Are late bay standard windscreens made from laminated glass? If not, how dangerous in the event of a crash?
Not sure on the lates but the Earlies were toughened glass which shreds to a zillion pieces if it takes a good knock. I’ve had mine out and had a laminated one back in so if it ever does break it’ll just be a crack and that’s that. Ozziedog,,,,,,,,,, Mucho safer muchacha.
So toughened glass is the one that shatters into little cubes and laminated is the one that breaks but stays intact… what is the dangerous one that breaks into shards?
No idea, but unlikely to have been used on vehicles, I'd think. Toughened and laminated have been around for donkeys years.
Originals were toughened, replacements laminated. If you want to know what you have, look at it with polarized sun glasses - if it's toughened you'll see a pattern a bit like oil on water. A bit like this but more likey in big vertical stripes, it's a stress pattern from the toughening.
Yep. Before seatbelts people used to smash their way through toughened ones face first, there was girl in my year you'd had that misfortune, her face was like crazy paving of blue scars
Ah, but. In the old days you'd be wearing your string-back driving gloves, so you could punch a hole in it (which my Dad had to do once - I was most impressed as a nipper).
If you crash a bay you are kind of screwed anyway I would think the window glass is the last of your worries - your body is 6 inches away from the car you hit / hit by in front
It is a rather macabre thought that back in the 70s and before, the windscreen was designed to smash so that a human being could pass through it in the event of a collision. No seatbelt and a laminated windscreen would be all together messier. My van still has its original toughened screen. I dread it smashing (which it obviously will do one day) but while it's still intact and in good condition, it would be frivolous just to bin it.
I smashed my original on the drive home from buying it laminated ever since. maybe a heated one if this one goes.
It'll be fine - nowt really wrong with them. If they break, you'll just have to spend hours hoovering fragments out of the heater ducts, as I had to with mine when I first got him
Still found bits yesterday (10 years later) when I was removing the old carpet set and looking under the seats
I binned the original toughened glass windscreen when I rebuilt the van and replaced it with laminated, I'd much rather a chipped than a shattered screen.
My bus went from toughened windscreen to laminated replacement when I got a stone through it on the way to work. Punched a hole in it and drove home with a bleeding hand. At least you can shovel it up and bin it. When I busted the replacement laminated screen, I ended up having to wrap it in a poly tarp and fold it up (jump on it carefully, fold it over while in its burial shroud) so I could chuck it in the dump. Actually it was hit by a stone about 6 months from new, it cracked and stayed cracked for years, and it got more damaged when the wind got hold of it while fitting the heated laminated screen. There is a company that recycles the rather expensive plastic that makes up the layer of soft stuff in the middle of laminated screens.
My friend came back from Gloucester one day, in the rain. A pheasant went straight through his windscreen. That went into a zillion pieces and the pheasant was half heartedly flapping around in the back of his van. He still drove it home. Got wet…
