Glass Roofs Make Mechanics' Eyes Glaze Over
Carglass is one of the most lucrative sectors of the sometimes obscenely lucrative auto service business. Their eyes glaze over when purveyors of pristine panes talk about a new trend in car design: Glass roofs.
Lincoln’s new MKZ shines new light on carmakers’ attempts to turn cars into true glasshouses. From a glass roofed Mustang to an englassed Mercedes Shooting Brake, more and more cars look like 21st century popemobiles, to the excitement of the glass trade.
“We are seeing larger windows and sunroofs,” rejoices Jeff Olive, training manager at Glasspro in Mt. Pleasant, S.C. “Glass roofs are here to stay,” says Bob Beranek, president of Auto Glass Consultants in Sun Prairie, Wis., both cited in GlassBytes, the TTAC of the carglass trade.
Whereas stationary glass roofs are fairly quick to replace, retractable roofs promise to sell many billable hours. Says Beraneck:
“The much harder install comes when the entire roof module needs replacing. This is usually when the retractable regulator is defective. Plan on all day to replace one of these.”
Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.
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I looked long and hard to find my current Caddy SRX that doesn't have the retractable glass roof. In addition to the squeak, rattle, and service issues with the retractor mechanisms, Lord help you if the sucker breaks. The insurance company says it's a factory defect in the glass and the vehicle mfgr says it's due to a road hazard. Try proving either case when the roof is now a couple bucketfulls of pebble sized glass fragments. (Don't ask me how I know this, LOL)
Ford, and I think Olds, tried this back in the 50's. But they used Plexiglas. Not too many people went for it. Also when I think of "extra glass" I think of AMC Pacers. Here in Florida you could bake a cake in one of those beasties.
About the weight, some brands (including Mercedes Benz)are using Spallshield from DuPont DuPontTM Spallshield is a three-layer composite structure of PVB/PET/hardcoat. The hardcoat is highly durable, chemically resistant and virtually indistinguishable to glass allowing it to replace one of the lites of glass in a glazing structure. This dramatically reduces the final weight of the glazing. http://www2.dupont.com/SafetyGlass/en_US/assets/pdfs/spallshiel d_brochure.pdf
Uh, about that whole "making someone’s eyes glaze over" thing... "I don't think that expression means what you think it means", to (almost) quote _Princess Bride_.