Re: Light Weight Window Glass
 

Talk to your local glass company.
I've got a lot of help from an independent , but have also found companies like Safelite can help too.
A lot of the glass for older models is made offshore.
I got windshields for my and Aris Asdurians AMX's that was 18 pounds lighter than stock,and was made in South Africa.
The glass was visably thinner ,but the optical quality was good.
Early Camaro glass is also several pounds lighter , altho not that much !

Re: Light Weight Window Glass
 

I heard there was a stock racer with a Nova that did not pass tech at the Gators a few years ago because of thin glass. Anyone know the details?

Re: Light Weight Window Glass
 

Nathan, I talked to a glass supplier that comes to our shop.. He is researching it for me. I'll let you know.


Thanks Ed.. I like my nickname too. Also I am not thin skinned at all... I just get tired of people giving BS replies to threads on this forum when someone has a question. I read it all the time and have to weed through the crap to get good information.

By the way, my name is Chris Avaritt...have a good day.

Re: Light Weight Window Glass
 

Being a second generation Auto Glass shop owner, I will give you my best explanation.

It is strickly a matter of thickness of the glass, thinner is lighter obviously.

Let's look at the windshield first. front windshields are laminated safety glass, which means it is 2 pieces of regular glass with a .030 layer of plastic sandwiched in between. Older cars used 2 thicker pieces, but still the .030 plastic in the middle , todays cars have thinner windshields, they are just as strong, as the strength is in the laminated piece altogether, not the individual pieces. You can save some weight if you find a windshield that is thinner than the one you are taking out. As an example, a factory windshield on a 67 camaro maybe .250 thick, you probably can find one that os .210 thick and save a few lbs. Later cars are harder to find thinner glass for, but often you can still save a little weight because generally the windshields are so much larger that any differance in thickness will help you.

The side and back windows are generally curved tempered glass since the mid 60's. Tempered glass is solid not laminated and basically they take regular glass, form it the correct curve and the temper it in an oven process that basically case hardens it and it can not be altered after tempering or it will break into those little crumbs so to speak. As with the windshield, newer cars have thinner glass. it is harder to find replacement side and back windows that are thinner, and they are seldom if ever thicker, but not as commonly thinner as the replacement windshields are. Basically it is pot luck on finding thinner side and backglass relacements.

When a racer asks me for a lighter windshield I try to get a thickness measurement on what they have and then go to my 4 suppliers and see,,1 who has the glass and 2,, go there and measure the thickness to see if I can help them.

I will guess that the question about a car getting disqualified revolves around an early car that had flat side windows. There are not many of them being raced, but in that instance a glass shop could make a new flat door glass in a thickness of .125 or thicker and then get it tempered(which would make it safe) and install it and save some weight. It would most likely need to be a sedan, not a hardtop because of design issues.

Tom's statement about saving 18 lbs on the whole car with the side and back being reproduced a little thinner is probably the max savings you might see. As Tom stated the glass was made in South Africa, just about all classic reproduction glass is made in some other country, even the "certified gm reproduction stuff" that I have seen.

Bottom line, you can save some weight, but not a ton, and you need to look around for the thin stuff.

Re: Light Weight Window Glass
 

Thanks for the info guys.....Crisco let me know what you find out.

Re: Light Weight Window Glass
 

Chris, where were you for PRI! We missed you! Jim

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Re: Light Weight Window Glass
 

When we first got our Challenger, it had polycarbonate door windows.

The good news was they were supposed to be much light than glass windows.

I talked to Doug Duel who had glass windows in his car, which was not a factory built Drag Pak, and he bought the polycarbonate windows to put in his car, but realized that they weren't all that much lighter (7 lbs for two) and that weight could picked up in other places and not risk the problems, of safety and convenience.

I pulled the poly windows, and replaced it with stock glass, and our steering wheel, an aluminum Longacre wheel with quick release gave us back that weight, and it added the convenience of a removable wheel for driver convenience. So not only do we not need to push in the flat polycarbonate windows like most Drag Paks do, we also have an added driver convenience.

So, my suggestion is that unless there absolutely isn't anywhere else to pick up the weight, I wouldn't fool with the windows.

Some off the cuff ideas for weight loss; get all of the sound deadening material out. Pull some dense foam from your passenger seats, and replace it with lightweight foam, and replace your off seat brackets with aluminum, if you have bucket seats. Replace your carpet with light weight Ozite. Look around and find somewhere else that wont affect safety or reliability.

Maybe you have already done all of these things, and in any case, not knowing your car, I can't offer much else, but good luck and safe racing.

David
The New Hemi Guy