I broke my kinda new windshield by almost fitting a 10'8" 1x6 in the 84 wagon. I was a little too focussed on the wrong end of the board.

I liked the early 90's style windshield I had before, so I looked into getting another installed.

The low bid company I used before was now far and away the highest, quoting me $269. Three years and three months ago it was $158. He said "it's an old car and hard to get", and "I'll see what I can do", and offered $249, or $229 if I drove to the nearest shop 40 miles away. I'm in the North San Francisco Bay Area.

I scheduled with another outfit that quoted $181. OEM glass from PPG.

The first company called me back the next day and when I told them they were way high and I scheduled with somebody else they said they'd do it for the same price.

A third company, a local shop, said this in the initial phone call, that if I find lower than $239 he'd beat it.

Maybe this will help others navigate the business end of this.


My recommendations:

Go to school on the above.

Just tell the glass company it's a 91. The first guy knew about the interchangeability and the second guy hadn't. Both installed the glass fine.

The glass comes with a gasket already on it and gets glued in place. No 84 gasket to buy or have to re-use. They don't use butyl anymore to glue it in. (Perpetually intractable sticky black stuff.) Now it's Poly-something.

Go with mobile installation and take the glass out yourself well beforehand. I had rust-through in one of the bottom corners and some heavy pitting on the roof channel. I was able to deal with it all somewhat properly, which can't be done while the new glass is being prepped to go on.

Here's what you might find underneath the old gasket, and the new more streamlined profile of the new.

Steve