zmetalmilitia

Not to hijack your thread, but this may have relevance. This is a lesson on what not to do.

Ok. I bought a glass polish/glass restoration kit from eastwood. I had already done my two side windows so this should be a breeze. I dragged the back window out in the yard being careful not to damage or break the glass. I began polishing, using the hose water, (yep, clue) to keep the polish wet and lubricated. I finished the glass, rinsed it, and carried it into the garage. I was about 2 inches off the ground with the glass, almost ready to rest it against the wall to finish drying when BAM!, I was covered in thousands of pieces of glass. I about sh*t myself. I couldn't move for an entire minute. I stood there with two little pieces of glass in each hand, completely shocked and pissed. There went my original glass, and $500 in a flash. My wife came out in the garage to see what happened. She about sh*t herself too. The pieces were still "moving", making noises. I think it got too hot and the combination of the cold water and the stress of carrying the glass caused it to explode., which explains the jumping pieces of glass. Damn, it still beats me up to think about that day.

I was going to take pics and share that story when it happened but I was too upset to do it at the time. I now have a new rear window sitting in the box in my basement, waiting to be installed.

This lesson was learned the hard way. Forget the polish kit and just use glass cleaner.

pascal

You have to take in consideration that old glass has stress issues as well.
I saw that first hand at a friend's house one day...
I was helping him working on his Stang and the rear glass of his 60 Starliner exploded right next to us. The glass was on the car and it's a daily driver!!

I thought someone shot at us. Freak the hell outta me.
Also, a battery explosion on my car when trying to crank it!
Good thing there was water near by... Didn't damage the car.

zmetalmilitia

Yeah, I took the age of the glass into consideration as well, 40+ years for glass has to take it's toll, especially the big rear glass. At least it didn't happen after I installed it. That would've sucked big time.

Starfury

Ouch, my sympathies zmetal.

As a side note, all fastback glass was sun-x tinted, iirc. Proper 67-68 reproductions should also have an accent line running down the center.

zmetalmilitia

Agreed. Many reproductions do not have this center line. If the window is tinted (not a factory tint), this line may not be visible anyways.

Thanks for the sympathy.

lunarweasel

Never heard of the accent line, is it a bend in the glass to correspond with the little ridge thing on the rear roof of the 67/68 FB's?

Starfury

Not a bend, just an accent line etched (maybe?) into the glass. For show purposes the glass should also have the proper Car-Lite logo on it, which is yet more $.

Shawnb23

Check a local automotive glass installer, it's usually much cheaper to get glass from them. Last week I was moving my glass and a hammer fell off my car onto the front windshield and cracked it all the way across

zmetalmilitia

Sorry about the hammertime. I called Elite autoglass and they didn't know where to find the rear window. They suggested calling the Ford dealer. I thought, ok, I know where to find it. NPD.

Starfury

Yeah, it's not something commonly reproduced. There are only one or two manufacturers for (correct) 67-68 fastback glass. If NPD has them, that's where I'd go