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Windshield availability in the US?

3K views 15 replies 10 participants last post by  95classiclwb 
#1 ·
Hello everyone,

I recently purchased a 2002 P38 in great condition. Of course that could not last as a tree fell on it yesterday while it was parked in the street. :oops: Luckily, the windshield bore the brunt of the damage. It could have been much worse. Is there any issue with finding a replacement in the US? I'd like to use a service that comes to the house like Safelite. I also think the one that shattered does not have a heating element in it anymore. If I were to find one with the heating element is there any trick to installing it? Maybe that is something the dealer should do?

Finally, it also got a dent in the hood that is not too bad. I needed to have the hood repainted anyways due to pealing clearcoat. Can aluminum dents be banged back out by the bodyshop or would this require a new hood?

Thanks!
 
#2 ·
About 9 months agoI contacted Safelite about replacing my windshield they could get both the one with the heated screen for about $750 and without for $450. I ended up holding off which was good because I had some hail damage that happened 6 months later. So Yes my NAS 02 was able to get one.
 
#4 ·
Curious to know what make of windscreen they can sell you. Wouldn't it be nice to find an original Pilkington with the correct tint...
 
#5 ·
I had made an insurance claim on mine a little over a year ago. At the time I was able to request a Pilkington glass and they did not charge additional for it. This was Safelite, btw. I actually prepped the truck for the tech by removing most of the trims, as I feared some might be mangled during the install process. And, in fact, one of the inner A pillar trims was chipped during removal. So I would recommend carefully pulling those. The Pilkington glass apparently shipped with only one ground wire (the wires in the center area) so the tech snipped off one from the old glass and crimped it on. Easy enough right? Well I had to wait for a snow/frost to test everything and unfortunately only one side of the glass was heating. I then contacted Safelite to advise of the issue and set up an appointment. This time, they wanted me to come to a location, instead of sending a guy out.

I got there and instead of performing any diagnostic work, they were just going to swap out the glass with another one. After pulling the truck in the bay I walked over and the replacement glass was ‘Fuyao’ brand which the shop claimed was an OE equivalent. I advised that did not appear to be equivalent of the Pilkington glass already in the vehicle. I left it with the shop to contact me once a Pilkington replacement had been located, as I have seen the poor quality of some of the cheaper Chinese glass used for auto claims I have worked. While I was waiting for a response that week, I pulled the wiper cowl again to check the wiring, finding the only cause for the one side not heating was a loose crimp from the repair by the first tech. With the glass already installed, trying to get a better crimp was proving difficult, so I carefully soldered the connection and it appears to be working fine to this day. I contacted the Safelite branch to advise it was fixed. I located a replacement A pillar trim after some searching and they comped me for that as well.

I guess.... moral of the story... and I speak from experience as an insurance appraiser as well... be careful with Safelite. I would recommend prepping the vehicle yourself, as it’s hard to tell the “skill level” of the tech they may send out.... and as you know trim bits for these are not cheap. At this point I’m not sure what brand of glass they would offer - when I contacted them after repairing the wiring they said they could not locate another Pilkington glass. I don’t know if this was a permanent or temporary issue. Oddly, I looked at Fuyao’s website and it does list them as a supplier to Land Rover. I can’t speak for what level of quality is offered though.
 
#11 ·
For some reason, the "manage attachments" window does not load for me, so I can't up load photos. The car is brown/gold with black interior. It was for sale a year ago in NJ:

http://www.roverclassic.com/detail.php?item=843

The guy who bought in NY kept it for a year, drove it 1000 miles and decided he didn't really like it. And now it's mine :)

Windshield repair is happening on Monday! It also seems like the city might pay for the dent on the hood. I was planning to repaint the hood anyways due to clearcoat peeling, so this tree could have saved me some money `)
 
#14 · (Edited by Moderator)
I own a 1998 Range Rover, P38, 4.6 L V8-GEMS Engine. 2 years ago I had the windshield replaced by Safelite AutoGlass. I specified OEM Glass with the heater wires embedded, which cost$1000.00, my insurance covered it for $50.00 (my total cost). However, there are 2 trim pieces at the top & bottom of the windshield (on the outside of the windshield) that do NOT come with the new windshield and they are rather expensive.However, when I called to make the appointment I specifically requested that they replace those 2 pieces and that they MUST be apart of the install with no additional cost to me. They failed to do this, so I complained to management about it. The manager ordered the 2 trim pieces at his cost and installed them afterwards with no cost tome. So make sure they are a part of the cost of the windshield install! The installer needs to be watched as he did NOT tighten the 2 wires underneath that connect to the windshield! I discovered this and tightened them myself.

Other than the above, the new windshield is great and works well enough. There is a small portion that does not heat in the middle of
the windshield but is not enough to have to go through the entire process all over again.

Best wishes on your new windshield!

Chris from Colorado
 
#15 ·
As a follow-up, I had the windshield installed yesterday finally. I had to take the car in to the JN Phillips since they said the gasket is no longer available and they had to make a custom one and the van install could not do that. They did give me a Pinkerton Heated windshield which is nice. I'm almost positive the windshield that broke was not heated.
 
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