Tourer rear tailgate glass remanufacture

[Rick-sta]

Hi all,

Getting back into looking more into this project.

So I can get the tourer rear screens remanufactured however they can only produce the glass and can't produce the frame the glass is bonded to.

Now realistically I don't think there will be much point in me just supplying the glass. Although some private glass fitters will most likely be fine removing the old glass from the frame and installing the new one, the issue is the wiring for the brake light (and also the glass opening switch) passes through the bonding between the glass and frame which will most likely be cut when removing the old glass.

So I think the best way to do these is I will have so source a number of old tailgate glass units and have my windscreen fitter come down one day to remove the old glass from all the frames. I'd then have to sort the wiring for the brake light and glass opening switch. And then on another day I'll have to get my windscreen fitter back down to install the new glass onto the frames with the new wiring passing through.

That way the tourer rear screens will be supplied as a straight swap solution plug and play.

Obviously with all the additional work the costs of the tourer rear glass would increase. I estimate the complete cost would be around £400-£500 each. That would be cost of the glass remanufacture (tooling cost + cost per unit), cost of sourcing tourer rear glass units to salvage the frames from, costs from my windscreen fitter for removing the old glass and installing the new one, and the wiring done by myself.

I'm going to get hold of another couple scrap tourer rear glass units and get my windscreen fitter to split the glass off one of them in September when he's here to install some of the heated windscreens from the last batch, so will get a much better idea of how things look with the glass removed.

I think this is going to be the best way to get these done, as supplying just the glass isn't going to be much use to most I think.

With this in mind, would there still be much interest in these?

[macafee2]

Originally Posted by Rick-sta

Hi all,

Getting back into looking more into this project.

So I can get the tourer rear screens remanufactured however they can only produce the glass and can't produce the frame the glass is bonded to.

Now realistically I don't think there will be much point in me just supplying the glass. Although some private glass fitters will most likely be fine removing the old glass from the frame and installing the new one, the issue is the wiring for the brake light (and also the glass opening switch) passes through the bonding between the glass and frame which will most likely be cut when removing the old glass.

So I think the best way to do these is I will have so source a number of old tailgate glass units and have my windscreen fitter come down one day to remove the old glass from all the frames. I'd then have to sort the wiring for the brake light and glass opening switch. And then on another day I'll have to get my windscreen fitter back down to install the new glass onto the frames with the new wiring passing through.

That way the tourer rear screens will be supplied as a straight swap solution plug and play.

Obviously with all the additional work the costs of the tourer rear glass would increase. I estimate the complete cost would be around £400-£500 each. That would be cost of the glass remanufacture (tooling cost + cost per unit), cost of sourcing tourer rear glass units to salvage the frames from, costs from my windscreen fitter for removing the old glass and installing the new one, and the wiring done by myself.

I'm going to get hold of another couple scrap tourer rear glass units and get my windscreen fitter to split the glass off one of them in September when he's here to install some of the heated windscreens from the last batch, so will get a much better idea of how things look with the glass removed.

I think this is going to be the best way to get these done, as supplying just the glass isn't going to be much use to most I think.

With this in mind, would there still be much interest in these?

perhaps at the moment there may not be much interest due to cost and that they are still available from scrap yards but in time there may be a need for them. A couple of weeks ago a dealer wanted £25 for a rear screen

macafee2