A colleague is having his windscreen replaced at this moment, when lo and behold, another colleague pipes up that he has an emergency windscreen in his boot. My disbelief in the existence of such an item prompted him to get it from his car, and it's a plastic sheet with metal stiffeners like an umbrella.
Has anyone here ever seen one before?
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Yes. Basically just a Get You Home on a Wet Day device IIRC?
I guess they were more useful when the whole screen shattered into a million pieces so all you had was a gaping hole. Now screens are less likely to do that aren't they?
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Has anyone here ever seen one before?
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Yes. I have one.
It was a useful item in the days of non laminated windscreens but not so much use today with modern cars and much bigger windscreens. I think I will Ebay it.
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They used to be very common, I still have one for the Commer which has a toughened glass screen, can't think why you'd want one if all your vehicles have laminated glass.
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It reminded me of programmes like The New Avengers or The Professionals, where guys used to punch out their broken windscreens and then I couldn't imagine anyone being able to pull out a broken laminated screen these days.
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Yes why carry it? He must have a laminated screen in his car and the worse it will do is crack.
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I well remember driving back from Yorkshire to London using one of these on a hired Vauxhall Viscount in 1969 after we had a windscreen shatter on the old A1. We bought it to get us home.
I have never seen one since.
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Yes why carry it?
Could it be used for the rear screen, should some hoodlum smash it?
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I'd never heard of these until the weekend when I visited a car show and one of the traders had one on their stand. As our employees seem to damage enough car windows in the process of cutting grass verges maybe it would be an idea for us to buy a job lot!!
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>> Yes why carry it? Could it be used for the rear screen, should some hoodlum smash it?
Err No. They used to require being shut in the front doors and the wipers laid on the bottom and the pressure of air on its front to keep it taught - Wont work on the back, as soon as you open an air vent its away like Mary Poppins on her brolly.
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Brings back fond memories. We used to sell these from our garage in the 1960's & 70's. They were very popular. We also used to have a rack of 'fanbelts' - 10 types covered pretty much everything that was on the road then. And ignition lead 'kits' in a plastic bag (a roll of HT lead and a set of screw-on HT caps - you cut the lead to length and screwed the caps on to the wire). Happy days.
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Brings back fond memories. We used to sell these from our garage in the 1960's & 70's. They were very popular. Happy days.
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I would have bought my one in the very early 70s
I have blown the dust off and here are the results.
Compact MKII Emergency Windscreen made by Humphry Thompson at Amersham
Deep screen model 78 x 26 or if you prefer 198 x66 for 18-24 screens
E.G. For Maxi, Ami, Daf 44, Corsair, Zephyr, Zodiac MKIII,
Humber Sceptre, Rover 2000, Simca 1100 and many others.
So a quick crude comparison with a couple of todays screens.
E screen. 78 x 26.
Yaris.......53 x 33
Mondeo.. 60 x 35.
Also made
Standard model for up to 18in screens
Extra Deep model for 24in to 29in
Of course the added problem, with a shattered screen, was not just getting wet but also blowing out the rear screen.
I never did get to try it.
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