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Wind Wings


Guest Dave24

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I recently purchased a 1924 DB touring and I am new to the forum. I think that wind wings really look classy on touring cars. What is the best way to attach wind wings to the oval windshield post. I see that Snyder sells reproduction brackets for Ford and they sell for around $400 but I think they are made for a round post.

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Hi Dave, I have a '25 touring that came with these wind wings, sort of 1960ish add-ons I think. It's a pretty clever way to mount them though, using strap steel cut at the top and drilled at bottom to mount to the post nuts. The hinges are cheapo's and the "wings" are made of Plexiglass! Someday, I plan to change out the wings for real glass. I don't want to give up those windwings! Click on my picture again to bring it up closer so you can see it better.

Edited by Pete K. (see edit history)
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  • 4 years later...

What kind of glass should be used on wind wings?  I mean the frameless kind.  Assuming the thinnest safety glass (1/4") but can the edges be dressed to look OK with the plastic middle layer?  Tempered glass?  Although having custom tempered glass would no doubt be quite expensive.  I'm afraid of using plate glass....

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Mine are laminated, it shows but not too bad.  However I am going to replace both with tempered glass.  Some young person was climbing on my running board and used the glass of the wind wing to pull  him/herself up  Cracked the wind wing right across.

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Hope you didn't give up on me Mike, I'm so slow lately. Let me know if the pictures are not good enough, they seem cropped off more than I took with my camera for some reason. One pic is from me standing at the front right wheel, looking at the top part, next is from behind the wing, at the bottom. The other pic is the overall side view. The steel strap used was painted black to match windshield frame and the wing glass chrome backets are fastened to the strap at the top & bottom with screws and nuts.

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My wind wings look great, work well,  but are actually quite dangerous.  The bevelled glass is quite thick but I don't think it's laminated or toughened.  The clamps connect to the windscreen uprights but are not as neat as those on Pete's car.  

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Wow, Ray, those real glass wings with the beveled edges look great. I've always been disheartened with my Plexiglass wings on a 1925 auto. They do polish up very clear when I give them a wiping of the #2 NOVUS polish and a rag.

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Hi Pete.  Thanks for the compliment.  The photo is old so that part of the car looks better now but I would like one day to find a correct DB windscreen but the cost means it is down the list of priorities at the moment.  I had not heard of NOVUS plastic polish so I looked it up.  Seems like a good product.:)

 

Ray.

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Yes Mike.  They are quite large and heavy and made from 1/4" plate glass.  They are nice to look at but I often think how dangerous they could be.  The bevelled edge can also be a risk when working around the car because it is possible to catch your head when getting up if you forget they overhang...guess how I found that out? :lol: 

 

Ray.

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11 hours ago, R.White said:

The bevelled edge can also be a risk when working around the car because it is possible to catch your head when getting up if you forget they overhang...guess how I found that out? :lol: 

Ray.

I have the same problem with clamp-on outside rear view mirrors!

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2 hours ago, Spinneyhill said:

I have the same problem with clamp-on outside rear view mirrors!

 

Advancing years necessitates standing up more slowly.  There can be very few other occasions when one can consider it an advantage.:unsure:

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Oh yeah ! Since it is true confessions time again , I stood up into my passenger side. Luckily just cut at a shallow angle into my forehead. Quite a bit of blood , though. You can see a piece of the former wing on the floor. I wonder what plastic to use. Lexan (polycarbonate) ? I now believe the glass is just for show. An impact at speed could be horrible. It will be far easier to plasticize the wings than it was to replace the windshields. The gypsy curtains do a better job of reducing buffeting in any case.   - Carl

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I always keep a couple of cast off bath towels in the garage.  Lots of uses, one in particular is to hang over the wind wings when I am under the car.  Several times I have come up and wondered for a moment what was brushing my head/shoulder and stopped coming up.  They are long enough to stick one end in the door pocket, and let the other end hang down, if I am under the car with a door open.  Cheaper than band aids or trying to get blood out of the concrete.  First things I learned in Auto Shops in school (DON'T BLEED ON THE TOOLS OR THE FLOOR).

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20 hours ago, Tinindian said:

I always keep a couple of cast off bath towels in the garage.  Lots of uses, one in particular is to hang over the wind wings when I am under the car.  Several times I have come up and wondered for a moment what was brushing my head/shoulder and stopped coming up.  They are long enough to stick one end in the door pocket, and let the other end hang down, if I am under the car with a door open.  Cheaper than band aids or trying to get blood out of the concrete.  First things I learned in Auto Shops in school (DON'T BLEED ON THE TOOLS OR THE FLOOR).

 

What a good idea! Can I use that? I have also learnt about bleeding on things: blood is very slippery stuff, esp. when it includes aspirin!

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  • 10 months later...

Well I took the idea behind Pete's wind wing mounting scheme and refined it a bit.  I designed this flat plate support (3/16" / 4.76 mm thick) and had them machined at Emachineshop.com.  It was easy to get a quote and the price wasn't too bad.  I machinedup some larger diameter, thicker wall spacers to replace the original thin wall ones.  This should prevent tilting with wind loading.  The wind wing clamps are circa 1929 Model A as are the tempered glass pieces.  It would have been nice if the glass was a few inches longer but my budget wouldn't allow for custom made ones.  I also had to shorten the springs a bit to compensate for the extra thickness (to keep enough thread bite for the acorn nut).  All in all, I think it looks OK.  If anyone would like a copy of the support AutoCad file just send me a PM with your email.

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Edited by MikeC5 (see edit history)
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Here are pictures of the wind wings on my '22 tourer, which I have been informed were installed as accessories by the DB dealer who sold the car.  My car was manufactured on November 22, 1922 and delivered in San Francisco, CA about the 7th of January, 1923. I need to clean and polish the clamps!  The clamp-on rear view mirrors are Model T reproductions.

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Edited by 22touring (see edit history)
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Nice!  And the leading edge of the wing looks to be tucked in behind the windshield which makes sense.  Mine has about a half in gap between the stanchion and leading edge.  Most of the others I've seen also have some gap there but hopefully the wings will still significantly reduce the buffeting at speed.

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