<o:p></o:p> <o:p></o:p>My intention was to create a Wind blocker that would not block my rear vision in any way. I have tried a version that used 4mm plastic sheet and 8mm MDF without much success. <o:p></o:p>The problems with the plastic were vibration, which caused the plastic to come loose from the MDF board and, the plastic being prone to scratches very easily. <o:p></o:p>So it was a case of either doing nothing and do without one or try to make one using glass. When all is said and done the windows in most cars is glass. As my wife Jean has been driving the car quite a lot for the last 6 months, she has got to like it a lot more than she did, except for the back draught.<o:p></o:p>Next was the problem of how could I fix it in place so that it could stay in place permanently without it interfering with the soft top when, on the very odd occasion, it was in the raised position.<o:p></o:p> <o:p></o:p>The fixing Problem.<o:p></o:p> <o:p></o:p>This was solved quite easily by deciding to fix it to the Style Bar on the rear facing side, with some specially made bolts, away from any possible damage that could be caused by the backs of the seats, if it was fixed to the front side. <o:p></o:p>
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<o:p></o:p> <o:p></o:p> The shape of the Wind blocker.<o:p></o:p> <o:p></o:p>I decided for aesthetic reasons to follow the shape of the Style Bar except for the top part.<o:p></o:p> How did I do it?<o:p></o:p>I removed the Style Bar from the car to be able to make an accurate template out of hardboard. This was just a case of marking the shape of the Style Bar onto the hardboard. <o:p></o:p>I used a small engineers tri square for greater accuracy.<o:p></o:p>The Style bar was then refitted to the car to keep it out of harms way, as I only had to drill 4 holes in the Style Bar after the template was made and these could be done while it was fitted to the car.<o:p></o:p>This part of the process actually took quite a while to do, as there is more to it than just unfastening four bolts that hold the Style Bar in position. Other parts of the car have to come off before it was possible to get to all four bolts.<o:p></o:p>With the Style Bar fitted back on the car I then started to check that the initial shape of the template was in line with the outline of the Style Bar and it was modified to get it just right, particularly near the area around the door pillars.<o:p></o:p>Next thing to do was to decide where and how I was going to fix it to the Style Bar.<o:p></o:p>I had in my mind that it would only require a minimum of four fasteners with some sort of rubber between the glass, the fasteners and the style bar. So I marked on the template the four positions where the holes were going to be, bearing in mind that I had to be able to get an electric drill at right angles to the Style Bar and above the collapsed soft top. The holes also had to be central on the Style Bar tubing.<o:p></o:p>I drilled 8mm holes in the template to take 6mm bolts. (In hindsight I should have made them 10mm holes to give more clearance around the hole and bolt)<o:p></o:p>After drilling the holes in the template I attached masking tape to the Style Bar tubing where the holes were to be drilled into the tubing.<o:p></o:p>I again positioned the template against the Style Bar and marked on the masking tape the position of the four holes. <o:p></o:p><v:shape type="#_x0000_t75" style=“MARGIN-TOP: 4.95pt; Z-INDEX: 2; MARGIN-LEFT: 0px; WIDTH: 387pt; POSITION: absolute; HEIGHT: 177pt” id="_x0000_s1027"><v:imagedata src=“file:///C:/DOCUME~1/ALANRA~1/LOCALS~1/Temp/msoclip1/01/clip_image003.jpg”></v:imagedata><w:wrap type=“square”>
</w:wrap></v:shape><o:p></o:p> <o:p></o:p> <o:p></o:p> <o:p></o:p>At this stage I ordered 6mm glass to be cut to the shape of the template and to have the four holes drilled into the glass. All cut edges of the glass were polished smooth and then the glass supplier had it toughened for safety reasons. <o:p></o:p> <o:p></o:p>Special, glass to Style Bar, fixings.<o:p></o:p> <o:p></o:p>These were made from four 6mm bolts, four 6mm washers, four half inch rubber tap washers, four 6mm domed headed nuts, four aluminium rivets and 4 small pieces of windscreen washer tubing 3mm long. <o:p></o:p>
<o:p></o:p> <o:p></o:p>I had to make a simple tool that I could use to ensure that the aluminium rivets were exactly at right angles in both planes to the Style Bar tubing. (For those who do not know how these rivets work take a look at the picture above, bottom left.)<o:p></o:p>
All that the simple tool was, was a piece of aluminium strip 1” x .25” x 42” long with a .5” piece fastened to the end so that the bolt used to fasten the rivets in to the tubing would be square.
<o:p> </o:p>When I received the glass back from the supplier I checked the shape and positioning of the four holes in the glass and the hardboard template. <o:p></o:p>Although the outline shape of the glass was not exactly the same as the template this did not matter, as it would not be noticeable when attached to the Style Bar. <o:p></o:p>
Unfortunately the four holes were not exactly lined up to the four holes in the template, they were out of position by about 1.5 mm. ( This is where 10mm dia holes would have been useful.)
To overcome this problem I decided to drill only two holes and fix only two rivets at the two lower fixing points first. I fixed the glass in position with two of the bolts and carefully supported the glass at the top so it didn’t fall away from the Style Bar.<o:p></o:p>The two top holes were marked thro’ the holes in the glass onto the Style Bar and then the glass was removed from the two bottom bolts.<o:p></o:p>After the top bolts were drilled and the rivets and special bolts were inserted, the glass was cleaned and refitted onto all four bolts.<o:p></o:p>I only had 1mm of clearance to play with between all four bolts and the holes in the glass, which made it a bit scary fitting the wind blocker.<o:p></o:p>
This is the reason why I said earlier that I should have had 10mm holes drilled into the glass.
<o:p> </o:p>After I test drove the car to see how the wind blocker performed I was very pleased how little back draught was getting in to the cockpit and looking thro’ the rear view mirror was as good as a normal car would be. <o:p></o:p>The heating seemed to be a little better too.<o:p></o:p>It was much quieter in the cockpit as I could actually enjoy music being played at a lot less volume than before.<o:p></o:p>The only slight problem was the glass flexed a bit when I drove over a rough piece of roadway and it touched the Style Bar. <o:p></o:p>I solved this by fixing, with a good quality double-sided tape, two rubber tap washers along the bottom edge of the wind blocker. ( these are arrowed in one of the pictures )<o:p></o:p>I left 1mm of clearance between the washers and the Bar to allow the glass to still flex when driving over a bumpy road.<o:p></o:p>. <o:p></o:p>
The price of the 6mm toughened glass cut to shape, drilled and all edges polished was £73.00 exc Vat (They may waive the VAT if you ask nicely) It could possibly have cost less less money if I had gone to a suppler who would actually cut the glass etc them selves and then they send it to be toughened. The suppler I used was really just a middle man who added his cut of the price just for handling it. Still I know what to do next time.
The nuts and bolts etc were just a couple of pounds.<o:p></o:p>
All in all I am very pleased with it but I can only judge the difference between when I didn’t have a wind blocker fitted and having none, as I have not had any other sort to compare with.
