, 150K miles (still a baby)

The windshield has leaked since purchasing the car 6 years ago. I’ve had the windshield replaced by Portland Glass, but I never addressed the real problem - rust in the upper and lower left hand corners of the body where the windshield gasket meets the body of the car. Of course this leak plays havoc with the fuse box and invariably I get a bulb warning light on due to the wet wires or a poor connection. Once the car dries out, the bulb warning light *usually* goes away.

Today I took it back in to see if they could do anything. They put a bit more utherene on the upper left corner where one could see the gasket had separated from the body. But this is just a band-aid. Bottom line is I need to have the windshield removed and get some body work done to clean up this rust.

The person at Portland Glass noted there are 3 drains holes on the body of the car along and under the bottom of the windshield gasket. He also noted that the windshield gasket is not rigid, that water is meant to seep behind it, run down along the sides and drain out the bottom drain or weep holes. He expected these were clogged, thus the water pooled which eventually led to rust and my problems. He felt it was a poor design on Volvo’s part.

Regardless, I am headed for some body work at my local body shop to fix the problem.

The drain holes are important; the water has to get out somehow. So when I get the body work done, I want to make sure they not only get rid of the rust, but also leave drain holes.

Does all this make sense? What specific directions should I given to the body shop? And I know there are special clips used for the Volvo for the windshield. What type are they? Anything else I should be aware of or tell the body shop?

I only want to do this once, and not have it reoccur 5 years down the line.

thanks

Yeah, I noticed on lifting the molding, all the dirt collected underneath. When the windshield is installed, a channel remains around the perimeter which catches water.

My solution was to fill in the channel with urethane. But it will probably make removal of the windshield harder.

I didn't bother replacing the molding because it makes scraping ice off harder. Rather, I painted the urethane the body color.
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1980 245 Canadian B21A with SU carb but electronic ignition and M46 trans in Brampton, Ont.

That happened on one of my 240's. Rust in the corner due to a clogged drain hole, most likely due to windshield sealer blocking it. I had the installer pull the windsheild at my house a week or so before installing the glass. This gave me some time to fix the hole rust. I used POR 15 and fiberglass matt. The one thing I would say is to make sure the glass installer doesn't block the holes with the sealer when laying down the bead.

There are two similar posts happening now on this topic.

Can someone say whether the 91-92 style is meant to be installed without drain holes? It seemed to me these later windshields' being glued in like they are, there would be no point. My 84 had holes in the bottom corner, and boy, are they sure are covered up now.

The 91-92 style, and some bodywork, could solve the problem jdbs3 is having with water getting. I am presuming if these fit my 84, it would work in a 90.

Steve

Later style still needs drain holes as water still gets under the outside rubber seal. Its not meant to be water tight.