Restoration Wednesday, Making a Window

posted in: Restoration Wednesday | 3

Glass can be hard to find for an old BMW. When I went searching on Craigslist I almost ended up with an entire car. What am I going to do trying to save two Bavarias? I’ve only got so much crazy. I could have posted a WTB on the forums but assumed nothing would be close and shipping would be expensive. So I made a rear window from .187″ thick clear polycarbonate 60″x22″ from Professional Plastics for $120 bucks.

At first, I was all proud of myself for trying to make the template from the box it came in. You know, reduce, reuse. But I quickly realized rigid cardboard made for hard tracing sitting in the back seat so I switched to some brown packaging paper. After getting a rough outline I transferred it to the sheet and cut with an angle grinder. I did some rough fits, trimmed as I went, sealed it with silicone and wah lah! It looks better than it works. I’m still getting a leak in the rain but I really didn’t use that much silicone and will goo it up in the near future. The impetus for the project was to rid my front yard of a blue tarp’d car. My neighbors have patience but I’m not looking to push it.

3 Responses

  1. Paul

    Sorry Paul, I’ve only just caught up with these. What a shock, my Dad used to take me to school in one of those, it was a 1977, in light metallic blue and a carb 2500 engine. Looking forward to this one. Hello memory lane!

    • Groosh

      That’s ok Paul. I’m not posting much lately so it doesn’t take long to get caught up. I love that you have history with one of these. I’m looking to make some. But man does this thing need everything. Only one light bulb on the entire car lights up when you turn on the headlights, the windshield wipers are rusted tight and the heater fan smokes when you turn it on.

  2. Mike

    Great way to remedy the sitch. Small suggestion… ClearBra the window, might keep the plastic from scratching and clouding up.
    I love how you come up with fixes for the common-man…. keep it up.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *