[urq] Protecting an UrQ Windshield - is there any product ala: 3M film that can be used?

[Ben Howell]

Back around 1999-2000, Budget Car Rental did a long term study in Colorado on how to prevent all the cracked windshields they were having on their Colorado fleet. The end result of the study was that a VERY high percentage (don’t remember the number) of the cracks began in the outside or bottom 4” of the windshield. I _think_ the working theory was that these are the area of low pressure around the windshield so, as stones get kicked up, they can easily get sucked into these areas.

Budget then installed 4” of 3B Clear Bra along the bottom and up the sides of EVERY vehicle in their Denver Airport fleet. I KNOW it reduced the number of broken windshields significantly, but I think they got quite a few complaints about visibility. So, they switched out all the 4” clear bra up the sides for 2”, but I never heard anything more after that happened.

Based on that, I installed 4” of clear bra on the bottom and up the sides of the (expensive) Factory glass I had installed in my wife’s V8 back in the day. After about 3 years the clear bra was pretty scratched up and hard to see through, but hadn’t yellowed or peeled off anywhere.  Of course, this was in Colorado and scraping ice in the winter, blah, blah, blah. The wipers actually did a pretty good job of transitioning from the film to the glass too.

FWIW!

Ben


-----Original Message-----
>From: Robert A Dupree <robert.a.dupree at jpmchase.com>
>Sent: Feb 25, 2010 4:06 PM
>To: "urq at audifans.com" <urq at audifans.com>
>Subject: [urq] Protecting an UrQ Windshield - is there any product ala: 3M film that can be used?
>
>Has anyone researched using a 3M-style film protection barrier to help keep our precious UrQ windshields from getting damaged?
>I'm sure no state would consider this a 'legal' thing, but I wonder if there is an optically-clear Stone-shield type product that could help?
>
>Rob Dupree
>                '84 UrQ #981
>