Thursday 27 February 2014

Windows have arrived

The first big question asked by almost everyone on this project what am I doing about the windows? Alot of people ask will I cut them down; the answer to that is no as I will explain below;

Side and rear glass is always tempered which is classed as safety glass, it is tempered to ensure if broken it breaks into pieces and does not shard which may cut you to piece in an accident. You can think of toughened glass like a sweet, there is a hard coat over the top and a soft inside (its not soft but less than the surface) when the tension on the hard outside is broken then the window shatters therefore if I cut it I would end up with a pile a pieces. I have seen on youtube tempered glass cut with a plasma but as soon as the glass cools it pops so this is no good, you can anneal the glass and then cut it and re toughen the glass but you need all the correct kilns and jigs to do this and it would be very expensive.

The front screen is never toughened or every stone that hit the windscreen would pop it into millions of pieces so in this instance you have 2 pieces of glass non tempered sandwiching a plastic inner which is stuck to the both pieces of glass, the plastic inner provides the flexibility to allow the glass to smash but then holds it all together, this is a safe method and has been used for many years. Many people presume that its toughened. It's not as that would be crazy, just think how when a little stone hits the screen and it shatters into a million pieces, you would not want that so the laminated glass allows the class to chip, crack and shatter but holds it all together.
The front screen can be cut but it is an art to cut both sides and then break it correctly, something I am yet to do.

All windows in cars need to meet a set standard, because I have changed the chassis of this car I need to take the car to the new IVA (BIVA / SVA) test and the windows will be reviewed so I can't put anything in there. Thankfully a call to plastics4performance and some fibreglass templates + money meant that I got all the side and rear windows manufactured all with the correct ece 43r markings. The plastic is a safety plastic and is treated differently so that it meets the IVA book recommendation and has been tested.

Here are a few of the screens, they are blue because I am not removing the plastic protective screen until I fit them.


I have been working hard on the car and not posting recently as I want to really get a move on with the car and I do not think that the saga will be going for very much longer