My '70 2L windshield has "milk stains" all around the edges so I ordered
a new one (and the weather-strip) from the local Nissan dealer. (See
below for long winded comments on windshields.) The parts guy called me
at work on Friday to tell me it came in unbroken. Since I am a member
of the local Z-car club (roadsters get in under a grandfather clause), I
got a 20% discount. That sure makes the cost of parts more palatable.
The weather Saturday was hot and sunny so I thought about taking the
roadster to pick up the parts. Once I stepped out of the garage, I knew
it was a day for air conditioning so I took the Caprice. You can just
about park the roadster inside the Caprice but the door isn't wide
enough to drive through and grease and oil stain the seats. I couldn't
believe the size of the box for the windshield. I was sure they had
sent me a front light for a Pathfinder! Nope, it was the roadster
windshield. Sequestered deep inside this enormous box was a teeny, tiny
little piece of glass. I had them cut the entire top half of the box
off so that I could get it into the back seat of the Caprice. It was a
perfect fit (wish I could be that lucky with the lottery).
Yesterday I took out the weather-strip for the windshield and checked it
for fit against the roadster. It was the proper part, but it looks like
Nissan has gone back to the square corners for the gasket. Several
people have mentioned that the replacement gasket had round corners, but
this new one had square corners. The Nissan sticker has the date 99/4/7
on it so It was probably made in April (or maybe July - how do the
Japanese write dates; yy/mm/dd or yy/dd/mm?).
I'm looking forward to NOT seeing fog on a sunny day!
Rick Chianese
SRL311-14035
Orlando, FL
Long winded discussion of windshields follows - skip if not interested.
US windshields (windscreens to you Aussies and Limeys) are two layers of
glass that sandwich a thin elastomer layer. The idea is that if the
windshield is struck by an object from inside or outside, the elastomer
layer restricts penetration and inhibits the glass from flying all over
the place. Folks who don't wear their seat belts often come into
intimate contact with the glass and the elastomer layer. The good thing
is that they stay inside the car during a wreck instead of flying
through shattered glass and ending up bleeding on the road. The bad
thing is that they still get cut up around the head and neck and often
suffer neck and spinal trauma. (Seat belts are one of the greatest
inventions of all time; just ask someone who races.)
The bad news for owners of 30 year old US cars is that the elastomer
layer degrades with age. Oxygen and UV from the sun fog the layer
necessitating replacement at some time or another. (I tell the wife
that it is milk splashed on the windshield by our garage cat that sleeps
on the roadster. She isn't sure whether to believe me or not.)
All the other "lights" on a car can be made from tempered glass.
Temperedglass disintegrates into a million little pieces when broken.
There are no shards or slivers to cut you to mince meat. You can still
get cut, but wounds are less likely and not deep, life threatening
gashes.
Europe uses tempered glass single piece windshields. I don't know what
they do in Japan or Oz. The only really bad thing is that tempered
windshields don't crack when you run into a pheasant while tooling
through Montana or when a foul ball flies out into the parking lot from
your kid's bat; they either survive or disintegrate. (Come to think of
it, that may not be a bad thing. You must replace it when it is gone
instead of driving around with a cracked piece of glass.)
Another minor bad thing is that you will go nuts looking through
tempered windshields with polarized sun glasses. Tempered glass has a
high residual compressive stress on the surface which gives it the
strength, but you can see the pattern of stress with polarized light.
Try it on the back light of a hatchback sometime.
I think we would be better served by switching to tempered windshields.
They are lighter, less expensive, stronger and have lower potential for
injury. And since we all wear seat belts and have air bags in our new
cars, we don't need to depend on the windshield to keep people inside
the car during a wreck. But old rules take forever to die so don't
expect a change anytime soon. (Atlantic City still has an ordinance
that requires the skirt on a woman's bathing suits to come 2 inches
below the knee.)
Trivia - Which passenger vehicle in the US has the largest windshield?
Which US automobile has the largest windshield?
Answers - Mvnjob Wbo & Dbqsjdf (and corporate siblings) (Use the
previous letter of the alphabet to decode the answer.)
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