The windscreen is a structural component as well as a glazing element, and the glass was always laminated safety glass, consisting of two layers bonded to a plastic interlayer that holds the glass together when broken rather than shattering, providing a significant safety benefit in the event of stone impact or collision. On the Roadster, the cast aluminium frame forms part of the overall body stiffness, the two side pillars carrying brackets that pass through the joints of the front wings with the shroud panel, and the bottom rail sealed to the body with a rubber apron. On early 1962 cars the apron seal runs over the bottom rail, while on all subsequent cars it runs under it, and a tie-rod on the inside of the frame originally served to hold the interior rear view mirror.
Glass
Windscreen glass is available for the Roadster in clear and tinted versions. The original supplier was Triplex, though in later years glass was sometimes sourced from other European suppliers, and an unspecified change to the Roadster windscreen glass and rubber glazing strip in April 1977 is thought to concern the introduction of slightly thinner glass. Complete windscreen frame assemblies are available on exchange for three production periods, pre-1969, 1970 to 1975, and 1976 onwards. For the GT, windscreen glass is available in clear, tinted, and top-tinted versions, the GT using a rubber glazing strip with a chrome trim set comprising top and bottom strips and corner pieces, with tinted glass becoming standard on the 1975 Jubilee GT and all GTs from the 1977 model year.
Seals, Finishers & Fitting
The windscreen glazing seal sits in the channel between the glass edge and the body aperture, providing both the structural retention of the glass and the weather seal, and over time the rubber hardens, shrinks, and cracks, allowing water to seep between glass and body, initially visible as damp patches on the dashboard and scuttle and eventually causing corrosion in the scuttle panel and A-post areas. A new seal should always be fitted when replacing the windscreen, and considered even when the glass does not need changing if water ingress is evident. The glazing seal, screen-to-body seal, frame seals, filler seal, side seals, and chrome finisher strips are all available individually or by the metre, with bottom windscreen frame brackets differing between pre-1968 and post-1968 cars, and windscreen packing pieces for centre and pillar positions available for correctly setting the frame alignment. Windscreen fitting requires care and is best undertaken with two people, the seal lubricated with soapy water and a length of cord threaded through the inner lip pulled progressively to draw the lip over the body flange, as forcing the glass without this technique risks cracking the screen or tearing the seal.