Had new glass installed. Had pitting that would show up at night. Bell Glass in Phoenix did the work. I took the windshield to them. Great work at a fair price.
It just makes me a bit happy that a guy actually goes to a local glass shop, has the work done and tells us rather than asking who he can order a piece of glass from off the net being totally oblivious to the fact that local shops have cut and fit flat glass since cars had windshields.
Nice ,, & that you found a local shop still willing to do, Mr 48 here where I'm @(NVA Area) can not find a shop to custom cut glass & finish , ( shops that been around 50 plus years) Nor willing to get flat glass , ( cut my own been awhile ) Called 5 places , the runaround , Most have been passed on to kids /family, So I ordered from N West Cost .
Usually the oldest glass shop in town is the one that will go out of their way to help you. My glass guy does a lot of work out of a Chevy camper van, but took my vent and window assemblies back to his shop to work on them. He came to my house to do the windshield. It will be a bad day when he retires.
Local glass shop did my front and rear glass. I brought them cardboard templates. $90 each and I installed.
These posts make me realize how lucky I truly am. The fact that somebody taught me how to cut glass, build an engine, do bodywork and paint.... priceless. I have an old school manual machine shop at the top of the hill from me, 15 minutes east of me is a driveline shop that makes all of my driveshafts, and across the county line is Terry that rebuilds my alternators and starters. I really have it good...
One of the few things I did not attempt, had it done by a pro...anyone that ever did (or tried) to put a windshield in a C1 Corvette will understand.
The local guy said he could cut me a glass, but when he started talking about gluing it in with urethane on a rubber gasket, I decided he hadn't installed much old glass. Figure I'll just do the install myself. I did my VW Bug and my Maverick, didn't have any problems.
...But you didn't mention, or put in a good word for that "nearby" upholstery shop...you're gonna get yourself in deep shit buddy
When I started playing with these things, back in the last century, I broke in the "new guy" at the local glass company. Over the last 25 years, that guy has done nearly all my glass. He own's the glass shop now, but his kid is doing most of the glass installation these days. The last glass he installed was a mess. The new glass had a scratch on it, and there were leaks he wouldn't fix. I have a new guy now. My experience with glass mounted in rubber gaskets over the past few years has not been good, gluing the front and rear glass in with urethane is a big improvement over using leaking rubber gaskets these days. I don't believe todays rubber is nearly as good as it was 10 years ago.
I agree with you Gene. I think there's something different in the formula that makes it rot quicker. The rubber window gaskets on my 47 are hard as a rock on the sun baked outside, but still a bit flexible inside. On the other hand, I see two and three year old rubber hoses already cracking and brittle.
According to my new glass guy, the current rubber gaskets for glass no longer seals to the glass, like it did a couple years ago. On my last truck, the new rubber gaskets around the two piece windshield are both leaking in the bottom corners, between the rubber and the glass. Both pieces of glass are fully seated in the rubber, and the rubber was dated as being made in early in 2021, so it wasn't old stock. The "fix" is to pull the glass, weld extra material around the windshield pinch weld and bond the glass to the new pinch weld. good thing the truck hasn't been painted yet. I asked about putting urethane between the gasket and the glass, and he got the deer in the headlight look on his face. I concluded that might not have been a good idea, I suspect if that every had to be replaced it would not have been fun.
Young glass guys have no idea that they need to use "bedding" caulk or compound to seal glass to the rubber and rubber to the metal. By young glass guys I mean most 50 and younger. Silicon does not stick well to glass and urethane sticks too well to everything.
Urethane is relatively new with auto glass. It seals but also serves to keep the windshield IN the frame in case of human contact in an accident.
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