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Wndscreen side flaps

27 Feb 2009, 3:34pm
A lot of people seem to fit these side flaps to their cars.........



I've only driven my car with no windscreen at all so far, so my questions are:
1) Are they necessary?
2) Do they work?
3) Is it worth all the effort of cutting and mounting them?
4) Is there an optimal shape and size?
5) Does anyone have a template of a proven suitable shape?
6) Polycarbonate, I presume?

A already have a set of hinges which I bought many moons ago so that's not a problem.

Any comments welcome,

Peter
27 Feb 2009, 6:15pm
I've been hovering over getting some of these for a while now, with the screen on the passenger gets quite a wind blast (goes up your nose). The driver is OK as you arm on the steering wheel shields you.

The only thing that puts me off it that these would only really move the wind blast further back.

I've not really see many places selling off the shelf screens, I did find this place the other day but the site seems a tad dodgy: http://www.vintagecarparts.co.uk/en/list+accessories~aeroscreen/
27 Feb 2009, 9:21pm
Thanks, guys,
so one is perspex, the other is polycarbonate and Holden's are toughend glass which look the nicests but a pain if the wrong shape.

Any comments from people with them already fitted?
27 Feb 2009, 9:42pm
I dont yet have them on my Sportster but do have some on my old Roadster and they certainly do help reduce the wind around the windscreen. Will eventually get some to fit the Sportster but need to work out how they are going to fit around the hood.
28 Feb 2009, 6:16pm
I had them on my old roadster. They made a quite a difference to the wind buffeting when driving. I made mine out of perspex. I even made the fittings! But now you can buy the fittings and just cut the perspex to shape yourself. Well worth it if you intend to drive the car regularly.

Robin
28 Feb 2009, 9:56pm
Stuart wrote:
I dont yet have them on my Sportster but do have some on my old Roadster and they certainly do help reduce the wind around the windscreen. Will eventually get some to fit the Sportster but need to work out how they are going to fit around the hood.


I found another picture of the same car......



They're mounted on the windscreen uprights and I notice the windscreen wheelnut has been replaced with an ordinary nut.
1 Mar 2009, 6:05pm
I've made some for my car as an experiment.
I used 2 bits of 4" x 12" perspex I had laying about.
I bent the edge and used the windscreen knob and one of the bottom panel screws to hold them in place.
They stop the wind hitting you in the lug'ole, so I'll be making proper ones later.
Another thing I've tried is filling in the rollbar.
I seen windstop devices for MX5s and the like made from mesh, and wanted to see if they worked.
I used a piece of carpet, zip-tied to the rollbar and took it down the road.
It made a huge difference with hardly any wind at all.
It was so good that you can hold a conversation @ 80mph without raising your voice.
So plans are afoot to make a windstop out of lexan.
1 Mar 2009, 7:07pm
RobDorey wrote:
Another thing I've tried is filling in the rollbar.
I seen windstop devices for MX5s and the like made from mesh, and wanted to see if they worked.
I used a piece of carpet, zip-tied to the rollbar and took it down the road.
It made a huge difference with hardly any wind at all.
It was so good that you can hold a conversation @ 80mph without raising your voice.
So plans are afoot to make a windstop out of lexan.


Thanks, Rob.
That's interesting. There is a light blue Sportster (John at Warwick?) that has the roll bar hole filled in with some kind of transparent plastic sheet.

Sounds like an interesting upgrade..........
1 Mar 2009, 8:21pm
peterux wrote:
Thanks, Rob.
That's interesting. There is a light blue Sportster (John at Warwick?) that has the roll bar hole filled in with some kind of transparent plastic sheet.

Sounds like an interesting upgrade..........


This one:









1 Mar 2009, 11:48pm
Yes, that's the one!
2 Mar 2009, 1:25pm
that's useful, thanks.

I'm a bit surprised he used 6mm thick polycarbonate. I was thinking more like 3 or 4mm?
2 Mar 2009, 1:49pm
Probably deflects too much under aero load...

(Wow - that sounded almost F1!) ;)

The B&Q stuff isn't the stiffest of materials - I've used it before on other stuff, and it does a good impression of Rolf's wobble-board.
3 Mar 2009, 7:46pm
peterux wrote:
I found another picture of the same car......



They're mounted on the windscreen uprights and I notice the windscreen wheelnut has been replaced with an ordinary nut.


These appear to be the morgan type attachments:

3 Mar 2009, 9:12pm
Patrick wrote:
These appear to be the morgan type attachments:



Yes, i've got a set of the Morgan type already.
I also got some polycarbonate sheet today so I can start experimenting soon....
2 Apr 2009, 7:55pm
Any one have a source for the Morgan type hinges?
2 Apr 2009, 8:40pm
£59.50 for 1 pair OOOOUUUUCH

Guess i'm gonna have to keep loooking just for the hinges :)
2 Apr 2009, 8:43pm
+ VAT as well... if you see them anywhere else let me know as I want to get a set too :)
2 Apr 2009, 10:53pm
Stuart wrote:
Any one have a source for the Morgan type hinges?


They are sold for cobra replicas so there should be various suppliers about.

I paid £14.99 for a set of 4 hinges off eBay.
I've just checked the sellers shop but unfortunately he seems to have stopped listing things around July '08.
25 Jun 2009, 4:31pm
Did anyone ever find another source of the hinges?

Robin
16 Sep 2009, 11:35am
Decided to (attempt at least) make my own hinges.

The next question is - what is the difference between Perspex and Polycarbonate? I noticed that polycarbonate seems to be used for wind wings nowadays - is it an improvement over good old fashioned perspex?

Someone make an old git happy and tell me what the difference is please :-)

Cheers

Robin