Windscreen advice needed

[Ed]

Dear All

Summer is coming and i must speed up the progress on my british racing green MG Monty. Biggest problem is the screen has a big crack and will need doing for the MOT. Money is very tight so I cannot consider a new one at the moment. My red scrap Monty has a prefect matching screen. Do you know if any companies would swap them over for me and what type of companies I should approach? I must have her ready for MG M!! :laugh:

Cheers guys
Ed

[Simon]

Most insurance companies can replace it through Autoglass for between £50-£70. They cannot guarantee to get screens out without breaking them. A long bladed stanley knife or a device that looks like a cheese wire can be used to cut through the sealant and some people have had success with that, but it is a gamble.

[e692wtt]

Most insurance companies can replace it through Autoglass for between £50-£70. They cannot guarantee to get screens out without breaking them. A long bladed stanley knife or a device that looks like a cheese wire can be used to cut through the sealant and some people have had success with that, but it is a gamble.

Re the Insurance Company paying for window replacement, this usually only is available with fully comp insurance and the excess is around the £50 to £70 region. But it doesn't affect your no claims bonus. My Monty is insured fully comp because third party fire and theft (I think it's due to my godforsaken postcode, to be honest!) ain't that much cheaper (ie mebbe 10%? fully comp premium £320 as opposed to tpft just under £300) and I claimed for 2 bonded windows last year so it has more-than (that's who I'm insured with, ironically) paid for itself...

My Insurance Company use RAC Auto Windscreens, and I have been very happy with them (others on the site have been too). And windscreens with a bronze top tint are freely available, don't be fobbed off!

[Ed]

Hmm, my problem really is that the car in question is Sorned and in storage in the garage and presently uninsured without MOT. So I am guessing my only option is a brand new screen and having to pay for it in full. I recently got quoted about £230!!!

[Beaker]

I would ring round for some more quotes, that seems extorniately high

The windscreen in our van cost £90 last month, and that included a new seal as well.

[e692wtt]

Hmm, my problem really is that the car in question is Sorned and in storage in the garage and presently uninsured without MOT. So I am guessing my only option is a brand new screen and having to pay for it in full. I recently got quoted about £230!!!

Hmm... I don't think the fitter cares if the car is MoT'd and taxed or not, he gets paid regardless (just say you have removed the tax disc ready for him to do his job, and wash the car before he comes). The RAC Auto Windscreens people who have attended to my broken windows have filled in a 'condition of car' form though (they just wrote 'fair condition for age' and apologised for having to do so - it's aimed at company car users apparently), but if the car looks cared-for then I wouldn't expect any problems. And if you are MoTing the car with a view to using it, then you might as well insure it first and just pay the excess, if you are going for fully comp..


Skatiechik makes a valid point about shopping round for better prices though - I have heard of prices below £90 for a new windscreen fitted (but last year) so just shop around if you are going to pay for the whole job. It might take a few hours and a few quid on the phone bill, but this is a bargain for saving well over £100, I reckon...

[Dave]

My Maestro had a new windscreen (no top tint) about 2 years ago, that only cost £60..... i seem to remember a top tint was £84.

Dave.

[E_T_V]

As skatie said I got a new screen fitted to my van for 75 quid plus the 15 quid needed for the rubber seal. The fitter even came out to my home to do it and he did a pretty good job.

How long and where is the crack in the windscreen. our maestro had one about a foot long for a couple of years but as it was outside the swept area of the windscreen it wasn't an MOT failure. The same went for the two cracked corners I had on the van too they passed the MOT but unfortunatly the star in the middle didn't.

[Ed]

The crack in windscreen is not in drivers view but along the bottom of the screen and only showing under the bonnet line (have i explained that well at all??!! . So if you are looking out of the windscreen at the bonnet, the crack is along the bottom but under the view of the end of the bonnet!? So hard to explain without a picture!! :laugh: Unfortunately it is swept by the wipers.

[e692wtt]

The crack just affects your view of the bonnet then, and not the road ahead? Unfortunately the screen will fail the MoT if the crack is longer than 40mm long (or just 10mm if in a 'zone' centred in front of the steering wheel and a certain width [I think 20cm but someone will tell you the exact figure]) and within the area 'swept' by the wipers.

One way round this would be to alter how low down on the screen the wipers sweep, so as to make sure the crack is no longer in the 'swept area' (ie raise the wipers' "park position" on the screen to above the crack, if this is possible, or mebbe fit some wiper arms off a Maestro temporarily (they hold the wiper blade at a different angle on the screen)?

Of course, if the crack is uneven and not fairly straight, this may not work, but having spent this afternoon superglueing a door mirror on Monty back together and cannabilising the mirror glass from another spare mirror, I have a mind for cheap repairs... why spend money if you can avoid it, or at least put it off??? And I challenge anyone to show me where I broke the mirror casing who wasn't there at the time... :laugh:

[John S]

Do they do fully tinted bronze windows as VDP and MG Turbo spec as a matter of interest? And is the new seal 'as factory'?

John

[e692wtt]

Do they do fully tinted bronze windows as VDP and MG Turbo spec as a matter of interest? And is the new seal 'as factory'?

Monty's windscreen isn't tinted but the chap offered me a 'bronze top tint' saying it would work with an azure blue car (and it 'goes' ok, actually looks like a silver tint...) but I am sure the bronze tinted windscreens would be available, certainly from RAC AW as they are a national organisation, given time.

And RAC AW fitted new 'trim' round the both the windscreen and the rear quarter light that they replaced for me - and both look 100% fine.

[Simon]

Glass wholesalers such as Laddaw will do Montego windscreens in clear or bronze tint, the latter with a bronze top tint as per factory.

Maestro windscreen is available in either clear or bronze, the latter with a blue or bronze top tinted shadeband.

Montego glass for Gulf State export cars have green tinted sundym glass all round. I wish we cound get a set of green tinted glass for Maestro's, the only way to do this would be to commission a few sets from a custom glass company such as Uroglas.