Factory Windscreen Shade Bands

[SweptVolume]

The sun is low this time of the year and it suddenly sparked a memory of looking at the light through the blue tint the the top of my parents' windscreen.

Whatever happened to windscreen shade bands (I think that's what they were called)? They were certainly a big thing in the 90's, with any mid-spec model worth its salt featuring one, and a totally clear glass screen being reserved only for the poverty spec models.

I'm sure I saw one as an option in the configurator of a luxury car I was speccing (possibly a Porsche), so they must still be legal.

It feels like they must've started disappearing around the millennium, which coincides with air conditioning becoming generally standard fit, but I don't think they were there to cool the cabin?

Could it be that, as cars generally grew taller, the area they covered would not offer any benefit to the driver?

Could it be that they never really offered any benefit, and it was an unnecessary expense?

Could it be that they simply fell out of fashion?


And a quick pic of an E34 so fitted, because who doesn't want to look at one of those?

[mmm-five]

Just an option I think (or a spec-specific items).

Had both blue & green gradients on my e34 m5s, and green on the Z4M (the visors are useless on that) - but the F31 has a grey one (or the original screen did, not sure about its replacement).

[TooLateForAName]

was it not before glass was tinted?

[SweptVolume]

TooLateForAName said:

was it not before glass was tinted?

They certainly were much more common in the era before the full illicit drug dealer tints became de rigueur for all parents on the school run, but I'm not sure having a darkened rear would make much difference to the windscreen.

Or are you referring to the very light (often slightly green) tint that was applied to all the glass, and which might also have fallen by the wayside?

[gt40steve]

TooLateForAName said:

was it not before glass was tinted?

Two different things. Tinted glass and / or top tint windscreen.

Not a strip of vinyl, a windscreen with a built-in top tint or gradient band, that was the terminology.

Ford didn't factory fit any top tint windscreens to my knowledge.
I used to have an Escort van that the first owner had fitted with an after market top tint screen. When it got damaged during my ownership & needed replacing I called my insurance companies windscreen company, no problem they said we replace 'like for like'.

They do seem less common now but several are still available if you google top tint windscreen.