 | Bob Crager of Lewis Street Glass is a 26 year veteran in the glass business. Lewis Street Glass is a leading Wichita Glass company, serving the entire Wichita/Sedgwick County area since 1919. They do anything and everything having to do with glass, both residential and commercial. They also do Auto glass. They are located at 743 South Market, facing Kellogg on the South, and you can reach them by phone at (316) 263-8259. You can email Bob Crager at bcrager@lewisstreetglass.com |
Glass
2010-10-01 10:11:00
Antique truck and car glass restoration
You can’t believe how often we’ve heard from people who are in your same situation. As you point out, you can have the sweetest running engine with the neatest looking paint job in the state, but if the glass is damaged or missing, you can’t even enjoy driving it. The glass parts end up being an important part of your restoration, and it matters not whether you’ve entered it into that 100 point competition, or are just going to use it to turn heads as you tool down the street. The absolute finishing touch will be how attentive you were with the glass.
As you may or may not know, the older glass parts can be looked at as being in three separate categories, and those categories generally fall into the years of production for that particular car or truck. When you search for prospective providers of what you need, using these designated categories can be most helpful.
The first category is “flat glass,” laminated and tempered for use in the windows, windshields, etc. This was used primarily from about 1920 through about 1965, and due to the fact of these vehicles being out of production for 45 to 90 years, a lot of glass shops do not have the original patterns for those glass replacements. Being able to replicate that original glass pattern is important to your successful restoration project, and being able to utilize highly trained installers to complete the glasswork will be a huge advantage on your classic vehicle.
The second category included, “curved or bent” glass, and was used from about 1948 to the 1980’s. There are many antique vehicles that are now very rare, and therefore the curved glass that is available will always be in short supply, whether it is reproduced or NOS (new old stock). The glass manufacturers who make this glass are not going to reproduce glass for vehicles that are few in number. So if there’s a special glass you’re going to be needing, it might be good to go ahead and check out your options and how to go about getting that glass you’ll need before you actually need it.
Then there’s the dash glass, where we make the pieces for flat dial restorations on vehicles built from about 1939 through about 1950. There are some really cool dash glass pieces from that era, and absent a full service glass shop, those pieces can be really hard to come by. The tools to make patterns for a wide assortment of glass for the restoration of the older vehicles are also not found in most glass shops. Authentic reproduction and replacement of the flat dash glass on vehicles in this age group is critically important to the finished look. If you’re restoring the antique dials and gauges, make sure you finish that job off with the proper glass pieces. If you’re going to do vehicle glass restoration to any serious degree, you have to have access to the tools and the patterns, and installation techs that really care about the finished product. We’ll talk next month about custom van windows, and window glass for all sizes of motor homes and travel trailers.
