Tweet
I know there have been posts about elephant ears before so I thought I would share my experience of fitting glass ones. I have had two roadsters and have had these on both of them. Below is a picture of how I had them set up originally. The design comes originally from a Model A Ford. My dad had one of these with them on and recommended that they could work on a roadster. You get the brackets and a pattern design to have a glass cut. It does involve drilling and tapping a thread in to the screen roll bar frame. This for me is the most daunting part of doing this as I was very aware that if the screen cracked that would be very bad news indeed. But all went well.
Old brackets.jpg
They worked OK for a while but due to the increased wind resistance caused by the fact the roadster moves a lot quicker than a Model A Ford the brackets ended up breaking. The weakness in the design was that the brackets clamped to the glass, also they tended to move backwards as the bolt had to hold it in place against the wind. I went through a set of brackets and one piece of glass before I decided to change the design.
Side screen kit.jpg
I decided to make up my own brackets. I got some aluminum batons which were approx 80mm long, 40mm wide, 5mm thick. I shaped them by rounding the ends and softened all the square edges. I then put a bend in the middle using the vice to hold it in place and some mole grips. The aluminum is quite soft so would bend fairly easily. I then drilled a hole for mounting on to the screen. Also two more holes for mounting to the glass. I then got the fixings needed which included some round head hex bolts, some washers, nylock nuts etc. I also got some rubber grommets from a local glass company, the grommets were very good as they were T shaped so went between the bold head and the glass but also lined the inside of the hole in the glass. The glass company also drilled the holes in the safety glass for me. I also bought some self-adhesive strip (the kind used to go under the bonnet).
New side screen front.jpg
New side screen back.jpg
Side screens fitted.jpg
The brackets have been on for a couple of years now and I haven't had any issues with them yet!
Old brackets.jpg
They worked OK for a while but due to the increased wind resistance caused by the fact the roadster moves a lot quicker than a Model A Ford the brackets ended up breaking. The weakness in the design was that the brackets clamped to the glass, also they tended to move backwards as the bolt had to hold it in place against the wind. I went through a set of brackets and one piece of glass before I decided to change the design.
Side screen kit.jpg
I decided to make up my own brackets. I got some aluminum batons which were approx 80mm long, 40mm wide, 5mm thick. I shaped them by rounding the ends and softened all the square edges. I then put a bend in the middle using the vice to hold it in place and some mole grips. The aluminum is quite soft so would bend fairly easily. I then drilled a hole for mounting on to the screen. Also two more holes for mounting to the glass. I then got the fixings needed which included some round head hex bolts, some washers, nylock nuts etc. I also got some rubber grommets from a local glass company, the grommets were very good as they were T shaped so went between the bold head and the glass but also lined the inside of the hole in the glass. The glass company also drilled the holes in the safety glass for me. I also bought some self-adhesive strip (the kind used to go under the bonnet).
New side screen front.jpg
New side screen back.jpg
Side screens fitted.jpg
The brackets have been on for a couple of years now and I haven't had any issues with them yet!
Comment