Possible rover 75 tourer/mg ztt rear screen re-manufacture!

[Rick-sta]

Hi all, I just wanted to put this out just to get a feel for any interest there may be in this. As some of you may have seen, I recently had a batch of 26 brand new heated front windscreens manufactured for the 75/ZT, and whilst I was offering those I was asked by quite a few tourer owners if it would be possible for the manufacturer to produce new tailgate glass screens for the tourer models.

As some of you may already know, brand new rear screens for the tourer models are no longer available and haven't been available for some time, so this means that if your rear screen is smashed or in need of replacement and you go through your insurance or to any windscreen fitter such as autoglass or national windscreens, they aren't able to supply you with a brand new rear screen, they are all out of stock.

Therefore your only option in this case is to find a second hand one from a breaker, which of course isn't too much of a problem at the moment. However I was mostly asked if I'd be able to have new ones made due to the heater elements failing on the rear screens.

Well I've been chatting to the guys I used to have the front windscreens made, and what I didn't realise was that the manufacturer they use is actually one of the mainstream manufacturers/suppliers for most cars and currently hold the contract for the heated windscreens for Ford (can't remember their name), and their catalogue consists of windscreens, rear screens and side windows for most cars including ones for MG Rover which they apparently supplied back when our cars were being produced. Hence why the quality of the heated windscreens I had made are so good.

The guys have got in touch with the manufacturer and they have come back to us and said they have the design for the tourer rear screen, however when they sent us the design it looks like it's the saloon rear screen rather than the tourer one. It's taking quite a bit of digging into to find the correct design as unfortunately their catalogue doesn't run off the same part numbers as the ones we have. But we think they do have the design somewhere!

So what I wanted to do was just get a feel for how much interest there would be in brand new rear tourer screens as they guys are having to put quite a bit of time into this to see if we can have them made. If there's not much interest then I'll tell them to stop looking into it.

I've been told we'll probably be looking at a minimum order of 10 rear screens, and price wise they've estimated they'll be between £150-£250ish, but we can't give an exact price yet until the manufacturer is able to find the correct design and able to provide us with a quote.

If this does go ahead, the rear screens will be made to match the quality of the original factory rear screens, and will be exactly the same so will have the heater elements and aerials all built into the rear screen.

So just to get a feel, would there be much interest in these?

Cheers (y)

[Mickyboy]

Hi Rick
Sounds like a good idea, I’ve supplied a few used ones for circa £50 each, however I’ve currently got more than 6 in stock so I’d say for club members it’s probably about cost, as the heated rear screen is only applicable around 6months a year, in the summer it’s not much of a problem.
If the cost is over £200 I’d hazard a guess that the price might put people off.

I do think it’s a good idea tho
Mick

[Yorkshire GOC]

Certainly would - i have a working spare buts its a 75 rear screen -will they be the darker ZT rear screen?

[steady eddie]

I would be interested as mine has never worked in my ownership.

[Bob Williams]

I would definitely be interested. You mention the aerial but I thought that was back offside side glass and the tailgate glass just has the heating elements?

Bob

[charlie 22]

Hi, I would be interested in a screen.

[johnnybbad]

i think they would struggle to manufacture these due to it not just being a piece of glass

[vacuman]

Are they the same for Mk1 & Mk2?

I've a couple of elements not working and broken screens are rare compared to fronts but in time they will be needed for sure.

Or are we being paranoid? Plenty of old classics on the road that are far rarer than our cars, can't be easy getting a rear screen for a Mk1 Granada estate for example.

I know that if I needed one (and I'm sure I'm not alone) I'd pay whatever the cost. But when I don't need one I don't feel the need to buy one, just in case.

That said, if enough of us chipped in a tenner (say 200 tourer/ZTT owners) to provide the working capital it could be a solution. But then where would they be stored, cost of distribution, resale cost, benefit to those who chipped in (£20 off??)

There's probably a workable solution to everything above but it might be better if the club built a solution that covered remanufacturing in general, not just rear estate screens in particular.

[willster]

I would take one without hesitation. Keep us posted

[minty2]

Would this include the mounting frame on to which the glass is bonded; i.e. a complete replacement hatch?