After lots of great advice from Registry members on 356Talk, I decided to tackle the job of freeing the 3 pieces of the brass windshield frame from each other on my 1960 Drauz Roadster (86904). All of the exterior screws and hardware had been removed, but they still would not come apart. You see, the channel that the rubber windshield and glass normally sit in had been filled by some previous owner (turkey) with bondo on top of remants of previous rubber/sealer and had apparently affixed itself permantly to the frame. (By the way, each brass
windshield post has the last 3 numbers of the chassis number stamped near the top of the post under where the aluminum channels for the side window rubber weatherstrips for the convertible are mounted.)

I decided to free the posts from the top part of the frame first. I laid the part that I was going to work on first on top of my best astroturf golf teeing mat (it makes a nice cushion). Grabbing a 5/16" cold chisel and hammer I started to gently tap at the dastardly bondo stuff. Being
careful to not touch the precious frame, little pieces, then big chunks started to free themselves from their ill-placed imprisonment in Felix's windshield frame... Noticing that some rubber/gorilla snot was between the bondo and the frame, I proceeded to spray liberal amounts of the Maestro's favorite stuff, WD40!!! I kept tap, tap, tapping and the bondo kept coming off.... I told my wife that I felt like Michaelangelo creating "David"....it was SO satisfying seeing that bondo coming off and, once again, exposing the beautiful curves of a Porsche Windshield frame living underneath all that rock-hard junk! Every once in awhile I would gasp as I mistakenly hit a tiny bit of brass, so I would just pause, have a sip of beer, and curb my enthusiam in favor of perfection! (Just like Ferdinand would have liked!)

After more patient minutes, I discovered TREASURE! (By profession, I am an archaeologist, so I know when I've found treasure... and this was  definitely the Rosetta stone of Roadster windshield frames.) Hidden underneath the bondo was the unmistakenable head of a stainless steel screw: which screwed up from the channel of the place where the rubber and windshield would be up through the top part of the brass frame into the brass windshield post.... totally hidden from the outside world. No wonder this thing wouldn't come apart! Well, there were still some remnants of the dreaded bondo in the screws of the slot for the screw.... some more WD40 and some gentle taps with the small cold chisel exposed the slot for me... Screwdriver woudn't free it, so a few gentle taps on my trusty Craftsman impact screwdriver freed it in a breeze! Stainless steel screws and brass windshield frames are a perfect match....no corrosion or rust in the threads....they are in perfect condition! Well, I proceeded to free the other post in the same fashion.... Now I have three pieces instead of one!

Now I have to get the rest of the bondo out of the channels....(no wonder the old windshield never sealed right and leaked... Why would someone ever do this?) More to follow later...

Conclusions: WD40 works great if the bondo is attached to chrome and/or a rubber/gorilla snot combination. By gentle tapping with a hammer on a small cold chisel, you can get most of the crud out of the channel. Pretend that you are Michaelangelo creating the statue of David! Be
gentle, slow and don't chip off the places where the statue lives (windshield frame, etc.) It might not be efficient, but it works!

I have more to do, but at the end of today, I realized that I was not Michaelangelo and that I was not doing "David"..... Now I feel like Sandro Botticelli creating the "Re-Birth of Felix" in a
brass and chrome sculpture <grin>!

Good luck and Keep the 356 Faith!

Dan Bell
Carmichael, CA
roadster356@sbcglobal.net