my new "final" attempt at new windscreens

[silver]

Since I bought my atom I was very unhappy with the way the bubbles did nothing to stop the wind, I have attempted many different ways of attaching deflectors to the bubbles and they all did their job but ultimately reduced my field of vision.  After seeing what Lane (IIRC) did to his dash that came with humps from the factory, I've wanted to do something similar, and luckily Eric Howe came along with a random dash with bubbles that he had laying around.

So for me, the dash looks terrible (as Positron has pointed out) when you remove the bubbles.  I took my opportunity to convert the dash (after removing bubbles) to one with wind deflectors, BUT, I also wanted to integrate my radar detector because I just don't drive any car without it.

First Eric's dash came with the bubbles therefore I had to fill in this edge left from removing them











And I had to fill in the hole for Eric's master kill switch as my car didn't have one









Then I had to build the lip to attach the new deflectors too









Then I settled on this shape for the deflectors, not too tall or too short or too wide or too narrow, I got the idea from Darth's factory wickers





Then I needed to cut a slot for the radar detector lexan to be slipped through which I bent underneath and mounted with the same nuts/bolts that the original bubbles used



This shows my old bubbles with my home made deflectors,



This is my new dash/deflectors



This is my new point of view from the driver's seat taken at eye-level




Here's some more pics, the only thing left is when I get my extra radar detector mount clip I will attach it to the lexan so that the radar detector can be clipped in and removed without relying on velcro and I will bolt the mounting clip to the lexan the suction cups will not be used.







I just washed it before putting it on so it's still wet between the lexan and the dash which is why it looks darker in those spots.





Overall the project took longer then I thought, although to do it again wouldn't take nearly as long as I know what can and can't be done now, the texture of the dash is pretty smooth but I would like it if it was smoother I just can't afford any more sand paper   It does exactly what I wanted it to do and I didn't have to spend more then 4$ for the lexan, and about $50 for the materials.  I will admit it's not factory quality but it goes with the other mod's I've done to my car.

Yay! I'm done!

Thanks to Eric Howe for providing me with a Dash to do my experiment and to Lane for giving me the idea of how to mount the new deflectors.

[bolus]

[quote="silver"]


[/quote]

Is that vanilla icing?

Looks good

[silver]

Yep....and in the future I would recommend sticking to straight bondo and nixing the icing all togethee

[Lane]

Looks good Silver.  I love the sense of accomplishment a DIY project gives.  Be sure to report back how these work for you.

I'm not sure if others with flat windscreens experienced this also, but I've found that this is now needed as well:



I don't know if it is the impact of all the bug splats but after 1 year and about 3000 miles, mine started to look like they'd been sandblasted.  I just picked up the polish so I can't say how well it works yet.  Side panels will surely benefit from the polish too.


Mmmm, that icing does look tasty.

[Heywood-Yablowme]

Looks good.  In the future,I can tell you (from one who uses body filler almost daily),  putty is much easier to sand if you apply it with something other than a rake

Seriously though, the smoother you apply the filler the less sanding. 

Bolus,believe it or not, one of the best finish puttys out there is actually called icing.

God,what a mess! 

The final product looks very nice.

Hmm..that gives me an idea...

[silver]

ahhhhhh yes, as I mentioned I made mistakes, well 1st mistake was using what home depot calls fiberglass filler, which looked like icing, turns out it's impossible to apply smoothly and takes a superhero to sand down.  Once I got it sanded enough I added good old bondo and finished with that.....so much easier.

[bolus]

[quote="Lane"]
Looks good Silver.  I love the sense of accomplishment a DIY project gives.  Be sure to report back how these work for you.

I'm not sure if others with flat windscreens experienced this also, but I've found that this is now needed as well:



I don't know if it is the impact of all the bug splats but after 1 year and about 3000 miles, mine started to look like they'd been sandblasted.  I just picked up the polish so I can't say how well it works yet.  Side panels will surely benefit from the polish too.


Mmmm, that icing does look tasty.
[/quote]

If you get something like this make sure you test it out on something you dont care about.  I got the Meguair's plastic polish and it made my side panels cloudy.  I say away from the stuff now. 

[silver]

Thanks for the advice!!!!!!!!!!

Luckily for me making the actual windscreens was the easiest part(20 minutes at most) and literally cost $3.88 (per 8X10 sheet of Lexan which makes both pieces) at home depot/Lowes.

I took someones advice (but can't remember who) about sanding down the edges so they are rounded not squared off and it really makes it look so much better

[DarthChicken]

That was my advice, same thing I did to mine.

I really like the look.. except for the radar detector piece. It looked very professional/well done, right up until you tacked that silly looking angled piece on and hung your detector there.  Any reason you don't mount that under the dash?

[silver]

[quote="DarthChicken"]
That was my advice, same thing I did to mine.

I really like the look.. except for the radar detector piece. It looked very professional/well done, right up until you tacked that silly looking angled piece on and hung your detector there.  Any reason you don't mount that under the dash?
[/quote]

cuz it's a radar detector and it needs line of sight...plus I need to see the display of it so I know what's going on.

remote mounted detectors cost $1000....no thanks, I'll use the one I already have ( which was a new one I had to buy thanks to the thief at atomfest )

[Lane]

[quote="bolus"]
If you get something like this make sure you test it out on something you dont care about.  I got the Meguair's plastic polish and it made my side panels cloudy.  I say away from the stuff now.  [/quote]

I'm surprised that Meguiar's would do that, as I've had great results from their products in the past.  I tested this Novus polish on a scrap left over from when I cut the windscreens.  Even though the bottle discourages people from using it on polycarbonate (which I think Lexan is a flavor of), the result looks great with no clouding or other problems that I can see.  I'll be trying it on a small part of the side panels shortly.

[bolus]

[quote="Lane"]
[quote="bolus"]
If you get something like this make sure you test it out on something you dont care about.  I got the Meguair's plastic polish and it made my side panels cloudy.  I say away from the stuff now.  [/quote]

I'm surprised that Meguiar's would do that, as I've had great results from their products in the past.  I tested this Novus polish on a scrap left over from when I cut the windscreens.  Even though the bottle discourages people from using it on polycarbonate (which I think Lexan is a flavor of), the result looks great with no clouding or other problems that I can see.  I'll be trying it on a small part of the side panels shortly.
[/quote]

Yeah, usually I test everything before I use it but didn't this time and tried it on a small spot.  it clouded up from the microscratches.  It seemed like it was more of a rubbing coumpound that polish even though it wasn't supposed to be that coarse.    not has bad as wet sanding but still made it look bad.

I still like their scratch-x on paint and use the m80 speed glaze as well. 

[Jacob Potts]

Very nice, silver!!

Well done! :-)

Jacob Potts :-)

[Lane]

[quote="Lane"]
[quote="bolus"]
If you get something like this make sure you test it out on something you dont care about.  I got the Meguair's plastic polish and it made my side panels cloudy.  I say away from the stuff now.  [/quote]

I'm surprised that Meguiar's would do that, as I've had great results from their products in the past.  I tested this Novus polish on a scrap left over from when I cut the windscreens.  Even though the bottle discourages people from using it on polycarbonate (which I think Lexan is a flavor of), the result looks great with no clouding or other problems that I can see.  I'll be trying it on a small part of the side panels shortly.
[/quote]

I know it's been a while since I initially posted this, but I finally pulled off my side panels.  Decided to give them a good cleaning over the winter and hit them with the Novus polish.  It does a great job at removing scuffs and quite a few scratches.  They look great afterward - no swirl marks, hazing, or any other negative effects.  A definite visible improvement over the condition they were in (caused by passenger's feet, sand/gravel off of the tires, and the occasional less-than-delicate wipedown).