plastic windscreen legal ?

[tuscrv8]

i will soon be fitting a screen into my tuscan challenge road converstion
i already have the origanal plexi glass screen and was wondering if this was suitable for the m.o.t
i will fit a real glass screen later, but the plastic screen just bolts in so i thought i would run it with that in place for a while , as if there are any electrical probs it will be a bugger to get unber the dash with a bonded in glass screen

many thanks

[Graham]

im 99% certain that you need to have a glass windscreen in the uk.... You could of course take the screen out for its mot/sva test then you dont need wipers or washers either....



a quick search of the construction and use regs says

safety glass - glass which if fractured will not fly into sharp fragments likely to cause severe cuts if broken


i cant find the sva regs to check

G

[petclub]

Phill, drop Tony Tiger an email, he's an MOT examiner and has an interest in TVRs etc. Dave

[tvrolet]

Legally, you will need a glass screen. That will get checked of you go down the SVA route, but if you get the car road registered by some other mechanism, then an MOT tester might miss it. Plus, if it's the SVA route then as well as wipers and washers you'll also need a heated air demist...so hot air under fan power. The air for my road legal demist comes from a DIY 'heat exchanger' (larger diameter pipe surrounding the exhaust down pipe) in the left front wing. This isn't MOT tested, but would be required for type approval.

[Chuggaboom]

To get away with no screen in an SVA, and hence wipers, washers (and demist) you'd need to have no pillars.

So if u go the SVA route its a glass screen, either S (TVR genuine for good fit), S aftermarket copy (fit maybe OK who knows) or Capri IIRC MkI with some surround fettling.

If not wanting to go the SVA route, then u'll have to know someone

I moved the lower dash relay mount eleswhere, then the extinguisher pull/battery cut-off to the vacated hole but mounted to the car rather than the dash while protruding through, and then rewired the whole dash with multiplug connectors so that it can be removed easily....takes a while but makes things a lot easier.

[Derek Smith]

I've just read a traffic law book of 15 years ago. However, I see no reason why the law should have been changed.

The only mention of materials is that, to paraphrase, if you have a glass windscreen, it must be of safety glass - toughened or laminated.

I would caution anyone against having something made of plexiglass anywhere near your face or indeed body. It is not the nicest thing to go through. It shatters into sharp pieces that will rip you apart. Polycabonate is better, probably better than safety glass. But not plexiglass. It's nasty stuff.

[tvrolet]

Derek Smith said:

I've just read a traffic law book of 15 years ago. However, I see no reason why the law should have been changed.

The only mention of materials is that, to paraphrase, if you have a glass windscreen, it must be of safety glass - toughened or laminated.

Let me quote from Section 8 [Glazing] of the current SVA manual, section 3...

3.
a. Check all WINDSCREENS and OTHER WINDOWS WHOLLY OR PARTLY ON EITHER SIDE OF THE DRIVER'S SEAT (other than side screens) are made of safety glass to a recognised standard or an equivalent standard.

[the capitals aren't mine, that's how it's presented in the manual]
...then...

NOTE 2: safety glass must conform to one of the following European standards and bear the relavent marking applied by the manufacturer
- British Standard: BS857 or BS857/2
BS5282
BSAU178
- ECE Regulation 43
eg E11 43R-002439
- EEC Directive 92/22
eg e11

etc etc

But I think you get the point, that in terms of vehicle approval, safety glass is legally required.

[tuscrv8]

ok so i can get a tvr s windscrren fitted for about £200 by the local windscreen place

just to confirm that it is an s screen ie the one made late 80s early 90s
any one got a code nunber so i can confirm it with the supplier

[Graham]

Chuggaboom said:

To get away with no screen in an SVA, and hence wipers, washers (and demist) you'd need to have no pillars.

thery're not pillars they are rollcage padding

[tvrolet]

tuscrv8 said:

just to confirm that it is an s screen ie the one made late 80s early 90s
any one got a code nunber so i can confirm it with the supplier

Can't help with codes etc., but the 'S' screen is the 'correct' one; that's what I have in mine. However, like most things Tuscan, the fit is only...er...approximate In fact the fitter was fairly reluctant to fit it without using some form of rubber border or whatever as the apparent fit was so bad, but that's really due to the flexi bodyshells and how the frame may have been moved when the top rail was bolted to the cage. I didn't want a border or edge trim so he just needed loads more goo than normal, and even then I later went round the edge with sikaflex to smooth out some of the misalignment.

[Chuggaboom]

tuscrv8 said:

ok so i can get a tvr s windscrren fitted for about £200 by the local windscreen place

just to confirm that it is an s screen ie the one made late 80s early 90s
any one got a code nunber so i can confirm it with the supplier

Don't know what it all means but says here on a sticky ticket that I retrived for future reference:

TRIPLEX/SAFETY/GLASS
KINGS/NORTON/LAMINATED

CODE......X15414

DATE......07/11/94

ASSEM/SHIFT MISC/X

VINYL.NO. M4092296-B
PART NO
INSP.CODE...

MC10

RECT.INSPEC.