new windshield options for AMT 1959 Galaxie

[gtx6970]

My front glass is a little tattered

 

Anyone know of the windshield from the modern 1960 Starliner will fit?

 

Ive tried the front glass from the revell retractable kit and its close , but leaves no room for error for install 

[Mark]

'60 is completely different, it does not wrap around like '59.

[espo]

Maybe use the original windshield as a dimensional guide to form a new windshield from thin clear plastic. 

[johnyrotten]

3 hours ago, gtx6970 said:

My front glass is a little tattered

 

Anyone know of the windshield from the modern 1960 Starliner will fit?

 

Ive tried the front glass from the revell retractable kit and its close , but leaves no room for error for install 

How "tattered "is the windshield? I've had success polishing out scratches, or is this cracked or glue melted?

[Len Woodruff]

The 57 glass is much closer than the 60.

[gtx6970]

13 minutes ago, espo said:

Maybe use the original windshield as a dimensional guide to form a new windshield from thin clear plastic. 

I may have to give this a try , then maybe make the vent wing glass separately . I think the glass has some compound curves in it I may not be able to pull off 

1 minute ago, johnyrotten said:

How "tattered "is the windshield? I've had success polishing out scratches, or is this cracked or glue melted?

Mostly scratches. a few you can hang your nail in . 

I've tried a polish I have here and no help. 

Looking for my bottle of Future now to see if I dip it will help 

 

 

[gtx6970]

I just tried the glass from this one. Not even close , WAY too short in all aspects 

 

I have a 59 Mercury kit here . I can use. Its a little better . But not perfect either

Still going thru my annuals boxes as I have just about all the late 50- early 60ds builders 

 

I dont have one of the AMT 57 Ford kits here to try 

 

 

Edited March 18 by gtx6970

[espo]

6 minutes ago, gtx6970 said:

I may have to give this a try , then maybe make the vent wing glass separately . I think the glass has some compound curves in it I may not be able to pull off 

Mostly scratches. a few you can hang your nail in . 

I've tried a polish I have here and no help. 

Looking for my bottle of Future now to see if I dip it will help 

 

 

Look around for the thinnest clear plastic you can find. I Have some sheets of clear that I got at an office supply store that could also be printed on, around the .010" thickness.  

[johnyrotten]

48 minutes ago, espo said:

Look around for the thinnest clear plastic you can find. I Have some sheets of clear that I got at an office supply store that could also be printed on, around the .010" thickness.  

100% agree. Michael's has clear acetate in the same thickness, 12x12 or 6x6 inch package. 

[gtx6970]

Thanks all, Ive gone thru all my old annuals and none of them have the same glass ( even the old 59 Mercury ) 

 

So Im at either try my hand to make one, ,,,,try to polish it out best I can ( I have a fear of snapping it in half )  

or look for a replacement , be  it modern kit or original annual kit, Neither of which  seem to be much of a viable option 

[StevenGuthmiller]

You can get even thinner clear plastic sheets than 0.01.

The stuff that I use routinely for replacing kit glass is 0.007 “clear lay film”.

The same stuff they use for overhead projectors, etc.

Extremely flexible, but still might cause you headaches with wraparound glass such as the ‘59 Ford.

 

 

 

Steve

Edited March 18 by StevenGuthmiller

[johnyrotten]

The gto I built had a few bad scratches in the windshield, caught a finger nail as well. Very fine sandpaper followed by Mcguire scratch x and finally novus polish. I had found a replacement online so I wasn't afraid of a mistake. I look at some mistakes, and the cost of making them as the cost of that education. I did everything by hand. No power tools. I actually tried the scratch x before sanding. That way i didn't go too far right from the start. Might be worth a shot.

[gtx6970]

Well.

 

I spent almost 2 hrs just polishing and polishing.

Figured I had nothing to loose 

 

It polished out really well

Not flawless. You can see a ghost image of the  scratch if you look at it from an angle  and Brite lite 

 

In Natural light... it's gone

Overall I'm happy and can live with it.

 

[Sledsel]

Came out great!!!! Did you wet sand first? That would have been my suggestion.

[gtx6970]

25 minutes ago, Sledsel said:

Came out great!!!! Did you wet sand first? That would have been my suggestion.

No

 

Just rubbed and rubbed..then rubbed some more

 

Never real hard pressure as my fear was breaking it 

[Sledsel]

If you run into this again, wet sand with 1000, 2000, 4000, 6000 then polish. I had good luck doing that on my '59 hardtop

[gman]

You can pack the back of the glass with modelling clay to support it if you need to apply some pressure to the windshield in wet sanding/polishing. I figured that out after snapping a few windshields

[gtx6970]

7 hours ago, gman said:

You can pack the back of the glass with modelling clay to support it if you need to apply some pressure to the windshield in wet sanding/polishing. I figured that out after snapping a few windshields

I'll have to remember this trick.

 

I have several old annuals to build. And the few I pulled out yesterday . None had mint windshields in them 

9 hours ago, Sledsel said:

If you run into this again, wet sand with 1000, 2000, 4000, 6000 then polish. I had good luck doing that on my '59 hardtop

Will do Thanks all for the suggestions 

[SfanGoch]

Wash the polished windshield to remove whatever residue from the polishing compound,; that is, if you used any. Then, dip the windshield in acrylic floor finish, such as Quick Shine, or Alclad Aqua Gloss Clear. When dry, the floor finish/gloss coat will fill in the scratches, making them virtually invisible.