Tinted glass vs transparent glass

[Jamie B Patrick]

Hi all,

What are the criteria behind selection of the colour of glass for your E9?

Is it the same us interior / upholstery? You check your model and the year of the production, you look at the table and know that the specific car, painted in specific colour should have specific interior finish. Is this how it works?

If yes, where do I obtain this information from?
Or if not - how do I know what to choose to keep the car as original as possible?

I see W&N have a set of green tinted glass for example but not clear glass at the moment.

I'd appreciate if someone could explain this.
Many thanks.

 

[HB Chris]

For the US market all coupes received the green tinted glass. Unless you hold a piece of white paper behind it in the sun or look at the edge of the door glass you might not even notice that it is green. Euro coupes generally had the clear glass I believe, maybe a UK owner can confirm what they have? And coupes never had the dark shading at the top of the windshield as far as I know.

Unfortunately BMW can’t tell you what interior came with your coupe or what options it had.

[email protected]

 

[Keshav]

Euro cars got the tinted glass too, I’d say around very early 1973......
Im probably wrong with date the but tinted they got for sure. My car is June 73/ tinted glass. For some models it could have been optional/ extra charge in the beginning.

 

[m5bb]

I bought the complete set of glass from W&N a few years ago for my rebuild. It's a close match to original but by replacing it all nothing stands out. It sat in my garage for almost a year before I opened the package. Box was not damaged. I took out the passenger side to look at and found a chip along the edge. It was shipped that way because the piece was not in the package. W&N sent me a new one within a week after explaining and showing them a photo.

 

[Simufly]

In the UK was a cost otion, called sundym. which as the name suggests reduces the insolation. A good option if the marginal aircon was also ordered.

 

[sfdon]

I bought 7 clear windshields 2 weeks ago.
W&N website says in stock as of today.
Why do you say not available?

Frontscheibe Verbundglas Klar wird 1x pro Auto benötigt

Frontscheibe Verbundglas Klar wird 1x pro Auto benötigt

www.wallothnesch.com

 

[Honolulu]

Not available, because you cleaned out their entire inventory, maybe for years! Hoarding? J/K....

Curious that you'd buy clear glass if you work on mostly tinted USA cars... or do you?

 

[HB Chris]

CSi owners want clear glass in some cases.

 

[sfdon]

I love a sale.....
Current shipping from W&N for ONE windshield is 275 euros
That’s more than the glass.
I shipped in a crate- cut shipping in half and our own Barry from Sacramento is the first beneficiary- getting his for 450.00 instead of 600.00. Great glass from Nord.
I bought 10 windshield seals from Germany- they are made in Taiwan, shipped to Germany and shipped back to California. Quite a journey...
From the dealer- 300.00
Bought one at a time from the dealer Is crazy.
10 at a time is under 100.00

 

[Jamie B Patrick]

Euro cars got the tinted glass too, I’d say around very early 1973......
Im probably wrong with date the but tinted they got for sure. My car is June 73/ tinted glass. For some models it could have been optional/ extra charge in the beginning.

@Keshav are you saying that ordering a new car there was a choice to customise it? Would be great to know the details what was available when, will try to research.

 

[Jamie B Patrick]

CSi owners want clear glass in some cases.

@HB Chris - in what cases? Please elaborate. My question was to understand how did it work when purchasing a new vehicle.

 

[Keshav]

@Keshav are you saying that ordering a new car there was a choice to customise it? Would be great to know the details what was available when, will try to research.

Jamie,
Euro cars, unlike the US export ones, were basically standard without extra upgrades for ex, no AC, no front electric windows, no leather seats, no automatics, no tinted glass, no power steering (some early models like the 2800 CS and surely other stuff that im missing), all of the above were extra orders like sunroofs, metallic paint, all at added costs. The last lot of E9‘s, the 2.5 CS didn’t have electric rear quarter glass, no power steering.....
Of course none of the above apply to the Csl! Tinted glass and power steering was possibly the only extra that became standard in Euro cars at some stage. Not to forget the Petri sports steering wheel which was also a payable option..... right to the end.
If something specific comes to mind, let us know. Surely others have plenty to add to this....

Keshav

 

[Keshav]

@HB Chris - in what cases? Please elaborate. My question was to understand how did it work when purchasing a new vehicle.

Keep in mind that the US cars were basically ‘full house’ thus not really comparable to Euro versions. For ex, AC’s were practically unheard off in Euro cars being that they were an expensive extra and Euro climate in the 70’s didn’t need air conditioning so folks often chose a sunroof instead.
The only reason I can imagine why anyone would want white glass is because their car was originally delivered as such like the early 2800’s and of course the early carb Csl’s.

 

[Gransin]

My CSi was manufactured on August '71 and had tinted windows before I replaced them all with W&N tinted windows. The match in tinting was very close, in my case.

 

[Jamie B Patrick]

Ok, @Gransin - that means it is likely that you could order a new E9 and select the colour of the tint, correct? Was the choice only green-tinted and transparent or also grey-tinted?

 

[Keshav]

Only green. Even today. Grey was never an option.

 

[HB Chris]

@HB Chris - in what cases? Please elaborate. My question was to understand how did it work when purchasing a new vehicle.

The CSi my friend has came with clear so he replaced with clear from sfdon.

 

[sfdon]

we take a sheet of printer paper and hold it against the glass - pretty easy to tell what glass you have. A lot of euro cars come through the shop so we carry clear.
Surprising amount of people want clear windshields even if the rest of the car has green glass. Maybe old guys wanting to see as well as possible.