Cutting up the Rice Rod body has me thinking ahead to my glass problem. The problem is I don't have any. The Model A has flat glass all around. The windshield should obviously be laminated. Side glass doesn't seem to matter.
The youtube tells me I can cut flat laminated glass fairly easily with a sharp blade and some fire. Seems to be fairly common. Okay. Where can you buy a flat sheet of laminated glass for a reasonable price? Do any junkyard cars have it? Maybe I'm way out of my league and should just pay a shop?
Utilitarian 4x4s are the place to look for flat panes of automotive safety glass in the junkyard - Samurais, Wranglers, Defenders, FJ-series trucks.
Tempered and laminated? Can you cut THAT yourself?
I wonder if the rear glass from a 90's or even earlier Suburban will work. Either the rear or the two rear-side glass panels?
Ive had local glass shops do flat street rod glass for me. Bring them a accurate cardboard template and a check. Best way to get it done.
What about plexiglass, or whatever it's called now? We made a jeep windshield out of that once and it was easy to work with. It did scratch easier than usual glass when we ran the wipers with Sandy mud not the windshield (i doubt that will be an issue for you) other wise it's been great.
^Lexan. Uncoated lexan yellows in the sun and scratches if you look at it wrong, coated lexan is ultra-expensive.
I was also thinking that getting a hot rod shop to do it might be a better approach than DIY cutting.
ebonyandivory wrote:
Tempered and laminated? Can you cut THAT yourself?
You can't cut tempered glass, it will just shatter.
Pickup truck rear windows would be flat, but will normally have the defroster grid on them.
All the glass for SanFord is 1/4 tempered. I supplied my glass company with templates and they cut and tempered what I needed. Any local glass shop should be able to order it for you. If not, give me a shout.
Curved glass is also doable, but at much, much, higher costs.
stuart in mn wrote:
ebonyandivory wrote:
Tempered and laminated? Can you cut THAT yourself?
You can't cut tempered glass, it will just shatter.
That's why I brought it up. Laminated is one thing but cars need tempered and laminated to be "safe" unless I'm missing something
In reply to Toyman01:
How much per panel should I expect to pay, if you don't mind?
I can also just buy a whole reproduction set of glass for like $295 + shipping
Windshield glass is a glass / plastic laminate, but my understanding is that it isn't tempered. Tempered glass is much less likely to break if hit from any direction other than its edges, and the safety authorities wanted to make sure the windsheild shatters if your head hits it.
In reply to MadScientistMatt:
Isn't the big (obvious) difference the fact that tempered glass breaks into small "cubes" that won't slice off a limb like other sheet glass will.
I thought that was the whole idea behind safety glass and that the temperedness of it is what made it safe and the laminatedness of it kept most of the little glass cubes in place.
Gotta get my nerd out, I am a ceramic engineer, my specialty is glass. Most of my industrial experience is in fiberglass manufacture, but here goes. All automotive glass for the last very long time is tempered. The outside is in compression and the inside is in tension. This makes it very impervious to scratches causing it to break, and allows it to take a heck of a hit before it does break. Once it does, all that stress from the compression and tension turn into surface area, hence the little cubes. The only difference between the front and side or back is that the front is two sheets of glass with plastic laminated between. The rest are just one sheet. If you do much more than just polish tempered glass you will have a mess to clean up, and a broom and dust pan is all that will be needed, or a shop vac.
maschinenbau wrote:
In reply to Toyman01:
How much per panel should I expect to pay, if you don't mind?
I can also just buy a whole reproduction set of glass for like $295 + shipping
The stuff I had cut was around $50-$60 a piece. Normal shapes are usually cheaper. You can expect to pay more locally, I'm buying it at wholesale. Tempered is usually about $5/sqft. Then you add for, cut to template, and ground edges. All which must be done before the tempering process.
Side and rear glass is tempered. Windshields are laminated, but not tempered, otherwise a rock chip would instantly mean you couldn't see. Laminated is much harder to work with, as it is easily broken. I'm not looking forward to replacing the windshields on SanFord. I'll have them made, but I'm probably going to pay a professional to install them.
Toyman01 wrote:
I'm not looking forward to replacing the windshields on SanFord. I'll have them made, but I'm probably going to pay a professional to install them.
I would have guessed the windshield in the bus was the same as used in a F-100 pickup.
edit: Now that I look again at a picture of the bus I see the windshield is definitely not the same as a pickup, I was thinking they used that portion of the standard Ford cab but they didn't.
In reply to stuart in mn:
The only thing Wayne got from Ford, is the chassis, hood, fenders, firewall and dash.
T.J.
UltimaDork
11/15/16 7:37 p.m.
My dad spent most his working life producing butacite and working with windshield manufacturers when they had production issues. That doesn't help solve a one off or custom application.
In reply to TiggerWelder:
Windshields are not tempered. Just laminated. I've broken windshields before - on modern cars - and no, they're definitely not tempered.
you actually don't want tempered glass for the windshield. One good rock and it would shatter and you would not be able to see out.
GSmith
HalfDork
11/16/16 12:30 p.m.
GameboyRMH wrote:
^Lexan. Uncoated lexan yellows in the sun and scratches if you look at it wrong, coated lexan is ultra-expensive.
I was also thinking that getting a hot rod shop to do it might be a better approach than DIY cutting.
Could you use spray can 'headlight restorer' to coat Lexan (maybe after wet sanding it) to provide the UV protection & stop yellowing? Just a thought.
