I'm borrowing an old thread here, so I guess we can go into depth, right?
Brian, I like both of those options in the old-timey-windscreen ad. I like that all-in-one frame idea, too, but Juh-heezus is that guy expensive. I think I might just call Kirk -- or that outfit that does MGs and still sells CMC parts. Wolfgang is right, too, in that it's a complete revisitation of the windshield idea on my car.
What I'm thinking about doing is replacing the Spyder windshield I have now with a lightweight, Speedster-looking windshield.
I want to do that for a couple reasons. One, I can't put a top up right now for any reason, parked or driving. I don't even have my top anymore. I sold or gave it away years ago.
Second, the angle of the smaller windshield is perfect for deflecting stuff, but the reflection puts a hood pin directly in Teresa's line of sight. She is interested in trying out the dash mat she made last year, which covers both pins, but it's really a Band-Aid for the bigger issue.
That windshield broke on installation, and it's never been exactly right. I can't heat it to contour it to the dash, so it will always be counter-stressing itself. Over time, my cracks will get worse, or I'll have to take the windscreen loose and properly repair it. If I take it off, I will have to do a lot of surface prep to get little pieces of aluminum leftovers from the original windshield out of the fiberglass -- rivets, I think -- and I'll have a clean slate.
I can't use glass to replace the windshield with an original one, because the weight of the glass will topple it off of the car when the front end is raised. If I use a plastic or a polycarbonate sheet in place of speedster-sized glass, I can use all of the rest of the Speedster hardware.
Eventually, I could make a bimminy top like boaters have, employing Velcro and leather straps to hold the back of the top to the roll bars.
I can then put side curtains back in, and I'll have a sort of three-sided enclosure for use in sudden rain.
I still won't have wipers, but those holes are behind the windshield right now, anyway. If they wind up in front of the replacement windshield, and they should, I'll just fill them in. They didn't make one bottle of Rain-X and quit.
Presto-change-o, the car has a better windshield, and the lines revert to something less ... cobbled together.
So ... All I need, I suppose, is time, patience and parts. After we get done buying this house, the budget may allow for one major mod a year. Now that the vast majority of the car's mechanical growing pains are sorted, I think the windshield might be it for this year.