Date:         Fri, 25 Apr 2014 08:25:07 -0700
Reply-To:     Don Hanson <dhanson928@GMAIL.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Don Hanson <dhanson928@GMAIL.COM>
Subject:      New Windshield...sorta Friday
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8

  Recently I had my 84 van's windshield replaced, no charge,  after
switching insurance companies and getting a policy with almost free
comprehensive coverage.   I had a rock chip and  a crack, nothing I
couldn't live with (had been for a couple of years)   But for part of the
winter we hang near a small desert town where there's a resident CHP, a cop
who had stopped me a year ago for something else, and gave me an "equipment
violation warning" about my cracked windshield..   I told  him a story
(lied) that it had been cracked by a thrown rock during "my trip down here"
and I'd get it fixed when I "got home"

 Well this winter, there I was, cracked windshield still in the van.   I
was passing this fellow in his cruiser frequently, he sometimes waved, me
too...small town with few poop-brown vanagons , bicycles on the back
hatch..  Everyone knows everyone anyhow........I figured eventually we
might end up stopped at The Stop sign (only one in town)   at the same time
and he'd look over and see that cracked windshield was still in
there...That might cause a problem....Small town, not much for the cop to
do, you don't want to give them any reason to be mad...so I went and got a
new glass installed...

  Huge difference!  At night or sunrise or sunset when there's light coming
at low angles, the new glass is so much better to see through...The crack
and chip was not an issue but sometime in the past the Van musta been in
some sandstorms and the old glass was pitted...I didn't realize how badly
till I got the new window installed....Now that I am back in the rain, the
new glass is also much better with the wipers going or with my
squirter.......One trip across the glass and the view is
clear...before?....smeared for a few passes of the wipers and at night?
Forget it!  Rainy night driving was pretty scary...

  So if you want a good Vanagon feeling, a quick way to improve the quality
of your time behind the wheel and to reduce the stress of difficult visible
driving conditions... you may want to get a new windshield, your old one
may be pitted and you don't realize it...