Interesting. There is not much room on the upper glass frame for the 1/4 support rod I have, so wonder how they went bigger.
I have not owned a speedster since 1992 and the last one was together, when I bought it, so never dealt with putting in a windshield. Mine seems flimsy , in the way it is installed. I have put together many fiberglass kit cars and dune buggies and all of those had a better design, although flat windshield. On the dune buggies, the rubber gasket goes all the way around the glass and the sides of the frame is bolted to the fiberglass and very strong set up.
Comparing how they did the speedster and I am sure, the original ones, made out of metal had a different design for the windshield.
The way the corner supports use 10-24 size screws to barely grab the upper glass frame just seems to me like an engineered mistake. A stronger connection would be if once the parts are lined up and the glass installed and you then mark the upper frame and drill and tap it, well , seems to me going from a hole, not tiny threaded surface, from INSIDE the upper frame to the outside with a grade eight 1/4 inch bolt and nut, then some nice looking cap over the tip of the exposed 1/4 thread would be some connection which would never break, come apart or shake loose due to road vibration.
The 8mm support rod is a step in the right engineering direction and I like the new mount on the top of the dash, which should spread the load. The corner attachment points with those two small 10-24 machine screws, which if one is not very careful will push on the glass, seemed like some engineered mistake.
I am working with some old CMC parts. There are two machine screws which hold the corner supports on the upper frame or upper frame to the corner supports, however you say it. The higher or top machine screw, on mine, will only grab one to two threads of the corner support piece, then there is no way one can tighten down on the upper frame with that one machine screw. The lower or bottom machine screw has several threads because the corner piece is thicker at the base, then it's "top" part.
The top machine screw does almost nothing to hold parts together. The lower one on the corner is doing all the work and again, there is only the 1/16 thickness of the upper frame being grabbed by the 10-24 machine screw. All this just seems too flimsy to me. That support rod becomes the stronger part, holding the upper frame in place. So, good idea they went with the 8mm size.
On the VS corner pieces, as perhaps, your parts are made thicker than my old CMC, do you know if the threaded depth on said corner pieces have more than one-two threads in them, on the upper machine screw hole ? To repeat, my pieces only seem to be using the lower machine screw to grab the upper frame, but this is really not good engineering, in my opinion.
I have been building race cars for over 30 years. What holds the car together is the way fasteners ( read nuts and bolts) are used and how pieces are attached and/or connected to one another. There is a complete chapter in one book , I have, about race car fabrication and the author would be laughing at the poorly designed method, we see on this windshield frame and how it is held together.
I feel good about the design of the speedster center rod support. I am going to try to figure out some decent looking way to attach the upper frame to those corner pieces and use some kind of grade eight machine screw and nuts, then put a "cap" which is chrome plated, over the ends of the machine screw threads, sticking out of the upper frame. Not how this replica was designed, but my idea will add considerable strength to how parts are joined together.
Long ago, one 1/4 inch bolt fell off one race car, I raced. I did not have a replacement one, correct length with me and could not find one at the track from other persons. That one bolt caused me to not race and I was 200 miles from home. After that one event, which ruined my weekend, I started carrying one each, of every size bolt and nut, which was on the race car in my "extra" parts. You know, in 30 years, another fastener never came loose, but I was prepared to replace it. So, one chapter in the race car fabrication book on using the correct methods and correct hardware or fasteners seemed to have been overlooked by how the speedster windshield frame is held together.
Sorry about the long post, but the engineering of the windshield frame really bothers me. I have no confidence with the amount of driving I plan to do, the upper frame will not work loose or the 1/16 inch threaded area on it will not strip out those machined screws.
I will figure out an alternate way and stronger way to hold the windshield in place and keep in mind how it looks. I am all about function, more than how a car looks.
Here is a photo of my Rat Rod, I talk so much about. It looks like a pile of junked parts, but can beat most Camaro or Mustang new cars, with their high performance engines. First time putting a photo of it on this web site, as I know, people will laugh at how it looks. Function, not looks gets you from point A to point B. I drive this pile of junk looking car, every day, rain or shine.
Current engine is dual Weber carb 1776cc, not as shown.
