New Project

[ColinB]

Phew - seats finished! The rear seat base is a different colour as I had to buy another hide, but I'm OK with that: the overall look is fine and the interior smells wonderful!

[Peter McKercher]

What an elegant automobile.

[jeans_old_man]

Superb! In its day this car could compete with the likes of lagonda that cost ten times as much.

[ColinB]

So I'm now thinking about the last major item which is the windscreen. My friend Dick, who has too many of his own projects, has failed to produce one, and after 2 years of waiting I have taken the parts back and I'll have a go myself. I have four main options and I would welcome feedback on these:

Option 1 - revert to the way she came with wooden fillers reducing the size of the opening to fit a screen that is too small but functions as an opening screen. The original fix was very crude comprising bits of softwood nailed into the opening. I would do a better job and would cover hardwood fillers with aluminium painted to match the rest of the car. I attach a picture of the original to show the reduction in size required.

Option 2 - Fit a piece of laminated glass into the opening and seal it in place like a window. This would be quick and dirty but would keep the correct opening size.

Option 3 - Cut down the middle of the top and bottom pieces and make fillers out of brass to extend them to the right size. This could be very strong as I would use a brass rod soldered into the top hollow section to support the filler piece, and the glass would generally hold it all together. This would need refinishing but the chrome on the original is not very good and I would get the parts re-chromed. The drawback to this option is that once I have cut the parts up I can't revert to option 1 if it doesn't go well.

Option 4 is to try and make a whole new part, but useful sections in brass don't seem to exist and I would have to make them up out of channel, tube and plate soldered together. Trying this option would leave all the other options available if I fail.

[ColinB]

I saw a 1926 Chevvy saloon in the village yesterday and that had a fixed screen to replace the original opening one. It looked pretty good. So I have decided to try option 3 (extending the surround I have) with the fall back being a fixed screen. I have ordered the 5/8" round brass section for the middle. The best thing about this option is that I can slide the top part to the right width rather like a trombone making a good fit really easy to achieve (he hopes ).

[jeans_old_man]

Good luck, Colin. A word of caution: when I replaced the glass on my sports I could not find 5mm triplex glass and had to settle for 6mm. 8mm is also available from shower suppliers.

I was going to suggest that you made up new sections by gluing U and L stainless steel channel together. Join the corners with brackets like on the sports.