broken windshield repair attempt

[62rebel]

i got a broken windshield (i had a spare good one) that i decided to try to fix, since the question has arisen lately about that problem....

luckily, all the pieces were there, it was a simple matter to butt them together, one by one, and cement them together with solvent. don't even TRY to use tube glue or super glue for this.... only solvent will work. clear parts cement won't work either.....

ANYWAY. once the part was one piece again, it definitely had visible seam lines and spots where the solvent etched the surface. can't be helped. so... i broke out the sandpaper and smoothed out the joints, and decided to apply more solvent to the seams in a further effort to get them cleared up... more sandpaper, and then, by scraping the piece across the grain of sanding (i had been sanding lengthwise, i scraped vertically), i was able to get the joints smooth on the outside surface. i also sanded on the inside surface and scraped it as well; with much more effort the main areas COULD be made transparent once again, but those seams are not going to go away, regardless of the effort.

BUT: the effort was not WASTED.... a new windshield could be vacuformed from this one, or simply copy it with clear styrene sheet as it is not a compound curved part.

BTW: due to my gargantuan thumbs (sometimes i have ten of them), there were smears of solvent on the surfaces, that, once dried completely, could be sanded/scraped and polished clear again. so, for you guys who've, once again, gotten glue where it ain't supposed to be, all is not lost!

[Harry P.]

We could have told you that a cracked windshield can't be fixed. In fact someone else asked that question just the other day.

Easiest fix is cut a new one out of clear acetate.

[62rebel]

i wanted to give the question a Mythbuster style closure. i've known for decades that a broken one is unrepairable except to use for a pattern. stopping somebody from chucking a whole kit in the trash because of a ruined glass piece is all i had in mind.

[XJ6]

Easiest fix is cut a new one out of clear acetate.

and looks more realistic

[ZombieHunter26]

On the subject of broken windshields, they make the perfect subjects for aged and/or damaged builds.

Take the windshield on my sort-of-recent '72 Olds build-

Got super glue, solvent glue, and clearcoat runoff on it- so I just cut the glue blemish out, busted it up a bit with some cracks, and voila! It had purpose again.

Then again, it'd only work if that was what you wanted to do with your build :/

[VW Dave]

On the subject of broken windshields, they make the perfect subjects for aged and/or damaged builds.

I agree.