Polycarbonate windows

[JonCronin]

Hi all, can anyone recommend a supplier of polycarbonate side windows. Looking to get a set for my mk3 Spitfire.

 

Whilst on the same type of subject, looking to fit a fly screen as fitted to the Le Mans cars. Can anyone advise the type of clips used to fix this to the bonnet? It'll be fitted to a fibreglass bonnet btw.

 

Thanks all

 

Jon

[Clive]

Are you wanting  to just replace your glass with polycarbonate? If so any plastic supplier will be able to cut what you want from whatever thickness you want (presumably to match existing)

However, proceed with caution as it is a bit soft, and will scratch very easily, and unlike perspex/acrylic does not polish well.

 

Or are you after the fixed side windows with the small sliding opener? If so it may be a DIY proposition, or somebody like Jigsaw or Canleys may be able to help. Plenty of racers use them, so look outside the triumph scene too, after all it will just be a case of cutting to the correct size and fitting.

[JohnD]

Buy your polycarbonate as sheets and cut it yourself.

Mark out using the original glass as a pattern, and as Clive says, it's quite soft, and easily cut with say an electric, or hand jigsaw.

Cut it slightly oversize and trim with a Surform plane.

 

But if you want to save weight by swapping glass for PolyC, you need to remove the winder mechanisms as well, as they are weighty.

And devise some means of holding the PolyC in the door.

Side and rear windows can be bolted to the flanges that used to hold the rubber seals, with a strip of closed cell, self adhesive foam ("draught excluder") between PolyC and flange.   You could use a squeeze of mastic, I suppose, if you like cleaning up the mess afterwards.

 

Strange - I know exactly what you mean by the fly deflector, a strip of perpsex across the bonnet, but I know also that all the best Le Mans replicas and original cars today do not have one.

 

John

[Clive]

Knowing how racing works, I would expect the clips to be nothing more than aluminium L brackets.

[JonCronin]

Thanks for the info chaps.  I'm thinking fixed windows with slot. I'll take the plunge and have a go! :-)

 

As for the flyscreen - the intention isn't to make a Le Mans replica per se. More a period boy racer! I have a photo of a MK2 SAH Spitfire with this bonnet and a fly screen and think it looks pretty cool; I'm pairing an SAH Bonnet, a W&P fastback roof, Some Le Mans wheels and some period engine parts from SAH all available circa 1967 when my mk3 was built. - All very tastefully done of course :-)   

[John Bonnett]

I've got more than passing interest in polycarbonate windows and what I would like to know it where to get the slotted aluminium extrusion that can be made into a frame.

[JohnD]

A frame,for the door window?

 

If you make short angle sections and rivet them to the upper door frame, they will stop the the window being bowed outwards at speed.   The windows are bent inwards as you close the door, to clear the angle pieces.

JOhn

[John Bonnett]

A frame,for the door window?

 

If you make short angle sections and rivet them to the upper door frame, they will stop the the window being bowed outwards at speed.   The windows are bent inwards as you close the door, to clear the angle pieces.

JOhn

 

 

Yes the door windows John Something along the lines of a Frogeye Sprite. The windows slide and are held in extruded channel. I've not come across a supplier of the channel. Hence my question

[JohnD]

Ah!  Reminded me of the windscreen surround from a LoCost, as described in Ron Champion's book.   

He suggests "round-edged aluminium extrusion, as used in shower cubicle construction"

He gives no more clues, but does describe a self-built tool to form the curves.

Loads on eBay, under "aluminium extrusion".

 

John

[John Bonnett]

Ah!  Reminded me of the windscreen surround from a LoCost, as described in Ron Champion's book.   

He suggests "round-edged aluminium extrusion, as used in shower cubicle construction"

He gives no more clues, but does describe a self-built tool to form the curves.

Loads on eBay, under "aluminium extrusion".

 

John

I didn't think of looking on Ebay John. Thank you. You're right and this outfit might be able to supply just what's needed.

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/U-Channel-Aluminium-Extruded-3-8-To-3-Various-Pre-Cut-Lengths-XStock-/301189771802?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&var=600254971398&hash=item46204f321a

[JohnD]

Joining lengths might need special skills, like TiG, but knowing of yours, John, I'm sure you include that!

John

[John Bonnett]

Joining lengths might need special skills, like TiG, but knowing of yours, John, I'm sure you include that!

John

 

I'm okay TIG welding aluminium John if it's on a flat surface and at a comfortable height where I can sit down and rest my arm on something solid to avoid the shake. I would imagine that the lower rail would need to be screwed on to enable to panels to be fitted. I guess the channel would need to be wide enough to accommodate a felt channel as well as the window. I might well have a play after we've come back from France.

 

I've just stripped the doors down preparatory to re-skinning and the reduction in weight without the glass and the winding mechanism is surprising.