New rear glass too wide

[shelbydoug]

The Bad Glass is in! Blocked sanded 1/4" off each side. Used a 10" block with 180 grit reg adhesive backed, auto body grade paper, and-zero heat generated. Slow and steady, mask and safety glasses. Most say it can't be done with tempered glass. 12 man hrs each side over the course of 6 days-2 guys and $25 worth of paper.

I realize it could explode any day. Not unheard of for tempered glass to fail after a repair. We had nothing to loose, non returnable and I never would have sold the glass. We looked for OEM and even a repo glass to no luck. One vendor would not ship, another would not measure their glass and supply is mostly back ordered. So we just jumped in with caution and a "what do we have to loose attitude".
Don't recommend anyone to do this.  I got lucky...so far. Next guy might not=Ray

It seems that much of the "classic car glass" is an issue. I ran into this with front windshields for the Pantera.

It was larger, like yours, by about 1/4" and wouldn't sit into the gasket properly. In addition, it is thinner then the originals.

To get it in, exactly what you did, sanding until it fit, was done.



To compound the issue, the original window gaskets at the time were not available and completely obsolete. Wilkinson had some made with the help of one of the Detomaso's in Europe, but they became $500 items now as far as I know.

I haven't used one recently so this is old information.


In the case of the Pantera, PPG was listing a windshield (still is I believe) and get this, for $275 so it would be interesting to see if it would fit or what kind of a misunderstanding that is?


The rear glass on a Pantera is simple by comparison to a Mustang fastback and as a result, less of an issue and could in fact be replaced with plexiglass if necessary or glass cut for you if you supply a pattern.


All things considered, maybe this is the time to add full glass replacement with no deductible to your auto insurance policy? Let the insurance company pay for it after they stop pissing and moaning about it?


Replacement auto glass is an aftermarket product. The number of manufacturers of classic glass are small. The industry is going to react to supply and demand but is also not getting accurate information as to sizes.

Unless you are talking about European sourced (for European cars) you are likely talking "off shore" production for US cars for sale here, for whatever or wherever that term applies.

How many Mustang fastbacks need new rear glass? Not many.

[Bill Collins]

How many Mustang fastbacks need new rear glass? Not many.

This is not necessarily so. It depends upon what area of the country a particular car spent most of its life in. Most of the Shelby and Mustang fastbacks that I have been involved with have scratches. This is a common condition here in the Northeast. Cars that sat outside often had the rear window scratched as a result of snow removal. Remember that these were not always revered collector cars, they were daily drivers that had snow removed by pushing a shovel across the rear glass.