On a previous teener (about 20 years ago,) before I had it painted, I had the seams in front of the windshield between the cowl and the fender welded over and then just painted. It looked great, got rid of another place for rust to start and eliminated another piece of worthless plastic trim.

Unfortunately, I sold the car two years later and so I don't know the long term outcome of the process.

Has anyone else done this little bit of work. The present restoration project has some rust in that seam on both sides and when I cut it out, I plan to just weld them shut and paint over.

Any thoughts....

2-OH!

Very early cars came that way; 914/4 to 444 and 914/6 to 52 or something like that. So roughly 500 cars. Then the factory thought better of it, probably for ease of repair. I've seen it done several times. Looks okay, but as you said, I don't know how well it lasted.

DaveP

welding it up "might" work. the very early cars came that way.
just don't put fiberglass or bondo in there. won't last a summer ...

Andy

Filled mine in about five years ago ,after cutting out the rust. Having just finished the engine rebuild and installation,I only have 50 +- road miles on it . No cracking yet . I was told that they will crack from road vibration. Still testing.

MIG welds tend to be more brittle than TIG welds. I would bet that the method may be important in this area.