1966 tinted corvette windshield

[Russ S.]

Re: 1966 tinted corvette windshield

So then the 3 glass companies Pilkington, PS Autoglass and classic Autoglass are all telling me that there green shaded glass are factory correct are all lying to me about there windshields? Dutch

Yes. That is pretty much the norm with repo parts. They all say the parts are 100% correct when in reality there is always something different on a repo. Sad but true.

[Harry L.]

Re: 1966 tinted corvette windshield

Dick,I did read that most glass companies are buying out of Mexico. My question is Dino said that the shade band was blue, is this correct? Pilkington uses green, what's the deal? Dutch

[Gary B.]

Re: 1966 tinted corvette windshield

Dutch,

Have you searched the active DB postings and the archives for previous discussions on the topic of tint color and shadeband color for mid-year glass? I encourage you to do so. Specifically look at these posting:

https://www.forums.ncrs.org/showthread.php?3775-Midyear-Tinted-Windshield&p=16163#post16163

https://www.forums.ncrs.org/showthread.php?68951-1965-glass&p=410559#post410559

https://www.forums.ncrs.org/showthread.php?88517-calling-all-orig-tinted-63-window-glass-owners&p=570004#post570004

In one of these postings Dino Lanno explains:

"When LOF made the DW00636 (1963-67 Corvette coupe and convertible) windshield, It was only made in Green Tint with a blue shadeband or it was made in clear glass....of course side glass was either green tint or clear
The M numbers represent the NHTSA FMVSS 205/ANSI Z26.1 reference to how the windshield and side glass construction is made. My records show that LOF made the following M number cosntructions and had approval for them in the 60's

M3 was on clear windshields
M4 was on green tint blue shaded windshields "

So, when talking with the glass companies you might be talking apples and they might be talking oranges, i.e., one person talking about the overall green tint color and the other person talking about the blue shadeband color.

Just a thought.

Gary

[Dino L.]

Re: 1966 tinted corvette windshield

Gary is correct .....the overall glass color is green...like an old Coke bottle....the shadeband along the top of the windshield is blue.

also it was mentioned that ppg made OEM corvette windshields.....to my knowledge in speaking with AutoGlass makers....only LOF and AP Technoglass has made Corvette glass ...I believe APTech won the contract for LOF in the C5 change and have had it since....rumor had it that APTech were a possible no bid on the next generation, but went after it and won the bid.

[Dick W.]

Re: 1966 tinted corvette windshield

Dick,I did read that most glass companies are buying out of Mexico. My question is Dino said that the shade band was blue, is this correct? Pilkington uses green, what's the deal? Dutch

If my memory is correct the late Dale Smith of OEM Glass fame, told me years ago the windshields were not made in the US. US glass plants, if there are any left besides sheet glass, are set up for high production, not something that would not take a day to run like our need for vintage glass

[Dino L.]

Re: 1966 tinted corvette windshield

The midyear corvette windshield is made by many companies world wide...but if you want to have the LOF shield logo sandblasted onto the glass like an original there is only one company that has the rights to that original Libbey Owens Ford logo LOF....and that is a company known as Pilkington here in the US....Pilkington bought LOF years ago, and Pilkington is owned by a Japanese glass company called NSG, Nippon Sheet Glass. The OEM tools are long gone, and all licensed mid year windshields are made in Mexacali Mexico at the Pilkington owned factory.....you can always tell this, becasue now when a glass part is made it must have the DOT code put on the glass.....so what they do is put DOT 177 along the edge where the gasket covers it up, then sand blast the logo LOF with no DOT code of course!.....Now I am not saying that someone is not illegally using LOF's logo out there.....but this is the real story.....no matter what parts distributor is buying the glass now they are getting it from Mexacali....and then logo'd by Classic Glass Parts in Columbus who is also Pilkington owned.....

[Peter L.]

Re: 1966 tinted corvette windshield

Dutch - Unfortunately those clever replacement/reproduction parts manufactures write the words we want to see, e.g., "factory correct" and
"exact reproduction" and we assume (you know the definition of that word) that the parts are exactly what were used in PRODUCTION. Well ,you guessed it, they aren't. I don't know that they are lying but as far as I'm concerned they are using the words to their benefit, but I'm sure the items are "factory correct" from their factory. The bottom line as noted by previous poster is so far no one makes a replacement 1966 Corvette tinted windshield exactly like the tinted windshields that were installed in 1966 Production Corvettes in 1965 and 1966. Pete

[Dino L.]

Re: 1966 tinted corvette windshield

I have found a picture from a windshield manufacturing plant, it illustrates the Lay up room where the bent two pieces of glass are separated and the plastic interlayer PVB with shadeband is laid up in between......it illustrates the blue color of the shadeband, it shows the transistion from blue to clear, it shows the green tint of the glass, it shows the PVB as translucent (it turns transparent with pressure and heat).....the shadeband is aligned to the AS1 marks on the top of the windshield....they PVB is trimmed with a razor then it gets, de-aired/ autoclaved and final assembly.....hope this helps explain.......lay_up.jpg

[Paul J.]

Re: 1966 tinted corvette windshield

I have found a picture from a windshield manufacturing plant, it illustrates the Lay up room where the bent two pieces of glass are separated and the plastic interlayer PVB with shadeband is laid up in between......it illustrates the blue color of the shadeband, it shows the transistion from blue to clear, it shows the green tint of the glass, it shows the PVB as translucent (it turns transparent with pressure and heat).....the shadeband is aligned to the AS1 marks on the top of the windshield....they PVB is trimmed with a razor then it gets, de-aired/ autoclaved and final assembly.....hope this helps explain.......[ATTACH=CONFIG]43486[/ATTACH]

Prior to the lay up room flat glass sheets are cut to shape, then placed over molds and heated to bend them. Inside and outside molds are slightly different. After the autoclave the black trim bands are painted.

[Harry L.]

Re: 1966 tinted corvette windshield

This is what is in the middle at the bottom of my 66 windshield.AS1 SUNSHADE-SOLEX DUPLATE-SAFTY FLOAT-PPG-LAMMINATED-AS1-25108-DOT 18 M30. There is no date code where there should be, Has anyone seen this type of windshield? It was replaced by someone in the early 90s. There are no scratches. But now I wonder if it is worth $400 to replace this windshield with one that is still questionable?

[Gary B.]

Re: 1966 tinted corvette windshield

Dutch,

If you haven't had the car judged with your current windshield why not wait until you know how many points you'll lose compared to the typical points loss for a current repro. That way you'll have a sense of what your $400 will buy you. The windshield, logo and date are worth 20 originality points. Would you pay $400 to recover, say, 4 points? What about $400 to recover, say, 2 points? What about $400 to recover, say, 0 points????

Gary

[Harry L.]

Re: 1966 tinted corvette windshield

Also the letter and numbers D636 are at the bottom middle of my windshield. Dutch

[Gary B.]

Re: 1966 tinted corvette windshield

Dutch,

Regardless of the letter and numbers you are not going to lose all originality points and you say it's in good shape so you're going to get most of your condition points. So I still say it boils down to how much you're willing to pay to recover X points for originality when any repro you install is also going to lose some originality points.

Gary

[Dick W.]

Re: 1966 tinted corvette windshield

Also the letter and numbers D636 are at the bottom middle of my windshield. Dutch

I believe 636 is the NAGS number for the windshield

[Gary B.]

Re: 1966 tinted corvette windshield

Dick,

I believe the NAGS number for 63-67 Corvette windshield is DW636.

Dutch, could the your number be DW636, instead of D636?

Gary