The Problem
I had never folded my windshield down before so I attempted to one day. When I went to the driver side bolt came out very hard and when I got the bolt out I could see that it was so badly rusted the bolt no longer had threads on 1/2 the area that it should have. When I went to unbolt the passenger side "crunch" not only was the bolt gone but the all around where it bolts into was rotted. I folded down the windshield and I had lots a flaky rust all over the place. From seeing other bronco and talking with other owners on the Bronco lists I found out that this was a pretty common problem.

The Fix My first thought was to just drill through the windshield frame and use a bigger carriage bolt. however due to the amount of rust already present I thought the the bolt head would eventually bust through since that method was weaker than the stock setup. My next thought was that I needed a big washer to help distribute the force the bolt was putting on the windshield. I then measured the width between the hinge and windows seal, just a hair over two inches. So instead of a big washer which would look ugly I cut about an 11 1/2 inch piece of 2" wide 1/4" thick sheet-metal which fit perfectly and appear to be the best solution to the problem.

  1. The first step was to clean up the area where the rust was. I used a flathead screw driver to break away the big flakes and the went in with a wire wheel brush on my drill to clean it even more.
  2. The next step was intended to include the use of Por15 but no one had it locally and the NH distributors to my luck were closed for two weeks. I wanted the project done that day so I instead used Keen's Rust Converter. It was pretty easy to used. I just brushed it one since that area was hidden behind the dash.
  3. After letting that dry I drilled the windshield frame with my 3/8 bit through the dash hole to keep it centered well.
  4. Then I cut the sheet-metal into two pieces about 11 1/2" long. Why 11 1/2" long? Because it extended from the outside of the windshield frame and the line from the slight bubble in the stock hood lined up with it. This leaves the bolt just off center. I Then wire wheeled the sheetmetal to remove the oxidation and painted both sides with rattle can primer.
  5. Once the sheetmetal was dry I coated the back of it with clear silicon sealer to prevent water from getting behind it. I then drilled 1/8" inch holes and each corner of the sheet metal and fastened stainless steel pop rivet as I drill each hole.
  6. The windshield was then folded down and then folded up an old heavy glove and placed it on the hood under where the hole would be drilled. Using the previously drilled hole as a guide I drilled through the new sheet metal. I then used some red rattle can paint and here's the results.


Parts list

*I got a 4' piece of sheet metal from Napa for $8.99 and and the bolt hardware came to $3.00

Tools