The MGA With An Attitude
MGAguru.com MGAguru.com
MGA Windscreen Glass - UROGLAS/STARGLASS - WT-103UG

At 05:26 PM 11/12/2006 -0700, Ken Bowen in Texas wrote:
".... windshields from Moss. Just received mine ....
The glass is made by "URO Glass" and has the marks E9 on it. I measured the thickness and it is exactly 3/16 inch. When checking the fit with the sealing rubber it appears to be just snug but certainly not tight. I will attempt to seal the end on with silicone before insertion and see how it goes. I can only hope for the best. The unit has the recessed corners but just barely covered the width of the frame in glass. This thing is going to have to be perfectly centered or else I will getting some air blow by! "

At 02:14 PM 11/19/2006 -0500, Ken Bowen wrote:
"I haven't had a chance to get with Moss on the windshield issue yet but.... The glass measured 3/16" thick and the Moss supplied glazing rubber measured 1/8" uncompressed. Possibly this was the thicker version you had mentioned. In either case, the fit appeared snug enough so that I had to use soap to get it on. I decided to try mounting it anyway using silicone sealant along the edge . It appears to be mounted fairly well without any movement. I had just enough clearance around the edges to cover but only after having to pull off the frame a time or two to recenter. Everything trimmed out OK but I did decide to add a thin layer of clear silicone around the edges to prevent any future movement. Time will tell. I probably won't have the car on the road for another 6 months to see if the glass will shift. Also, I did leave the wooden spacer at the bottom in so the glass felt like it came in contact with it, which may be my saving grace when it comes to settling vertically. I will let you know the results of my discussions with Moss when I get the chance to contact them."

Barney's comments:   This rubs me the wrong way, to put it mildly, that Moss is back to selling thin and undersize glass again after all the problems with prior sources of thin glass. It also bothers me that Moss is switching between thin or thick glazing rubber under the same part number with no notice to the customers. The only way this can possibly work is if you buy the glass and rubber from the same source at the same time. These parts will not be interchangeable with original parts except as a matched set, and may not be compatible with future replacement parts.

If that's not bad enough, this issue of Uroglas is apparently too small around the perimeter (again). A factory Service Memorandum from MG reprinted in the Moss catalog makes note to replace the original bottom wood packing strip with a rubber strip. Moss then added a note to remove the packing strip as not being needed with their glass. Now they are selling smaller glass which will not be properly located in the frame without the bottom packing strip. The current issue Uroglas part is also too small all around, so great care must be taken to center the glass in the frame and also somehow glue it in place so it can't shift, as the rubber packing alone will not keep it aligned. This will be a significant pain to install this glass in a serviceable manner, and it will not be concours because of the thin glass and thick packing. So far I have only this one report of the difficulty of installation, and no road test yet.

HomeBacktopNext
Thank you for your comments -- Send e-mail to <Barney Gaylord>
© 2006-2016 Barney Gaylord -- Copyright and reprint information