Vintage car windscreen - where to get a replacement cut?
Discussion
Seeking some help or advice if possible.
Due to my own stupidity ended up with a crack across the corner of the windscreen for our 1930 vintage car.
It is one of those old horizontally split screens where the top section hinges upwards from the top, so the broken piece of glass has no frame around the bottom of it. After a bit of a struggle, due to the amount of sealant that had been put around the three framed sides of the glass, I've managed to remove it.
So I have the current windscreen out of the car and have also created a plywood template which I think is a slightly better fit than the glass I have taken out.
The one that I've removed is neither old nor original - it was fitted by my father-in-law in the 1980s. It is laminated glass, but only about 4mm thick , although it has been perfect adequate for the last 30 years or so.
Anyway, I rather thought I would be able to take the old windscreen and the plywood template into my local glass dealer and get them to cut another one from some laminated glass.
No way, they say. We don't do windscreens because the legal minimum thickness is 6.4mm and the thickest laminated glass, we have is 6.1mm.
Somebody I bumped into at Prescott Hill climb told me he had got one cut at Autoglass, but I phoned my local branch and they recommended a guy who can come to my house and cut one. He is offering to do that, but will do it by hand and again it will be 6.4mm glass.
Firstly - I'm not sure I can get a piece of glass that is 50% thicker into the original windscreen frame.
Secondly - I rather thought that in this modern day and age, I would be able to take them the template, they would scan it on a computer and some clever plasma cutting machine with the zip round a piece of laminated glass and polish up the exposed edges as well as cutting out some little indents I need to go around the windscreen wiper bolts.
Any advice on the best way to get a flat piece of glass cut would be much appreciated. Windscreen in question is about 1m x 20cm
Due to my own stupidity ended up with a crack across the corner of the windscreen for our 1930 vintage car.
It is one of those old horizontally split screens where the top section hinges upwards from the top, so the broken piece of glass has no frame around the bottom of it. After a bit of a struggle, due to the amount of sealant that had been put around the three framed sides of the glass, I've managed to remove it.
So I have the current windscreen out of the car and have also created a plywood template which I think is a slightly better fit than the glass I have taken out.
The one that I've removed is neither old nor original - it was fitted by my father-in-law in the 1980s. It is laminated glass, but only about 4mm thick , although it has been perfect adequate for the last 30 years or so.
Anyway, I rather thought I would be able to take the old windscreen and the plywood template into my local glass dealer and get them to cut another one from some laminated glass.
No way, they say. We don't do windscreens because the legal minimum thickness is 6.4mm and the thickest laminated glass, we have is 6.1mm.
Somebody I bumped into at Prescott Hill climb told me he had got one cut at Autoglass, but I phoned my local branch and they recommended a guy who can come to my house and cut one. He is offering to do that, but will do it by hand and again it will be 6.4mm glass.
Firstly - I'm not sure I can get a piece of glass that is 50% thicker into the original windscreen frame.
Secondly - I rather thought that in this modern day and age, I would be able to take them the template, they would scan it on a computer and some clever plasma cutting machine with the zip round a piece of laminated glass and polish up the exposed edges as well as cutting out some little indents I need to go around the windscreen wiper bolts.
Any advice on the best way to get a flat piece of glass cut would be much appreciated. Windscreen in question is about 1m x 20cm
Pilkington may be able to help: http://www.pilkington.com/en-gb/uk/automotive/clas...
InitialDave said:
Ask your glass supplier to cut you a piece to your template for your custom designed greenhouse?
Yes, in general. I'd say don't go to a motor glass company and don't tell the domestic glass company that you do go to what it's for - also safer not to invent a purpose.Allan L said:
InitialDave said:
Ask your glass supplier to cut you a piece to your template for your custom designed greenhouse?
Yes, in general. I'd say don't go to a motor glass company and don't tell the domestic glass company that you do go to what it's for - also safer not to invent a purpose.When we called Autoglass yesterday they recommended a guy they use for this sort of thing and he actually quoted us £80 to provide and cut a piece of glass yesterday and arrived at the house the same afternoon. Sadly, when he saw the template/old screen he said he couldn't cut one with his mobile kit but recommended the glass cutting place my wife is going to this morning.
I think the reason he couldn't cut it was because it needs 2 notches out of the top to fit round where the windscreen wiper bolts go through the frame.
To be honest, if I'd known it was going to be this difficult to get a piece of glass cut I would probably have left the old one in place for longer as it only had a crack across the top nearside corner. But when I was at Prescott a couple of weeks ago I showed it to some other owners and one said it would be really easy to remove (so so wrong) and the other said once it was out, I'd be able to nip into any branch of Autoglass and they would cut one (I think he said using a plasma cutter or something) for about a tenner. That'll teach me to take advice from blokes who are even older than I am.
V8 Animal said:
You can get 4.4 laminated
Yes, the screen I took out was just over 4mm.But the first company I called said that the legal minimum for a windscreen is 6.4mm
Hopefully we'll get one cut if we don't specify it's for a windscreen as others have suggested here.
I can actually fit a 6.4 mm screen in the frame. Which probably explains why the one I took out had so much sealant around it and was hence very difficult to remove.
Some years back I built a special and wanted a couple of bits of flat laminated glass. Autoglass did it for a very reasonable sum using my plywood pattern. The man who did the cutting said that they did quite a bit with flat glass for vans and buses and so on, so hopefully you will soon be fixed.
A993LAD said:
Yes, the screen I took out was just over 4mm.
But the first company I called said that the legal minimum for a windscreen is 6.4mm
Hopefully we'll get one cut if we don't specify it's for a windscreen as others have suggested here.
I can actually fit a 6.4 mm screen in the frame. Which probably explains why the one I took out had so much sealant around it and was hence very difficult to remove.
I could make it for you, but it won’t be stamped.But the first company I called said that the legal minimum for a windscreen is 6.4mm
Hopefully we'll get one cut if we don't specify it's for a windscreen as others have suggested here.
I can actually fit a 6.4 mm screen in the frame. Which probably explains why the one I took out had so much sealant around it and was hence very difficult to remove.
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