Short plastic windshield? on fly bridge

E

Ed Dippel

Member
Joined
Dec 18, 2005
RO Number
19777
Messages
64
Hello,

I am not sure what the piece is called? It is a a short smoked plastic windshield on the front of my fly bridge. It is about 3/8" thick. The plastic is bent to an "L" shape so that it can be screwed to the fiberglass bridge.

Anyway.....my tarp turned into a parachute in 60 M.P.H. winds. The tarp smashed the "windshield". I have not idea as to how to have another made. Any ideas about what kind of business would make them? My boat is a 1977 Jersey Dawn (out of business). A company in Maryland would be ideal.

Thanks
 
Its probably a piece of acrylic sheet. You can look for a plastics supplier and cut and bend a replacement yourself. I did this for my friends Baja. Used the old windshield and make a paper pattern. Cut the acrylic with a jig saw with a blade for plastic and polish the edge. You can bend it with a heat gun. You may need to make a bending jig to get an exact bend. It depends on the radius and if you can bend it using the mounting area as a jig.
 
It's called a venturi wind screen. Can't help you with where to get a new one though, sorry.
 
Ed: There is a plastic mold Co./shop on Severn Ave. in Eastport. Across the bridge from Annapolis. I know they do all kinds of poly and acrylic molding, however they are not cheap! Yell if I can give you more info.
 
If it's Lexan, I can help with what it takes to cut and shape. I have a few scrap pieces I fooled around with when I replaced the windows in my aft enclosure. You can't break it! However, it does scratch easier than Plexiglas.
 
I believe Lexan (polycarbonate) also is not as UV resistant as plexiglas (acrylic), so it will get eventually get cloudy looking from the sun. Look in the yellow pages under plastics suppliers and see if you can get some scrap acrylic and experiment with it to see if you feel comfortable fabricating with it. Like I said previously, its very easy to cut with a saw with a plastics blade. The most difficult thing is bending it, which takes a little practice, but can be done. If you have a sharp bend, there is a strip heater that is used for this purpose. To bend a large radius, you can use a heat gun.
 
I'm not sure if they sell to individuals but you might check Acrylico for that wind screen/wind deflector. They have devloped a coating process for their acrylic windshields, hatches .etc. that the say gives it the hardness charcteristics of glass and is even imoervious to ammonia products like windex that ruin plain acrylics. Otherwise by all means consider making the replacement yourself from readily-avaliable acrylic or Lexan sheet.

For a relative, in about 2 hours I templated, made & installed a very complex multi-bend large center console windshield of much higher quality than the mfgr's original , using only a pair of borrowed hairdryers to heat the bends. Heat strips or a common heat gun will speed that part up considerably! Cardboard template from the original w/ details magic markered on it, modified for improved design, cut with sticky paper left on with portable tablesaw and sabre saw, finish edges with laminate trimmer radius bit, use several progressively finer grits emory cloth then fine steel wool and finally quick pass of propane torch for glass smoothness. Finish edges before bending. Carefully map the bends , heat on both sides at the bend and bend over the edge of a flat surface (used plywood on sawhorses) .

It's easier to bend slightly less then heat & bend a little more to perfect than to un-bend. Just practice the heat & bend parameters on scrap pieces 1st. Use drill bits specifically for drilling plastic or reverse a normal high speed bit to avoid chipping or cracking. It can help to oversize the bits and insert tube spacers to protect the acrylic from the fasteners and I used rubber grommets over the spacers to shock cushion between windshield and front/sides of console. That was about 17 yrs ago and it still looks great. It really was pretty easy & a fun project but then I've built a lot of houses.
 
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