VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND EARLIER 1929-1932 Safety glass ?

What is the original glass on a 31 ?
Laminated safety glass ? tempered?

Just plain single plate glass

So it breaks into slash and gash, eh

Do others convert to safety or just live with the danger of driving with it?

Most fellows convert their cars over to safety glass.

My '31 Coach which I believe had all its original glass, had safety glass in the 3 locations with regulators,i.e. the windshield and both doors, and had plate glass in the other 3, i.e. the rear side windows and the rear window. The safety glass was set in the original regulator rails and did not appear to have ever been replaced. My car was Canadian made, and it may be that due to the generally harsher northern climate, Canadian assembled cars were different than those assembled in our warmer southern neigbor. When restoring car the only glass I replaced was windshield as it was badly scratched.

When I was a youngster, my step-Dad worked on race cars. So on the weekends my job was to break out the glass in older cars so that they could use the bodies to build new race cars. I did this for 5 years.

Once you've removed plate glass from a car with a sledge hammer, you'll always remember it. I loved removing he "newer" car windows (later 30's) because it would bounce and bounce and bounce due to the plastic inside filler. It made a big impression on me to NEVER EVER USE PLATE GLASS for nuthin'.

My story.

The first US Chevrolet to have a safety glass windshield as standard equipment was 1933....and was an option in 1932.
I would't drive around the block in a car with plain plate glass in any of the windows. If you would see the fatal injuries caused by broken glass caused by accidents you would think the same way.

Just curious.....what documentation do you have that shows safety glass as an accessory in 1932?

I am going on an assumption there. The 1939 parts book lists a regular and a safety glass wndshield for 1932.
They list production and safety glass for 1933-1935 models and I know complete saftey glass was an option for those years (for side windows)

Some states required all saftey glass in th early '30's.

If I was incorrect I knew you would make a correction.

I was incorrect partly above in my original posting, the windshield of my '31 Canadian built Coach was in fact plate glass 9now it is safety glass). Only the glass in the 2 doors was safety glass, and I asumme there is no way of telling if it is original. I don't have car here at the moment, but when I bring it home next week I plan to check see if there are any identifying words/numbers/codes etc.

In 1940, Chevrolet produced a Flyer which included a piece of the "Dupont Hi-Test Butacite Plastic. This new plastic is used in the Hi-Test Safety PLATE Glass found in the windshield, side windows and Ventipanes of the sedan illustrated in this folder." The 1940 Chevrolet flyer states that....
"And in the new Hi-Test Safety PLATE Glass you get a far safer safety glass than has ever been used by motor car manufacturers."

Does this flyer mean that in 1940, Chevrolet used a new process of safety plate glass in their vehicles from what was available as safety plate glass in 1939?

dtm

1933 was the first year for what they called back then "safety glass". It was actually a laminated windshield. The safety glass listed in the 1939 parts book for 1932 is a retro-fit....since 1932 did not use safety glass.

As a side note, the 1932 accessory windshield defroster was not supposed to be used on the new 1933 safety glass windshield because it would melt the lamination that was in the 1933 windshield.

Interesting.