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Windshield, tempered glass?

M

MARTINSR

Donation Time
Hello guys, I just brought home a 1960 Alpine that fell in my lap. It's actually for my 16 year old son's and I will be guiding him along the way. As we were digging into it this past weekend (it's a total basket case) I discovered that I believe the windshield is tempered glass, is it?

Thanks in advance for your help,

Brian
 
Last edited:
M

mikephillips

Donation Time
Windshields should be a laminated glass where two pieces of glass have a plastic type film sandwiched betweene them so that it will not shatter from impact. Tempered glass is normally used for door windows and some rear windows where impact will cause it to turn into little cubes rather than shards. The only windshields I've seen that were not laminated are on much older cars than the Alpine, which are before the development of laminated glass I assume.
 
M

MARTINSR

Donation Time
The thing is from what I know about European cars (not much) they used tempered glass windshields up into the seventies or even eighties.

I have to assume that if a car ever came to America and was licensed here it had to have a laminated windshield come to think of it. But looking at this glass it sure looks like tempered. Right off the bat after having it sitting in the yard a few days it hit me that the windshield looks an awful lot like a back glass from some other car! Just the shape of it reminds me of a back glass.

Brian

IMGP2007_zps13bfe458.jpg
 
sunalp

sunalp

Diamond Level Sponsor
Hi Brian,
Nice Alpine with what looks like very few body issues. Should make a good
resto project!
Just curious, are you also on the body shop forum? There's a guy on there
from the Bay area that goes with the same moniker and is also named
Brian. Coincidence?

In any event, Brian at the body shop forum always had great advice to pass
along. My car, a black Alpine, was on that site back in 2010. Got lots of good
advice and info there!
Cheers!
Steve
 
M

MARTINSR

Donation Time
Yes Steve, I am on a few body shop forums which one was it you visited? Yep, my son and I were going to build a Lotus 7 from scratch.....and we end up with this Alpine. Here's how it goes, I know a guy who comes by the shop and he knows a bunch about race cars, I asked him about high performance parts for the Pinto 2300 motor we had picked up the day before. He asked me what it was for, I told him the Lotus 7 dream car my son has in his head and he asks how I am going to register it? I then got a BIG education on titling homebuilts as this guy is VERY knowledgeable in the subject.

The next time I see him he told me of this "junk" Alpine that I could get with a clear title and use a the firewall with the vin tag off the Alpine on my "Lotus" and it would be a Sunbeam Alpine. I called the guy up with the Alpine and he is describing it to me and I told him this car is WAY too nice, I don't want it to cut up, there is no way I could do that if it's as nice as he said. Well the price was $300 and I just went and got the whole thing and now it's my son's car and the Lotus will have to be for another time in life. This car is very solid with only a little rust in the floor, all the underside is super solid, it's really a pretty nice car.

Besides, I like the Alpine MUCH more for him, with the removable hard top and roll up windows and all, plus he can remove the windshield and have a little windscreen and have a lot of "race car" fun too, just what we both wanted.

The guy also has a 65 Tiger for $6000 that is pretty rusty on the underside but looks to be a hell of a rebuilder with the original motor in it.

Brian
 
M

MARTINSR

Donation Time
sunalp said:
Hi Brian,
Nice Alpine with what looks like very few body issues. Should make a good
resto project!
Just curious, are you also on the body shop forum? There's a guy on there
from the Bay area that goes with the same moniker and is also named
Brian. Coincidence?

In any event, Brian at the body shop forum always had great advice to pass
along. My car, a black Alpine, was on that site back in 2010. Got lots of good
advice and info there!
Cheers!
Steve
Click to expand...

And by the way Steve, thanks for the kind words. :D

Brian
 
sunalp

sunalp

Diamond Level Sponsor
Hi Brian,
It was on Lens Autobodystore forum. Great site with a lot of great people
with good advise too. Great for the hobbiest, like me. I've been around Alpines for over 30 years, and have a lot of parts, so don't hesitate to ask any questions.
Great to have you on board!
Cheers,
Steve

PS: Here's a shot of mine, not quite finished but getting there.
 

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M

MARTINSR

Donation Time
sunalp said:
Hi Brian,
It was on Lens Autobodystore forum. Great site with a lot of great people
with good advise too. Great for the hobbiest, like me. I've been around Alpines for over 30 years, and have a lot of parts, so don't hesitate to ask any questions.
Great to have you on board!
Cheers,
Steve

PS: Here's a shot of mine, not quite finished but getting there.
Click to expand...

Sweet! I am very new, having only worked a little bit on an Alpine years ago so I am having fun learning about it.

Brian
 
M

MARTINSR

Donation Time
65beam said:
the early windshields should have the info at the bottom center of the glass.
Click to expand...

I'll take another look, the only mark I saw was at the center top and didn't see anything about construction. I'll check it again and report back.

Brian
 
M

MARTINSR

Donation Time
I got my answer, someone was nice enough to PM me with the info, the glass is marked with an AS1 which means it's safety plate, very cool. I can move onto something else.

Brian
 
C

chazza

Donation Time
An easy way to tell if glass is toughened (the sort that shatters into blunt pieces) is to wear a pair of polarised sunglasses and look through the glass into a strong light; if the glass has been toughened lots of little rainbows (light spectra) appear and if the sunglasses come off they disappear,

Cheers Charlie
 
M

MARTINSR

Donation Time
chazza said:
An easy way to tell if glass is toughened (the sort that shatters into blunt pieces) is to wear a pair of polarised sunglasses and look through the glass into a strong light; if the glass has been toughened lots of little rainbows (light spectra) appear and if the sunglasses come off they disappear,

Cheers Charlie
Click to expand...

LOL, that is so true, in my wife's van with my sun glasses on the door glass looks like checker board grays and clears, very odd.

Brian
 
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