Just got off the phone with the guy at "Smith's hot rod glass" and was
asking him a few questions about glass for my '55.  It seems like I
would actually save money buying from him rather than buying locally so
I'm kind of leaning that direction.

I asked if it would be a good idea to get tempered glass rather than
the original laminated for my car and he mentioned a few things that I
wasn't aware of.

1) he said that the plastic in the laminated actually blocks UV
(polarized?) so my interior would last longer, and so would the tint in
the glass.  (not sure that's a huge issue; the tint in the 50-year-old
factory glass still looks OK, even if it's all bubbly and unpleasant.)

2) he said that it's possible that I might notice the interior being
quieter with the laminated over the tempered (yeah, it might be quieter
if I put some carpet in, too...)

3) He also said that there was a trick to keeping laminated glass
looking good and not delaminating.  He suggested that about once a year
take a drop of 3-in-1 oil and rub it into any of the exposed edges of
the glass.  Supposedly that seals the edges and makes them look nice
and polished and keeps the elements out of the inner layer.  He said
that if this was done annually that the glass would last pretty much
indefinitely.

It sounded like he would rather I bought the laminated, although he
said that he was able to do tempered as well.  I guess what he would do
for a tempered piece is cut and polish it, then send it out to be
tempered, and then finally send it to me.  He did say that he'd have to
order some green tinted plate if he were to do that, but seemed
perfectly willing to do so if that's what I really wanted.

comments....?

nate