Re: Mike's 53 Caribbean

Posted by Leeedy On 2021/10/8 14:24:30
Quote:

MJG wrote:
If you've never cut laminated safety glass before, take it to someone who has. I use to manage a production line making commercial safety glass - it takes patience and skill. Old lami becomes brittle too. It will not be tempered, no windshield glass is tempered. If you attempt to cut tempered glass it will explode. Side lites are tempered so if impacted they crack into pieces that have no sharp edges of note to cut you. Modern windshields are heat-strengthened laminated (a mezzanine between annealed and tempered). If a windshield were tempered and struck on a roadway it would explode and come inward. If it were tempered and laminated it would become unclear and you could not see. Heat-strengthened is the best of both worlds. In 1953, it's probably closer to annealed and that would make it easier to cut.

Mike


You are absolutely correct. Modern tempered automotive safety glass normally "pelletizes" into lots of little pieces– especially on sharp impact. This is a fact very well known to car thieves and street gangs who use engineer's punches (or even spark plugs on a string) to get into a vehicle very quickly. I did professional investigations on this subject and wrote reports decades ago.

But I understand it is also probably best not to use the term, "tempered" in what I was talking about. But this would take a lot of detail which is not gonna happen here. Suffice to say that I have been there when glass was cut for a fiberglass car (specifically for the backlite) and this glass was referred to as "tempered." I also was very involved in developing tempered glass windows for actual cars at the OEM level. It was my recommendation and development that led to a tempered glass window to replace the former clear vinyl backlight on the Mazda Miata convertible top.

Regardless... the advice to get a professional to do any glass cutting for an automobile– especially for the laminated safety glass on your Packard is very good advice. I always prefer to recommend and use professionals rather than DIY.

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