Windshield Repair

Many of the 1960’s MFG boats came with Plexiglas windshields made by Taylor Made that have suffered from age. The spider cracks, crazing, and yellowing cannot be removed. The only solution is to replace the windshield.

Some of the windshields are available from Taylor Made and include new aluminum frame and deck gasket, but there is an eight week lead time and about $300 plus shipping.

I decided to take a chance and replace the aging Plexiglas in the aluminum frame with Lexan (polycarbonate) because it is rather cheap and easy to bend without heat in thin sheets. I bought a 30" x 96" x 1/8" piece of Lexan from the local supplier of plastics (found one in the yellow pages under 'plastics suppliers'). It was $77.00 for that piece. It was actually much longer and more expensive than I needed. Wait until after the template is made to order the Lexan because it is priced by the square foot.

This windshield repair project will not exactly duplicate the original Plexiglas windshield shape exactly because the original windshield has a slight “bubble” shape (curved in two directions) and the Lexan windshield will be flat, being curved from left to right, but not from top to bottom. The challenge is making a flat template from a concave windshield. This is covered in detail later.