A friend of mine is wanting to replace the glass in his classic mini.

The question is are plastic side windows road legal and if so whats the best material to use from a durability point of view?

Cheers

Chris

this might be of interest Chris

http://www.gcip.co.uk/FAB/boat_car_windows.htm

yes and polycarbonate. lexan or makralon are two common brands.

they'll scratch pretty easily but are very impact resistant. perspex is less prone to scratching but will shatter if impacted.

tom

Side windows should be legal. I would go for polycarbonate though, as noted, they will scratch quite easily. May not be so much of a problem if they are not going to be windup windows?

Had blacked out poly on my anglia but that was long before the laws changed.
Removing the rubbers means that they won't scratch but you need to make sure that the inside of the door is weather-proofed and that the drain holes are all clear.

Thanks everyone, It's going to be fixed with a little slider in the door window.

It looks like polycarbonate then!

Cheers

Chris

I'm going for perspex on the sidescreens for my indy, fitted with securlux film to minimize the risk of shattering. That should given me "safe" windows with improved scratch resistance over lexan (and at a lower cost!)

[Edited on 27/6/09 by sebastiaan]

I used plastics4performance when I did the windows on my mini (all bar the windscreen) and have used them to custom make them for my kit.