HPE windscreen

[spud]

Hi all,

Are windscreens readily available or will the nice bloke from the tv advert suck air through his teeth when I ring him...?
Does anyone know the original tint on a VX HPE? Mine appears to have a two tone top tint too.

Cheers,
Andrew.

[spud]

Just answering my own query here but actually they had the screen details on their computer and have assured me it should be a bronze tint when it arrives. After checking mine it would appear bronze is correct as the side windows seem to be bronze too.
Hopefully that's what they'll turn up with.
And hopefully they won't bend my trims when they remove them...

Andrew.

[rossocorsa]

are you sure i thought only vx coupés had 'bronzo'

[spud]

I actually thought it was only the VX coupes with the bronze tint too but after checking mine it definitely is bronze... then again I thought all VX cars had a screen fitted in by a rubber but mine is bonded in... I reckon they just fitted whatever they had lying around at the factory half the time...

Andrew.

[rossocorsa]

I think you will find only coupés had the rubber screen surround on HPE the screen was retained as a structrual bonded in part of the bodyshell to retain rigidity due to the hatchback style shell. I am really surprised that you have bronze windows do they actually say 'bronzo' in the printed info that's on them in one corner? If they are bronze do I take it that the zone tint at the top of the windscreen is brown?

[MattNoVAT]

I have two coupes and both have bonded windscreens.

I understood it to be only the late cars that had rubber sealed screens.

[rossocorsa]

I have two coupes and both have bonded windscreens.

I understood it to be only the late cars that had rubber sealed screens.

only s2FL2 coupes had rubber as far as I know

[Paul Greenway]

My '83 HPE VX has a green tint screen and windows and is fitted by rubber seal, I thought as has been posted earlier all VX HPE's had green tinted glass and VX coupes had bronze, but knowing Lancia and Beta's in particular anything could happen!

[rossocorsa]

My '83 HPE VX has a green tint screen and windows and is fitted by rubber seal, I thought as has been posted earlier all VX HPE's had green tinted glass and VX coupes had bronze, but knowing Lancia and Beta's in particular anything could happen!

clearly I'm wrong about HPE then they must have changed to rubber as well, I suppose it is possible that some markets got bronze tint on HPE as well and that an odd car slipped through with it to the UK but I can't say that I've heard of it before I need to check the microfiche tonight!!

[spud]

Mine is bronze all round the car for sure (except the tailgate but I know from the restoration details that it is from another car). It doesn't actually say "bronzo" anywhere on them but there is a letter "b"... The top tint is two-tone; briefly green then brown to the top. Is my car unique? A freak? 

What I also know now is that the windscreen company were bringing a green screen to fit on friday... I've told them I'd rather have the bronze as original so they're trying to find one right now. Anyone have a source for a new Bronze tint bonded screen...?

Andrew.

[rossocorsa]

I suspect it is a different bronze to the VX coupe colour the vx glass is a very distinct brown and no band tint on windscreen I'm pretty sure from memory that the glass is marked 'bronzo' as well. I think I read somewhere that they no longer make that colour for car windscreens(??)

I think that some Delta turbo had the same colour glass as the VX coupe I can only assume that bronze was considered premium sports style but god knows why??

[rossocorsa]

I will check the microfiche tonight and report back on what it says about both glass colour and rubber seals

[rossocorsa]

well that has got me more confused! Firstly with regard to rubber surround the S2 FL2 fiche only seems to show one option which is what appears to be a rubber seal on both coupé and HPE, with regard to glass, specifically windscreen, for the coupé  there is a specific part number for the volumex glass (against annotation 0930 which means volumex in parts department speak)but for HPE there isn't and the fiche doesn't specify colour of tint. There seemed to be plain glass available on both coupe and HPE with an athermic (tinted) option plus the different glass on vx coupé, in January 1984 the plain option was deleted and the tinted option seems to change part number. Strangely though looking at other glass the HPE volumex has a different part number for the tailgate glass to other versions but it can't be a different colour so why? Must add that this is off the top of my head having had a look at the fiche in my garage (computer isn't near fiche reader unfortunately) so excuse any possible errors also I don't find the fiche as clear as the old style paper parts catalogues and my brain can get muddled up. Oh and while I recall I couldn't find any reference to side stripes as per another thread so I still suspect the volumex side stripes were originated in the UK and were packaged up by Lancar as official accessories

[cheeky monkey]

i hope the TV guys come up with the right goods Spud.  otherwise speak to ricky evans motorsport who may be able to help.

mines an early bonded type , i think later cars are rubber

G

[spud]

i hope the TV guys come up with the right goods Spud.  otherwise speak to ricky evans motorsport who may be able to help.

Thanks for that.

mines an early bonded type , i think later cars are rubber

Mine's on a 'C' plate- about as late as you'll see... and it's bonded... I really do think it was random at the factory!
The windscreen guys are due to turn up within the next couple of hours- the guy on the phone wasn't certain what they were bringing but probably a green one. I told him mine was bronze, with a two tone dark bronze/brown and green top tint. He said he'd never come across anything like that on any car... Bloody typical. Why is it always me that owns the "phhhhhh... never seen one like that before mate..." car?

Andrew.

[rossocorsa]

sounds like it's probably built after the 01/1984 revision shown on the microfiche assuming it's original does your glass have a '4' date code by any chance? I suspect most vx in the UK were built in mid to late 1983 so could be that yours is very late I don't know when they stopped making coupés and HPEs but it must have been sometime in 1984(??)

[cheeky monkey]

my bad memory also tells me that the bonded screen is bigger (?) than the others.

anyway, hope you got the job done

[spud]

Well guys, Friday's windscreen appointment was interesting and even educational... I learnt summat I didn't know! First of all, the guy who came was a classic car nut, which was great! When he saw the car he was very curious- never seen anything like it, windscreen-wise, for years. Apparently, these screens which we refer to as bonded in our cars aren't actually called bonded in the trade. Bonded, at least in the last twenty years or so, is a screen which has a black band around it's edge to which the bonding stuff is, er, bonded. It is never just bonded to the bare glass. And when you remove the chrome/black trims from a 'bonded' HPE screen you don't find a black edge, only bare glass. When you dig around in all the mastic-type stuff that is holding the screen in you find a metal wire running through it. I discovered this before he arrived as I removed the trim with the intention of getting all the mastic out from around the glass edge to inspect for rust holes in the windscreen aperture; of which I'm pleased to say there was absolutely none. When I was slicing through the black mastic I found this bare wire and I did wonder what on earth it was doing there... Apparently, back in t' day when bonded screens was a newish idea the adhesive/black mastic/sealant type stuff that fixed the screen in was cured by connecting an electric current to said wire which would (presumably) heat up and effect the curing process. Nope, I didn't know that either.
Anyway, the end result is that NO screens are fitted using that technique any longer so ideally I think he would've loved to fit one in a nice old fashioned rubber. Personally, I don't like screens in a rubber- a bonded screen is much neater. On his van he had a screen the same size as mine but in green and without a black edge. He told me that the adhesive that all modern screens are held in with absolutely has to be used on screens with a black edge as it simply doesn't work correctly on bare glass- the chemical reaction isn't quite right and the fix would be weak... Of course, all the old-stock screens for our cars won't have a black edge because they are designed to be fitted using the aforementioned wire technique with a different type of adhesive which is, apparently, no longer available... Good fun this, innit...?

So- IF they ever manage to find a bronze tinted screen (which they think probably is unique to my car as it doesn't exist on any records for the HPE) they will then have to apply a black edge to it before they can fit it. I don't think that's a problem though, I just hope it's covered by the metal trim when it's fitted.

Last word on the subject at the moment is they were going to get in touch with Lancia in Italy to ask about availability... which of course will be a complete waste of everyone's time... if they can't get one then I'll have to have one made... thank God for comprehensive insurance eh...??

Andrew.

[rossocorsa]

I know you said that you like the neatness of the bonded screen but if a rubber surround will fit I think I'd take that option so long as the ins co will cough up (the seal will be pricey) much more practical should the screen ever be broken again. As I said before I rather suspect you have a late spec screen from January 1984 onwards, is it definitely genuine lancia? I figure that it is if it has the wire in the sealant. 

[thecolonel]

Andrew,
the Hot bond system was used a lot by Lancia in the 70's/80's
current was applied to the seal to soften/melt it, the screen
then became part of the structure.

Replacing a screen today the fitter will paint the edge of the screen
and the surround with a curing solution so that the modern type of
mastic/sealant will seal/stick to the screen.

Some fitters will still have the hotbond but it will be a nos kit and
can be expensive, that's if they still have the transformer/power pack
to attach to it.

I've had a couple of screens replaced on Beta's and Gamma's and I've
certainly not had to order a special screen.  
However my last screen was ordered from Lancia in Italy but was made
by Pilkington in the UK sent to Italy and then returned to the UK to be
installed. You really don't want to know how much it cost.

Geoff