Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

The rubber seal has perished and needs replacing. I phoned autoglass and they said it would be difficult to get a re-seal, they migh break the screen and it might take a couple of days to get right.

Does anyone know of some one (herts/ buck/ beds) who could be trusted to take this on and do a good job?

I don't know if purists would approve, but my front windscreen was put in with the rubber for a Dodge Caravan minivan. The glass is really glued in anyway. They put a primer about 3/4' around the glass so you can't see the stuff they stuck the glass on with The rubber's black instead of chrome. I suppose you could glue some sort of chrome finisher over it, if you wanted. No leaks or problems.

Steve, as the windscreen is from a MK1 Ford Capri, I am sure that a good windscreen place can get you the rubber surround, if your plus 2 is an early one.
If like me you have a later (1972) car then the screen is bonded in, and yes, they would have to break it to get it out. In my experience the bonded ones are a pain, as I had to have three before it either sealed or broke. Somehow my windscreen has cracked again whilst in sorage in my garage! So I'll have to go through this process my self soon. Auto glass were the chaps who did a good job for me here in Bournemouth.
Regards
Jeff.

Hi.

You might not know but early plus 2's used the screen from the Scimitar Gte so availability shouldn't be a problem. The Gte models concerned are the5/5a

Hope this helps.

John

Steve

You can cut bonded glass out but it is always possible the glass will crack. The secret is to cut the bond away carefully while not putting any stress on the glass.

If the screen has any defects in it and that included tiny chips along the edges (even caused while cutting it out) it will almost certainly crack from that point unless you are very careful/lucky.

Not sure why Autoglass are worried about re-sealing it, provided the glue is put on in a nice thick continuous bead a seal is pretty much certain.

If you have an earlier +2 with a rubber mounted screen then getting the screen out safely would simply be a matter of cutting the old rubber. There is still a chance of breaking the screen refitting it due to the previous points about defects.

An aquaintance of mine with a Europa has a rubbered in screen which was also stuck in with the screen bond compound .......... it doesn't leak as far as I know

A local independent screen bod might be a better proposition

I worked summers at an auto salvage yard when I was a kid. We used to remove bonded in glass by cutting a slit from the inside going sideways through the bonding enough to shove a strand of wire from a handbrake cable through. Then one person on the outside and one on the inside would wrap an end of the wire around a gloved hand and we would go around the glass like a two person saw. We cut out hundreds of them that way and I never heard of one breaking.

There are some good lowcost handtools on eBay which make it easier cutting the adhesive sealant and removing the windscreen.

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