Anyone know of a substitute back glass for a superbird clone?

[hotrod98]

I'm getting closer to starting on my wife's superbird clone and was thinking more and more about that back glass. I never intended to alter the back glass, but lately I've been thinking about how much better it would look with a correct looking back glass. Has anyone ever found a factory back glass setup that would look similar to the sb back glass? If there was something close, it would solve the problem with the moldings as well.
I've thought that if I had the dimensions, I could look around in some of the old salvage yards around here for something close. It's would be hard to let go of the cash needed for the cost of the repro glass and the available repro plug and then still not have the moldings. The glass and plug would probably run over 3k alone. That kind of money would go a long way towards the late model hemi for this project.
Anyone have any ideas about which cars might have a back glass that would be close that I could go look at?

[THE CHARGER PUNK]

wish i could help ya as u do great work, personally a 70 superbird clone with a vinyl top and normal rr glass looks good 2 me-MATT

[nakita7]

I agree. Leave it. I know it's not correct, but to me, it's such a small difference, for the amount of work involved, and I think it looks fine with the regular window. That's what I'll probably do when I do a clone.

[Wingnut426]

I always wondered why they didn't just use the 68-70 4-door rear glass when they designed the Superbird.  The roof area down to the trunk, (dutchman panel) would fit perfect to the trunklid.  Wingnut

[BigBlockSam]

Hey Larry
when i did the glass in my 39  . i took the car to a glass place  here by me ,  he made all the glass for my car or take them the stock rr rear window and have a glass place modify it to fit the opening . Rene

[hotrod98]

I always wondered why they didn't just use the 68-70 4-door rear glass when they designed the Superbird. The roof area down to the trunk, (dutchman panel) would fit perfect to the trunklid. Wingnut

When I was starting this topic, I started thinking about the 4 door back glass. It's flat instead of having the curved area at the bottom. I just couldn't remember how large it was. The car that I got my coronet fenders off of is a 4 door. I'll try to drive over one day and take a look. Unfortunately, it's about 40 miles from here.

Hey Larry
when i did the glass in my 39 . i took the car to a glass place here by me , he made all the glass for my car or take them the stock rr rear window and have a glass place modify it to fit the opening . Rene

I want to use something that has the glass, channel and moldings to make the whole thing a little simpler.

[THE CHARGER PUNK]

heres a 4-door

[62 Max]

heres a 4-door

The problem with a 4dr glass is at the roofline.Contour is completely different.

[THE CHARGER PUNK]

yea but it would be alot easier to chop out that and weld it into place with full glass and trim and it would last forever,or you could order a fiberglass plug ,then bondo it in(which will crack in a few years) then order the expensive after market glass ($900.00), then don't have any window trim-MATT

[hotrod98]

The 4 door glass looks like it may be too square at the top. May not even fit within the runner roofline. With all of the back glasses that have been built since the 60's there should be one out there that is close, even it it's in another brand of car. After all, who would have thought that the vega hatchback would be so close to the daytona glass? If memory serves me correct, I think that Dane and his dad figured that one out back in the early 80's.

[THE CHARGER PUNK]

yep that was them who found that 1 out-MATT

[THE CHARGER PUNK]

yea but hotrod u could always chop it all out like a plug even the part of the roof as well, it wouldnt look correct but close, real superbird window is wider at bottom then top-MATT

[hotrod98]

Tough call on that one, but I'm going to say that the 4 door glass would not look right. You wouldn't really know until it was in place, but that would be a little late and a whole lot of work. I think that I would leave the stock 2 door glass in place before going with the 4 door glass. Don't give up. Let's find something that will work.

[Wingnut426]

How about a 70-74 Cuda rear glass?  Its smaller than he 4-door b-body glass. ANYTHING other than a real Superbird set-up is going to be a chore to make work. Incidently, the 4-door inside trim moulding is the same material used for a 'Bird, just a few inches longer.  Wingnut426

[kab69440]

Hornet Station Wagon liftgate???

[hotrod98]

How about a 70-74 Cuda rear glass? Its smaller than he 4-door b-body glass. ANYTHING other than a real Superbird set-up is going to be a chore to make work. Incidently, the 4-door inside trim moulding is the same material used for a 'Bird, just a few inches longer. Wingnut426

Interesting info regarding the inside trim. I'll make a mental note for later use. Wish that 4 door glass was a little narrower at the top. That cuda back glass is very small. Too bad since I have a couple of those lying around. As for difficulty, we do a lot of that type of work all of the time so if I had trouble, I know one of my guys could figure it out.

Hornet Station Wagon liftgate???

If that's a hornet back glass then that's the closest so far. Looks like it's a little narrower at the top like a sb back glass. I'll bet that a Hornet hatchback would be harder to find than a superbird back glass though.

[THE CHARGER PUNK]

yeah that hornet hatch looks damn close to the super bird back window,also your right on that being more rare then bird glass, there isnt even one hornet on ebay-MATT

[Troy]

Yeah, but I bet when you find a Hornet they'll practically give you the glass. There's probably no listings for Hornet station wagons anywhere because their market value is slightly less than a cup of Starbucks coffee.

Troy

[kab69440]

That's a liftgate from a wagon. The same thing is also on the Eagle wagons. They aren't too diffcult to come by.

[BigBlockSam]

There's probably no listings for Hornet station wagons anywhere because their market value is slightly less than a cup of Starbucks coffee.

[hotrod98]

What year models are we talking about? Might just look into that one.

[THE CHARGER PUNK]

Oh because the hornet was available as a hatchback and it looks the same as whats on yours, wouldnt an SW gate be vertical?? and yea whats years we talking about?

[hotrod98]

Actually, it looks a lot like the vega plugs. Just might work. Now if I can find one that I can measure. Looks kind of large, but then again the car itself is kind of small.

[kab69440]

Close, man... That's a hatchback. The one you are looking for is the wagon version.

[hemigeno]

Hey, you can even have electric rear window defrost on a Superbird now!!!   

If that glass works, that would be a cool thing to figure out.