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For Sale: New Opel GT Windshields Factory Tint $390 EA

56K views 185 replies 59 participants last post by  opellane 
#1 · (Edited by Moderator)

The windshields have been remanufactured green tint with no fit issues. They are quality Pilking Triplex made in England. They are a little pricey but new production, no issues and we stand behind it for fit. These can be picked up in MA or shipped anywhere. Truck freight ranges from $110-175 within the USA, a little higher to Canada. Add $25 crate fee. Thanks, Richard
 
#4 · (Edited by Moderator)
Richard, if you think that this glass does not have any issues, you haven't been paying attention for the last 10 years. The glass in question has to be trimmed to fit. This is something that is not that fun to have done. It doesn't fit correctly and several of us have had problems with the Pilkington Glass. So before you have a stock order of a 100 made in England again, have them get the mold right first. Do a search on here for the glass and you will find my postings about this

Keith
 
#5 · (Edited by Moderator)
Opel GT windshields

Richard, if you think that glass has not have any issues, you haven't been paying attention for the last 10 years. The glass in question has to be trimmed to fit. This is something that is not that fun to have done. It doesn't fit correctly and several of us have had problems with the Pilkington Glass. So before you have a stock order of a 100 made in England again, have them get the mold right first. Do a search on here for the glass and you will find my postings about this

Keith
Before I read anything I am well aware there was a longstanding issue with the mold from Pilkington UK. in fact when we owned Lo-Can Glass going back to the late 90's/ early 2000's I would not sell after there was an issue. I was told no longer a problem. I assumed this meant new tooling. I will find out tomorrow. We did not have these made as it would be a crazy investment for such large quantities. My question is how recent are you aware of same problems or it being finally resolved. I think these were newly manufactured in the past couple to few months.
If I find there is still an issue I can get these made from 1 of the 2 top Chinese manufacturers in quantities of 50 for a lot less money but trying not to go that route. We have invested into several toolings for Alfa Romeo, Porsche and so on recently. Back in touch. Thanks, Richard
 
#7 ·
Sold!

If you can guarantee correct fitment, then tell me where to send the money!
 
#8 ·
My issues were a year ago now, back in July of 2009. I would be willing to bet that the same toooling was used. If Matt is willing to be a guinea pig, we will try to install one on his and see. Is this a case where if we find it doesn't fit and will require trimming, we can send it back shipping paid???
Keith
 
#10 · (Edited by Moderator)
My issues were a year ago now, back in July of 2009. I would be willing to bet that the same tooling was used. If Matt is willing to be a guinea pig, we will try to install one on his and see. Is this a case where if we find it doesn't fit and will require trimming, we can send it back shipping paid???
Keith
We always stand behind things like this but obviously I am going to make dam sure what the situation is before we start selling and shipping these. I know they were not fitting and they either dumped or would not sell any longer. If it is the same tooling and they supposedly corrected the problem I would take a chance with one. Certainly not going to sell and ship more than 1 til I know.
The worst case scenario we can get these made as I said but the 2 big plants in China have gone from 3-4 months turnaround to more than 6 months.. I got stick in the middle of that slowdown but I assume folks are sue to waiting.
I would say that back in the 70's and 80's we sold at least a 100 of these windshields. There were a couple of good aftermarket producers like Safevue (So Africa) and one in Sweden but they either went belly up or do not offer glass like this any longer. Safevue made a good product, still around but all the tooling is long gone.
I will try to get the lowdown on this asap.
 
#9 ·
I'd be willing to be the test case if I knew I could get my money back (with shipping) if the windshield doesn't fit correctly.
 
#12 · (Edited)
I would think that for anything made in China, there would be major quality issues with no accountability. They tend to make a lot of junk and sell it here. They were making squid look fresh by tinting it with printers ink, adding a knock out drug to kids candy and toxic and carcinogenic coal derived chemicals to food products as an additive or filler. I won't even get into how they quickly "produce" donor organs for the medical market........I think their attention to detail, fit, and quality control would be minimal.

Also, if the problems with the English mfg'd. windshields have been "fixed", I would want to know how. Have the molds been changed to allow for cooling shrinkage and fit, are they just being trimmed somehow before sending with no mold changes, etc? Also, what are the guarantees and/or warranties to guarantee quality?
 
#14 · (Edited by Moderator)

I am told the tooling is the same BUT this is a new batch of which 6 were sold and no fit problems. That is good enough for me to take a chance on 1 to start with. It is quite possible the production was made wrong with the bend initially and never corrected but we will stand behind 1 for the guinea pig attempt. Just email me at richardt@prosourceglassintl.com and I will go over the particulars.. too much going on to read through the thread sometimes.

As for the China manufacturers FYG and XYG industries are billion dollar + companies now with OEM contracts from Mercedes to Cadillac and in between. They both make a good product and the other "OEM" companies such as PPG (now PGW) sub a lot of their work... they are definitely a quality product most of the time. They are taking over.. We had them do Alfa Berlina/ Super windshields as well as GTV Coupe glue in type recently- very good would never know these were anything less than OEM..
Anyway, let's try for a GT windshield first and see what happens before standing behind any more.
Thanks,
Richard
 
#15 ·

I am told the tooling is the same BUT this is a new batch of which 6 were sold and no fit problems. That is good enough for me to take a chance on 1 to start with. It is quite possible the production was made wrong with the bend initially and never corrected but we will stand behind 1 for the guinea pig attempt. Just email me at richardt@prosourceglassintl.com and I will go over the particulars.. too much going on to read through the thread sometimes.

As for the Chine manufturers FYG and XYG industries are billion dollar + companies now with OEM contracts from Mercedes to Cadillac and in between. They both make a good product and the other "OEM" companies such as PPG (now PGW) sub a lot of their work... they are definitely a quality product most of the time. They are taking over.. We had them do Alfa Berlina/ Super windshields as well as GTV Coupe glue in type recently- very good would never know these were anything less than OEM..
Anyways, let's try for GT windshield first and see what happens before standing behind any more.
Thanks,
Richard
Thanks for trying to help us Opelers keep'm going.
 
#17 ·
You will certainly know right away if it does not fit. My trimmed one fits, but not perfectly. I also already have a small ding in it on the drivers side so it would sure be nice to be able to buy another one that I know would fit when I am ready to junk this one.
 
#19 ·
I will get one up with pictures in a few days when I have it here and folks can see the standard factory green tint. Then we will address the requests. You should not have to trim any part of the glass. I remember that issue when we had 10 sitting on the rack and they were a little too big.
If it doesn become a problem and I can a sample used one from someone of an original, China does a very good job. Of course I would like to see a US company produce but trust me it does not exist. Short production runs, good quality and a good price is not happening, What makes it more debilitating , there was and is a shortage of raw material. The MExican plants for Ford Carlite and Pilkington (LOF) were not even producing for months, There is if anyone is interested companies that we deal with in the US that can tool up and make door glasses if there is demand for the GT. We are talking at least 25 sets.. I am only estimating here but could probably be done for about $250 a pair. I did not know if there is still a lot of good used door glasses around.. just a thought. We have door glasses remade on a regular basis.
By the way anyone wants to see what we carry a sample is on Ebay with some pictures under prosourceglass. Thanks and I will be in touch when I have 1 here. Richard
 
#21 ·
You can get anything from horrible to fantastic from China. You just have to be very careful about your specs and get prototypes to check things out or deal with the same supplier enough to get to know how dependable they are just as here in the US.

Several years ago manufacturers from the industry I work in found that A famous US Gear manufacturer had suddenly quit offering a one of a kind gearbox only made by them. Thousands a year were still being bought and over the past few years they had raised the price to the ridiculous point, but they just decided to stop producing it no matter the price and this made it impossible to build a very popular and needed product.

No on in Europe of anywhere else would even talk to us. China was very willing and offered a price that seemed too reasonable. We made the mistake of ordering 50 and when we go them they failed miserably. With no where else to go we asked that someone from the Chinese company come to the US to discuss the problems. The Representative was extremely competent and after looking at our failed boxes and having explained what we were doing with the box simply explained we had accepted their offer at a price and apparently had not paid careful enough attention to the specs. In china they expect the buyer to oversee the specs apparently and then they just deliver what is requested. We had him take a closer look at our use and specs, he went back to China and they then delivered a much better box than the US manufacturer had delivered in the past for twice as much as the first 50 we ordered, but one fifth the US manufacturers last price. Performance and durability have been great over the past 10 years. So as long as you do your homework and buy the specs not the price you can get very good products from China.

Myself and the company I work for always prefer buying from US companies, but more and more we find that no one here produces what we have to have.
 
#23 ·
The Chinese flagrantly violate patent and copyright laws which, combined with their infamous product safety record, is why I avoid Chinese made products whenever possible. When I was a kid it was Japanese products. I can remember my parents checking the "Made In" statement and putting anything made in Japan back on the shelf.

Anyway, I am still definitely interested in this windshield -this is the holy grail of Opel parts for me right now. I'm crossing my fingers :yup:...
 
#24 ·
Sadly, I need one :(

I had bought a NOS (yes, NOS, as in from GM way back in the 1970's) windshield from a re-cycler (as in wrecker but with amazing inventory) about ten years ago. It was in Winnipeg, I am in Calgary, so my big brother who still lives there picked it up (only $350 IIRC) and brought it out in his minivan on his next ski trip. My GT is a long term restoration (no smart comments from the peanut gallery!) and I wanted to make sure that I had a good windshield before I went too far.

To make a short story long, I stored it the past ten years under a bed in the spare bedroom, safe and sound, along with the rest of the GT glass, two extra rear windows, and a pretty rare NOS Ascona windshield. Safe, so long as nothing cataclysmic happened to the bed...

Which is what happened last weekend. "She who must be obeyed" (Myrna to the folks here who have met her) decided to paint the spare bedroom, and since I am pretty freaking busy running a junior Oil & Gas Exploration and Production Company (Silverback Energy Ltd. | Growing with the drill bit) and I don't have much time or energy for bedroom painting, she took on the task of getting the room prepped for paint. Including (GASP!!!) moving the bed into the center of the room. A six-legged bed, over a bunch of glass, and the centre leg nicely lined up on top of the GT windshield. Today I loaded said shattered NOS windshield into the van to take to the dump.

So, put me down for one please. Or can I get two at a reduced shipping price to Calgary, in anticipation of the next cataclysmic event?
 
#25 · (Edited by Moderator)
As much as I have no free time, I have enjoyed reading this Forum lately more than almost anyone I have been on in recent memory ( auto related of course). Well stated about the Chinese. I will tell you Fuyao (FYG) Glass and XYG ( I think Xini Glass) are getting the OEM contracts. These are very big operations handling more and more of the North American glass industry. Chances are no matter where you are in the US and Canada they are the #1, #2 or #3 stocked windshield for your car at almost every distributor.
We ship to Calgary and Winnipeg to the wholesale divisions of Speedy, Standard, Apple, Novus Glass. At one time our family business which was around for almost 50 years was bought out by the parent company Trans Canada Glass so I am well versed in shipping to that part of the world.
Hopefully this will work fine.. stay tuned.
 
#29 ·
The rear windows are easy to remove and install. Well easier and I think your chances of breaking one of those is remote. I think the windshields may be more prone to breaking because they are deeply curved and are wider and a bit more flexible. The rear window is a more compact piece of glass and is pretty stiff.
 
#31 ·
FYI - Richard from ProSource Glass has made contact with Keith and me and will be shipping a GT windshield to Keith's shop. I will then drive up to Keith and he'll attempt the install. Then, we'll know if this new batch fits right or not. It's looking like the earliest this will happen is the first weekend in November, maybe the second weekend.

Matt
 
#35 · (Edited by Moderator)
I received the windshield and Matt showed up last night for the install. Something I decided to do was to pre-fit the windshield into another car to see how it would work. I had a GT without the windshield and a GT-J rubber that was old. By setting the glass just inside the frame, it looked as if it would work. Using the solid GT-J rubber (an old used one note) It was roping in pretty good. So I was sure I could make it work. Now from the past experience the GTJ (solid-no locking strip) is easier to install. I don't know why, but it makes things easier without the extra molded groove. So being confident it would fit in Matt's car, we removed his windshield. With a new rubber gasket for the install, I gave it the first attempt. I did note that in either car the glass was a little big, but only by a 1/16 around the top three edges compared to original glass. Anyway, after 3 attempts with the new window rubber with the channel for the chrome locking strip, it just was not going to go in. I even ran scolding hot water on the gasket to loosen things up a bit. Quite frankly I was getting quite pissed off. So I decided to use Matt's old rubber, being it already was pretty loose, and the first try was with a used piece of rubber. The glass is installed, it was a real pain to fit in, and a lot of the top edge of the rubber had to be pried in, as the rope wasn't working. You can tell that the glass is like I stated, about a 1/16 too big. A slight bit of grinding would have it. Yes, I made it work. The solid rubber works best, but the look of the chrome locking strip is the best. Most people are not going to have 3 different styles of rubber and ages to try this. I would say if you do not have experience installing windshields, do not attempt to learn with this one, have a professional do it. The level of difficulty definitely increased with the glass when trying to install. Also it took about 3 hours, instead of 30 minutes with all of the attempts. The locking strip helps, but you can see the glass pushing up on the rubber just the slightest as it is just a bit too big.
I do feel the new glass is better than the one I attempted to install last year.
Keith

Matt will post some pics of the process on this and his resto thread I'm sure
 
#36 · (Edited by Moderator)
Keith , in the end do I dare say it is a success worthwhile or are folks going to be scared into thinking this is a problem? I was told that 6 of these have been sold without once coming back. I would think if they fit without grinding it is worth it. I realize they didn't change the mold but they may have been a little better with the actual cut of the glass, a little closer to the actual tolerance. The experienced auto glass shops will know the tricks if the rope in method does not work.
So are you saying this is best installed without using the inner trim piece? I would like to make a note in the future so I can tell folks how to make it work best.
Thanks again for being the guinea pig. I will be in touch with Matt.
 
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