Windshield Woes

[RFazio]

I finally got to finish install my windshield on a slider. I had painted the fiberglass surround and screwed the windshield down for the last time. My buddy said, come on lets take the plastic off the plexi. and polish it up. So we pulled it off and cleaned the plexi and we started to see these imperfections in the plexi. It's all throughout the windshield. It looks as though the plasic protective sheet sort of warped the plexi. you can see where the plastic was touching the plexi and where there were bubbles in the plastic. it's awful I can't even look through the windshield, I would get a headache. Before I called Van's to complain I figured I'd see if anyone else has had this happen. I'm thinking I left the plastic protective sheet on too long? I don't know. At this point I'm discused and don't know what I'm going to do.

[KenK]

I had a similar problem with my -8 windshield. In about two or three weeks almost all of the distortion disappeared. An explanation I was offered is that plexiglass absorbs a small amount of water, and the areas where the protective wrap touches the plexiglass absorb less water.

Once the wrap is removed the moisture content can equalize across the surface and the distortion will diminish. I used a hairdryer on mine thinking that the distortion might be due to stresses in the plexi. I am not sure if that did any good.

I recall a post several years ago by a builder that had this problem. He cut off his windshield and glassed in a new one only to find out that after three weeks all the distortion was gone from the windshield he had removed.

Give it some time before you do anything drastic.

[RFazio]

Ken,

I am soo happy to hear that. Even if there is a chance it may get better I'm happy. I was thinking it to try a hair dryer but then I just left it in the sun for the day. My buddy swore it got better but I didn't see it. I wasn't going to do anything drastic for a while anyway. I'll let it sit and we'll see, Thanks again.

RF