Windshield end caps for sale

I have a pair of aluminum windshield end caps for sale. These are the ones that Sebring Internatiional sells for the Sebrings they make in England. They are hand formed and welded aluminum, not plastic. I do metal work and I can tell you that these things were a lot of work to make.

Unfortunately they were not cheap. They cost me 140 British pounds each plus international shipping. I will take $250 plus shipping for them.

II have decided to go in a different direction for the windshield on my car and don't need them.

If the exchange rate wasn't so terrible right now I'd be considering it. Worth every penny IMO.

I am interested in what you are thinking by "going another way".

David, if you are still interested when you get back to the states, contact me.  Offering them for sale here is pretty much the only place anybody would have a need for them.  Thanks for commenting on their value, since you have seen them actually on a British Sebring.

As to the "other" direction, I have a set of original 100-6 Healey windshield posts that I intend to fit to my car.  Unfortunately, our cars are 3" too wide for the original frame and windshield to work, so I will be attempting to fabricate a custom frame to fit.

You could get an original frame to work if you sectioned 2 of them together to get the extra width, but they a very expensive.  Then you would still have to source a wider glass and seals.  I got lucky on the posts and found a set on EBAY that no one bid on and got them cheap.

I will be posting my work on my build thread and may start a separate thread just to make it easier for someone to search for.  The main question now is whether to try to go with a curved glass. Curved glass is doable, but it makes the job at least 10X more difficult.  The 100-6 and early 3000 Healeys had very little curve in the glass.  About 1" in the center of the cowl on the example I recently measured.  I'm not sure that that is enough to justify the extra effort.  I have figured out a source for a curved glass, but it involves cutting a larger windshield down and on curved glass, that usually means breaking at least one attempt. That could get very expensive before you got a usable piece of glass and then you better hope you don't have to replace it.

Right you are Mike. I did some preliminary work on this two years ago. My plan was to fabricate a custom frame, the shape of which would be dictated by a cut down section of donor glass. At the time, I believe, I was considering a windshield from a modern Jeep. Jeeps traditionally have flat glass for windshields but the more recent incarnations have windshields with "some" curvature to them and obviously they are available should a replacement donor be required. I accepted the light curvature because a curve is still better than no curve IHO plus, unlike your project, I had not planned major modifications to my ride. A pronounced curve would begin to encroach on the wiper fairings established in the cowl, was not looking to re-engeneer that system.

The real sticky wicket, as you eluded to, is cutting down the curved glass. Yes windshields have there costs and going through donors can add up. I viewed You Tube videos of guy's doing this, they make it look easy. IF I remember correctly, they score both sides, apply lighter fluid to the concave section and light it to melt the plastic film between the laminates, apply pressure and snap. It is doable but the technique, like all techniques, probably requires some learning curve. One would also need to learn and obtain the necessary tools to smooth the glass. I am not sure but would think that 90 degree corners generate stress that could lead to cracks so all four ends may need to be radiused with some kind of wet belt sander. I am sure you know more about that kind of thing than me.

I did make an attempt to do this, picked up a glass cutter and got a mildly damaged windshield replacement outfit. They toss these out all day so their free. My first attempt was Not to successful. No doubt one can become proficient with practice but demands on my time pulled me off that project and ultimately I moved on to another car project.

A scary talented guy like you will no doubt prevail (not to put to much pressure on ya). Will look forward to reading about your approach on this.

Good to hear from you DrJ.  Glad you're still following along.

I've watched the videos, too and you are right when you say they make it look pretty easy.  All that I have seen deal with fairly straightforward shortening cuts.  The big issue with the Healey glass is that it  has to not only be cut down, but that it has to fit the curvature of the cowl.  That makes the bottom cut extremely complicated.  None of the standard glass cutter videos I've looked at come close to addressing that type of cut.

The only technique that I has seen that might deal with that is using a diamond bit in a Roto-Zip type tool with lots of water.  This allows you to cut complex curves, but takes a long time.  As in 8 hours to cut down a single windshield.

I'll get something done, though.  I might go with a straight glass for now to speed things up.  The curved glass will give me a future project to consider and allow me to not get bogged down on something.

IMO, curved glass is only worth it if the windshield posts don't prevent air flow from spilling over the sides (like on a 3000MKIII).

Also, sent you a PM Hotrod

This refired my interest. I found 2 links that should help. My ideas would require modifying the fake vent windows to lay the curved windshield back which would make it longer but not taller. Width would be about the same as now. If you use a top rail from a late model convertible, you could then blend a convertible top to your car. A real fold down top.

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On the topic of conventional folding tops, I too did some work in this area. I picked up the convertible top frame from a 90's era (I think) convertible Capri. After lots of configuring I built a jig that would allow me to cut down the OEM height from attachment pivot to top of the bow (I think it was something like 4")
and to cut the width down so that it would fit new attachment plates I had fabricated. Also had to remove the header because it extended to far forward in the up position. The jig held everything in position allowing me to cut away, re-approximate the parts and weld her back together. I got as far as having it mounted in the car in the full up position, I had not yet fabricated a new front header. It did look quite good. So the next step, which I had not yet gotten to, was to reshape the fiberglass aft of the baggage shelf. In the OEM form, the radius as it sweeps around in front of the trunk, will not permit retraction of the top. That area needs to be squared off to be able to accept the top. It looked as if there was enough space between the back of the seat and the back of the baggage shelf to accommodate the entire top but on mine there is several inches of dead space between the back wall of the tray and the front wall of the trunk. Should be able to recruit this space if needed. I'm working on a Midyear Corvette now and restored my Healey back to the original top configuration in preparation to sell her. The OEM top works fine. I have driven mine in the rain while the wife and I were on holiday in the mountains last year and she stay's reasonably dry by British standards. Cutting the fiberglass to accommodate a conventional folding top may require large test?cals but that's the beauty of fiberglass, you can do lots of things with it. The concern is I don't know what I don't know and to the best of my knowledge, no one has cut up the body back there before and posted so there are unknowns. Proceed with caution.

My plan for this car is to use it primarily as a traditional roadster.  That is to say mostly top down or using the top as a sun shield only on the hottest days.  

It may sound strange to some, but I will also most likely do away with the non-opening vent windows and even the roll up windows.  The lines of the car are much cleaner without them (IMO) and that is how the original Healey 100-6's and early 3000's were built.  The roll up windows and vents were added to the 3000's when BMC modified the car for the American market.  Removable side curtains would serve my purposes fine, since they would only be installed for long distance traveling.

After studying the construction of the simpler folding tops (like Model A Fords) I have come to the conclusion that a reasonable folding top mechanism could probably be fabricated with less effort than cutting down some existing top, but that is project for another day.