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GT6 1/4 lights into early Spitfire door


Paul Garvey

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Posted

Hi all - I've seen GT6 1/4 lights into the later shape doors and personally think they look far better but I've never seen in Mk1 - 3. Has anyone put into Mk1 - 3 and if so would you mind posting photos as I don't want to go to the trouble only to have the end result looking...weird.

Cheers

Posted

Can be done, but there is an issue. Early spitfire doorglass has a rounded top corner, GT6 is all square. I understand there was a small batch of special glass made, but I never saw it for sale. Plus it was flat, rather than the mild curve on proper GT6 glass. Made tooling rather easier I suspect.
And sorry, I have no pics

Posted

Thanks Clive - getting flat autoglass cut to the early shape with the slant to a rounded top at the rear is no problem...and cheap (only equivalent of 30pd for both sides) - having made with a mild curve instead of flat could be a little more of a problem...and cost!

The curve on the GT6 glass is pretty minimal and the only problem I can see is it going up and down the runners and reading previous posts this doesn't appear to a major issue??

Posted

My Hurricane has GT6 quarter lights and the glass is rounded at the rear for an early Spitfire hood. The glass looks a bit thinner than normal window glass so I wonder if that was done to overcome the slight curvature Clive mentioned.

The glass was fixed into the bottom channel with loads of silicone type goo, I presume again because the glass is thinner and couldn't be held in place in the usual way (whatever that is).

The Hurricane uses a Mk3 Spitfire screen surround and the door internals are all Spitfire too

I've taken the glass out now so that I can get the car prepped and painted, so if you need a template I can draw around it and send to you if you wish.

I dont have a pic of the car with the windows up but this one gives an idea of the open top with the 1/4 lights...

Posted

i suspect your galss was glued in because a PO lost patience with the rubbish "wedge it in a piece of old inner tube" solution the factory came up with. i will be glueing mine in next time they're out, unless anybody has a reason not to.

im 99% sure i saw on this site Andrew Turner of the carb company fame has quarterlights and rounded glass. i saw a picture of it on here im sure.

Posted

I'll probably fix it back in with silicon goo when I put it all back together, it held pretty well and came out ok with a sharp knife when I needed it to.

Posted

yamaha_fizzy wrote:
i suspect your galss was glued in because a PO lost patience with the rubbish "wedge it in a piece of old inner tube" solution the factory came up with. i will be glueing mine in next time they're out, unless anybody has a reason not to.


Inserting the glass into the channel, with rubber sheet between, requires very substantial controlled pressure. This isn't available in the average small workshop environment, a conventional hydraulic press will break the glass before it's seated. The factory installation is usually very difficult to seperate, however once it's out, it's staying out. If you can get the glass back into it's runner easily, it's going to come out again as the runner is not tight enough.

Setting the glass down into a bed of sealant is the best solution for anyone who's not building cars in a factory,

Cheers,
Bill.

Posted

Paul,

I have a picture of the Hurricane glass and another with Mk3 Spitfire glass on top, they don't quite align as you can see. I know the donor for my Hurricane was a GT6 so I don't know if that makes any difference - not sure why there's a 'tail' at the bottom edge of the Hurricane glass but I think GT6s had that.

Regards

Simon

  • 3 months later...
Posted

Finally finished work on the tub and what a relief all the chassis mounting holes met up - bolted down in no time.  As it has new floorpans, bootfloor, rear valance, wings and sills I was more than a little worried - but  only took half an hour or so.

Have trial fitted the doors - new doorskins - and placed the GT6 quarterlights in to see what it would look like.  I think it looks great, especially with early Mk1 doorhandles so they will definately stay.  Have most parts to fit after finally finding a rear door glass channel in the States - will use that as a template to mirror for the other side as these have been very difficult to find.

Then its fitting - any measurements/advice before I start would be appreciated.  

Thanks

Posted

I'm mot surprised that Andrew Turner has a source for teh windows, he has a really nice early spit 6 with quaterlights, Pictures below taken at SEM Leatherhead last year, although I don't actually have any showing the rear of the window in the up position but presume it must have the curved rear corner.

Posted

John Kipping had some made a while ago (15- 20 years?). I bought mine from Canleys after they had taken over when John emigrated for sunnier climes. When I last asked  Canleys, they had all been sold, although they were never well publicised.

I don't think they intend to make any more.

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