Glass Windwings

[HappiestDays]

Somehow snapped drivers side plexi with my shoulder as I got out of car at a show Sunday. Thinking about replacing with glass. Any opinions one way or another?

[MillerCobra]

I was thinking the same thing. I must have over tightened the one on the DS, starting to spiderweb out from the bolt hole. The plexiglass ones are rather expensive. The only negative I can think off is the glass ones would be a bit heaver.

[j.miller]

You can have them cut out of glass but they will need to be shipped off to tempered....not a bad idea. Find a glass shop that deals with shower enclosures (tempered glass) they may be able to just send in a pattern of the wind wing .....and you'll need to change how they mount. The set screw is exactly the kind of pressure that "pops" glass.

[Gumball]

If I remember correctly, Cobra Restorers sells the glass version. Maybe ********** does, too. Not sure of other sources.

[mikeinatlanta]

As an alternative: A high quality polycarbonate with a scratch resistant coating will be resistant to breakage, be light, cost less than glass, and look great for a long time. If you go to the trouble of polishing all edges and holes, they are very difficult to crack.

[carlewms]

Here is the link to ********** ...

These are glass ...

http://www.**********accessories.com...ngs-glass.aspx

It looks like that they also sell the hardware for the glass mounting as well ...

http://www.**********accessories.com...-hardware.aspx

[Gale K]

Yep, Finish Line still shows them on their website. I bought from FFR (whichever type of poly they make them from) and almost immediately wished I had purchased the glass ones. The glass is really hard to scratch!

[Real time recon]

This might help....The bigger the better http://www.ebay.com/itm/2-Count-PCSC...MAAOSwbsBXpPCo

[MillerCobra]

Here is my spiderweb on the FFR wind wing. A bit over zealous on the screwdriver I guess.

IMG_0520.jpg

[6t8dart]

has anyone tried using nylon or rubber washers, then a little blue locktite on the threads?

[Inman Lanier]

Old question - never answered. I've just finished my refresh of my 1997 Mk 1. I have the glass and I was wondering if I should use perhaps some thin rubber as a gasket on the front side between the glass and mount, and perhaps rubber round washers and a SS washer on the back side.

Has anyone done this and did it work well?

[Rdone585]

I would drill the holes out slightly larger and use a screw with a larger diameter head (or a thin washer) to spread the load. The drill size should be enough so the screw is not attempting to cut threads in the plexiglass. I've seen this numerous times when working with plexiglass over the years.

[michael everson]

Millercobra. Did you use Loc-tite on those screws? The only time I have ever seen that was from a chemical reaction to loc-tite.
Mike

[SJDave]

If a rock hits tempered glass wind wing hard enough, the result will certainly cause a lack of driving concentration for several seconds. They will explode with tiny chunks of glass (that won't really cut you), but will scare the heck out of you!

The reason most vent wings are made out of Plexiglas (Acrylic plastic) is their tremendous resistance to UV A and B. As far as I know, most headlamp covers and taillight covers are made from Acrylic due to their ability to resisting cracking and crazing in direct sunlight. As Mike mentioned the outgassing of vapors from Loctite or superglue will attack Acrylic and causes spider cracking.

I built a lab machine 20 years ago that was used for Ink Jetting solvent based inks, of course we used 1 meter x 1 meter windows on three sides for observation, they were ruined in less then 4 weeks. We picked Acrylic because the inks were being UV cured by a lamp in the enclosure. So, new windows in Polycarbonate, but 20 years ago they didn't have great scratch resistant coatings on them, so the routine cleaning caused fine scratches after a year of use. So we replaced them on warranty. Thought about using tempered glass, but the mechanical design was pretty much set with 20 holes through the plastic ones. No glass guy would take the job to drill 20 holes in Glass...he said the odds were that at least 1 hole would crack in each panel.

So Polycarbonate also has much higher impact resistance, is solvent resistant, but will craze and get brittle over time from UV exposure. But, since most of our cars sit under a cover in or the garage 95% of the time, I had my local Tap Plastics make a set for me 5 years ago with the latest Scratch coating, which also improves the UV resistance too. Here's the info sheet description:

"TAP Plastics proudly provides AR-2 polycarbonate in four different thicknesses so you can find the best solution for your next project without sacrificing optical quality. This mar-resistant plastic is perfect for replacement car windows, machine guards, viewports, and gauge covers. Being half the weight of glass with a much higher impact strength, the AR-2 Polycarbonate is perfect for replacing glass in racecar windows where these properties are very important. Scratch-resistant polycarbonate features a proprietary coating on both sides that significantly improves the plastic sheet’s resistance to weathering, ultraviolet damage, chemicals, acids, and so much more. "

They charged me $70 to make a pair with radiused edges and the two mounting holes. Not too bad! Still look brand new.

HTH..
Dave