Removing T4 Trident gutters?

Hi there,

I've got a classic case of rusty, leaky T4 windscreen on my 1993 Trident. I took it to a well-regarded bodyshop and they said they'd have to take the gutters off to work on it. By work on it, they mean removing the windscreen then repairing the rust.

Three questions: 1) do they really need to remove the gutters? 2) is there a recommended approach if they do indeed have to remove the gutters? 3) has anyone ever done this? 

Thanks!

Chris

It's probably worth looking through the old threads here on the subject of gutters (via the forum search tool).

Unfortunately A/S had several different ways of making and fixing gutters on their various van conversions of that age. I've heard of gutters made of GRP, gutters made of GRP and ply bonded together, and also ones made of vacuum moulded plastic.

Similarly they were sometimes fixed by bonding in place, and sometimes by bonding threaded stand-offs and then screwing them onto those. In each case the approach to removal will (of course) be different.

-mojo- wrote:It's probably worth looking through the old threads here on the subject of gutters (via the forum search tool).

Unfortunately A/S had several different ways of making and fixing gutters on their various van conversions of that age. I've heard of gutters made of GRP, gutters made of GRP and ply bonded together, and also ones made of vacuum moulded plastic.

Similarly they were sometimes fixed by bonding in place, and sometimes by bonding threaded stand-offs and then screwing them onto those. In each case the approach to removal will (of course) be different.

Thanks, mojo. There are a couple of threads about T4 Troopers but nothing specific to the Trident. Probably similar, but worth putting it out there.

Some time ago, years probably, there was a thread on the T4 forum about removing all the plastic mouldings (they are hiding the join between van and roof rather than just being gutters), if I remember it was quite a job, to be undertaken as a last resort, there's a bit more than Evostick holding them on.
Perhaps it's the front part of the moulding that wraps around the front which is stopping the screen coming out ?

Yeah, just the front, but not sure you could just remove the front. Maybe it's possible.

A lot of water ingress in all this rain. Maybe from the gutters. It's pooling on the rear seat after dripping from a soaking wet bit above the sliding door.

£££

one good feature of AS 'vans is the care taken to cover the basic window frames with moulding surrounds...the downside is the careful dismantling needed to find if the windows actually leak. Certainly,on my t4's the window blinds/flyscreens were fragile and delicate, full of small springs just waiting to escape. Handle with care.
It might be possible that your top window is letting in water and finding it's way down.
One slightly unusual way to find a leak is to do it in the dark, at night - use a torch inside the van whilst its raining hard, any water will shine in the beam.

It was oddly dry this morning... hmm.

This van is going to cost me a fortune.