Windscreen fitting

[RandalColman]

One job that I put off until the very end of my restoration was the refitting of the windscreen, which I had been warned was a difficult task. I enlisted the aid of two friends, one of them a retired panelbeater and noted Jowett collector, yet even so it was an absolute bastard of a job, entailing much cursing, straining and bruising. For a short while we basked in a glow of accomplishment, only to have the car fail its registration inspection on the grounds of scratches in the windscreen. So then I had to go through it all again, with the help of another two friends (JCCA members, and therefore by definition gluttons for punishment), and it was no easier second time round.

We have established that the windscreen can be fitted in either of two ways: by the book, fitting the rubber to the glass and pushing the assembly in from the back, or alternatively by fitting the rubber to the body and working the screen into its channel, again from behind. Now we come to the point of this post. I spoke to two Javelin owners at the recent club rally who claimed to have fitted the windscreen single-handed, from the front, without difficulty. I assumed initially that they had a two-piece rubber, with filler strip, as the book describes for laminated windscreens, but they assured me it was the standard one-piece rubber as supplied by the club. I can only conclude that the cars had been modified to make this possible. Certainly, if I had to face the job yet again (heaven forbid!), I would start by attacking the car with an angle grinder to open up the aperture by 4 or 5 mm. Is this the likely explanation, or are there differences in the dimensions of screens and bodies that allow some screens to pop straight in?