Pilkington Classics

[Floyd B.]

[FONT='Verdana','sans-serif']My LT-4 has 3rd party replacement glass for the windshield and driver side door. I have found that Pilkington purchased LOF in 1986 and retired the LOF name in May 2000. GM replacement glass no longer sports the LOF logo, EZ-KOOL, FLO-LITE product names or DOT information.[/font]

[FONT='Verdana','sans-serif']Pilikington has a division called Pilkington Classics and they claim to carry Corvette glass for all years (i.e. 53 - current). They offer a logo service where they will sandblast any logo, date codes, DOT info etc. that you want. This is from their site:[/font]

[FONT='Verdana','sans-serif']When you order from Pilkington Classics, you can enjoy the added benefit of having your glass replacement parts sandblasted with the original LOF logo and date coding. The process is simple: Give us your LOF logo requirements, and we'll do the rest. We are also the only Officially Licensed GM Restoration Parts Distributor for glass products and the GM Soft-Ray logo.[/font]

[FONT='Verdana','sans-serif']My passenger door still has the original glass so I have the logo information to send with my order and I'm about to call them and place the order.[/font]

[FONT='Verdana','sans-serif']If you have any experience dealing with Pilkington Classics or judging experience with vettes that had this product installed, I would really appreciate information on your experience. If you aren't comfortable posting information about a specific company on this discussion board, please send me an email.[/font]

[Gary C.]

Re: Pilkington Classics

Floyd, it's my understanding that Pilkington bought all of the PPG glass molds, etc. and furnish the glass to all of the glass vendors. Gary....

[William C.]

Re: Pilkington Classics

My understanding that the issue with the black logos on the C-4 years is that sandblasting does not provide the original appearance. The original Black logo was actually sandwiched between the layers of glass. I didn't make Corvette Carlisle this year, but last year there were a couple of vendors with C-4 windows for sale. They are easily broken during removal, and one vendor told me his yard lined up about 20 in a row then sent a couple of guys out and if they broke one they just stopped and went on tho the next one. I heard brakage estimated during removel in the 10-25% range. I'd love to have a "corect" new one for my '89, but not in the cards it looks like at this time. ZR-1 boys have it worse as their windshields are solar reflecting.

[Floyd B.]

Re: Pilkington Classics

Bill,

These are good points. I wasn't aware of "black logo" issue. I'm not the original owner of this car but I'm pretty sure that the passenger side glass is original to the car. The LOF logo and other embossed markings are white in appearance on this piece of glass. I would love to hear from other late model C4 owners (especially '96) with original glass and description of the appearance of the LOF logo.

Your description of the difficulty with removing the windshield is also what I am being told. Part salvagers don't even want to try because they have to destroy other valuable parts to cut the glass out of the frame and there is no guarantee that they will succeed. Even if they do manage to extract the glass in one piece they are then faced with the problem of crating the large/fragile glass panel and having it shipped w/o damage. Given the time required and low rate of success, it doesn't make business sense. That is why I'm thinking Pilkington Classics may be a good option but I need to do more research on the methods of embedding the logo. Thanks for the information.

One more thing: Would you happen to know the name of any of the salvagers you eluded to above?

Thanx,

-Floyd-