Screen Surround Welding / Repairs

[Billy Smalls]

Hi

The time has come to sort out my soggy (and I do mean soggy) floors - the culprit is of course a very leaky windscreen. Classic rust coursed by the mild steel clips!!! even Volvo weren't perfect!!!

Will I need to completely remove the black 'soft' dashboard top? and if so, can one drive the car without it in place.

I'd tie up any bits that were flapping around but want to strip as much myself, before I drove it to the bodyshop.

thanks

[Volvorama]

I think you'll find that the dash top on a 144 isn't a readily removable part. If it's a major welding session you may have to pull the whole dash away a bit from the screen aperture. The early type dash without the centre console is fairly easy to detach but in all cases the problem area is the steering lock and the column itself which use shear bolts so there are no heads left on them. These can still be undone if you carefully weld another bolt to the left over stub. Some shear bolts will have worked loose anyway, in particular those on the early steering lock. All can be replaced with conventional bolts on re-assembly, of course.
One thing to consider is that the bonded 144 aperture is very similar to the 240, although the latter does not have the holes for the stupid metal clips. 240 screen trims are attached to the glass with plastic clips so it's worth using this system instead. The 240 screen trim (and screen) fit fine and the 80s trim off a GL has a wide bright metal part.