Manx Club

I?m getting ready to pull the hood on M1408B10E to move the fuel filler, install a gas heater, do a few other silly things while I?m in there, and replace the windshield with a new one purchased from the Manx Store. The existing windshield to hood/dash fit doesn?t look right to me. The dash appears to have slipped as the lower bolt hole is visible, you can also see the windshield is not centered over the seam. The top windshield hole on both sides just barely catches the upper dash brace, and the lower holes are forward of center. The existing windshield does ?give? a little when being used as a driver entry/exit support, (this may explain the cracked glass). I would like the new windshield to be well braced and aligned correctly so a Manx hardtop will fit one of these days. My understanding from searching old posts is:

1. The windshield install angle is a matter of personal preference, but there is a critical dimension for making sure the hardtop fits. What should this measurement be?
2. The hood to dash seam is meant to be covered by the windshield when the new dash is bonded to the hood. Does the hood get trimmed shorter at the new hood to dash butt glue joint?
3. It is important that all the windshield bolts go through ?meat? in the dash brace. I may have to weld the existing holes and drill new ones. Are there recommended hole locations?

I?m planning to re-use the ABS dash for originality, and since it is not cracked, yet. So the hood/dash seam is a little forward of where the seam would be if I were using a new dash. My question is how do I know the hood/dash brace was originally position correctly on the body? What were the original instructions for this part of assembly? Does anybody have a 1968 assembly instruction manual they would lend me? And how does the ?invisible? windshield bolt installation procedure work in this situation. Thanks in advance!

It looks to me that the holes are drilled in the correct place in the hood/dash but they should be centered in the windshield frame. The dash support should be centered on the seam between the hood and the dash. If the hood is installed on the body correctly and the dash/hood support is in the proper location the windshield angle should only vary a few degrees between buggys. Here is a link to a gallery with pictures of a Manx that I did some work on for a customer. The hood was never installed correctly and consequently the dash/hood support was installed in the wrong place. All the photos have captions. If you have any questions feel free to ask. http://www.manxgallery.org/gallery/album224

The windshield should be mounted at the same angle as the rear edge of the hood. The bolt holes should be right on the joint between hood and dash. The holes through the dash frame should be in center of the two flat metal side pieces of the dash frame. I don't see why the new invisible T-shaped heads shouldn't work even with the uneven surface between the hood and abs dash. The original windshield actually had a piece of wood fit up inside the channel that laid against the hood/dash, to provide more flat surface area. A common problem is, the dash frame doesn't fit neatly inside the dash where it needs to be, i.e., right inside the joint. I have had to cut frames apart and rebend and reweld them to make sure they fit where they are supposed to be. If you are going to get a new windshield you might want to consider a new dash. The new ones Bruce sells are much stronger than the ABS originals and once they are attached to the hood with fiberglass, they make everything more rigid. They are just butted up to the rear of the hood and held in place with a layer of glass. I made a copy of my original assembly instructions for Winnie. Call her and see if she has copies. Here is a copy of the new dash mounting instructions

I would suggest the glass dash as well. I also covered the installlation of the fiberglass dash in the pictures in the gallery.

I don't think the windshield angle is that critical. I have had my hardtop on 3 different buggys and it fit all of them just fine.

[QUOTE="manxrob"]The procedure documenting a fiberglassed ?butt joint? sound like the least finicky way to go to me. You also bring up the issue of shimming the windshield to body joint. Since the ABS is no longer lapped I assume the shims will need to be thicker than the wood shims originally suggested. I can see that without shims that tightening the windshield will put a compression force across the bottom of the windshield glass. My buggy doesn?t have any shims at this junction, which may explain the glass crack extending from bottom corner to bottom corner. What material do you folks suggest as shim stock for this application for looks and function? I?m thinking a combination of fender welt and leftover plastic wood from my house deck. Also, the future fit of a hard top still is a concern, as installing the windshield at the same angle as the dash to hood joint looks to be a pretty imprecise job. Using a straight edge along the centerline of the car between the top edge of the rear deck and the front edge of the stock, (16 inch tall glass,) windshield I get 60 inches. Does that sound about right?[/QUOTE] The wood shims that were used to install the original windshield, fit inside the inner channel on the windshield and only stood out a millimeter or so. They were totally concealed by the frame which extended around them. If you were going to use shims, the plastic housedeck material has been used sucessfully as a body/pan spacer. I've put new windshields on old hoods with new dashes and also on a new Classic Manx. The lower legs of the windshield tightened up nicely against the hood/dash. I haven't needed to add shims. Using the rear edge of the hood to align the windshield isn't exact but its close enough. The Manx hard top is designed so that it hooks over the lip of the winshield frame in front and then its pulled backward and secured. The "sideburns" of the hardtop only contacts the sides of the body, not the rear. The "sideburns" are narrower (front to rear) than the area on each side they contact, which gives it wide range to fit.