Hehr crank up& out windows on my '61

[Studioman]

It appears my windows on my 61' Ambassador are soldered together at the corners (The frame part that moves).
All but one of the windows are in excellent shape (Once cleaned up).

The one window had apparently came apart and was blind riveted together (NOT going to work for me).

So I took it apart. All four sides of the window are in great shape and the rivet holes can be welded closed and buffed. That part is simple.

Should I solder the window corners back together or just weld them? Obviously once the new glass is put into it, the glass will build rigidity by design.

If the way to go is solder, is there any specific mix/type of solder I should use?
Has anyone re-soldered window frames back together on this type of Hehr windows?

Thanks in advance for any input!

[Studioman]

I REALLY need to know my options on putting back together the one window that "fell apart" ASAP.
Again, it appears to be soldered at the corners on the inside.
Thanks in advance. I am/was hoping to be putting the windows back in by next weekend.
Thanks!

[Boxite]

I have no experience with the windows you describe but...

It is highly Unlikely they are soldered. Solder is an alloy of lead, antimony, and sometimes silver. Except for something exotic, I don't believe those alloys adhere to aluminum.

Chances are the corners that appear to be "soldered" are actually welded. SOME Aluminum alloys may be TIG or MIG welded. (2024 doesn't weld but other series do and if other windows on the AS are welded surely the one you're working on is the same alloy....)

Another solution might be to use blind rivets. Why isn't that a solution for you?

[Thalweg]

I had one of the corners crack on one of my windows. I also thought it was solder. I put a pretty hot soldering iron to it, thinking I could re-melt the solder to fix the crack. I couldn't get the it to melt at all. It doesn't seem to be welded because the two pieces of aluminum do not seem to be fused together. It seems to be more similar to a braze, but with some sort of silver colored metal instead of bronze. I never came up with a good answer on how to fix the crack.

[vinstream]

I weld all my corners and then grind and smooth so that when polished the corners look like one. The windows were not soldered rather brazed together at the hehr factory. From my research that type of brazing rod is no longer around.

[Studioman]

I also tried to melt the "Solder", with no sign of melting at all. Some kind of old-school brazing rod would make the most sense.
When you welded through the brazing/solder (lack of a better term), did you experience any issues?
The window was put back together with blind rivets, but IMO, it looked like crap with the rivets in only the one window. I kept the small angle brackets just in case, but I'd rather not have the one window be riveted together.
Thanks for confirming what I thought to be the situation.