Re: [OMC-Boats] OMC Myth Busted -- The Deluxe 17 and Sweet 16 Windshield Origin

Lee, my wife will be thrilled to know that I am gonna hold onto that
extra windshield just a little bit longer! Thanks for the info.

Jeff

On May 12, 2009, at 4:05 PM, Lee Shuster wrote:

> Okay guys -- after years of hearing this OMC "urban legend" or myth
> about the Deluxe 17 windshield design originating in Detroit I
> decided to do some additional research. Here are my findings:
>
> The unique OMC 17 Deluxe - Sweet 16 windshield was made expressly
> for OMC by Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company. The unique industrial
> design work was by Myron Stevens, OMC in-house designer, who joined
> OMC from Brooks Stevens Associates in Milwaukee (no family relation
> to Brooks). You will recall Brooks Stevens did Evinrude's product
> styling and logo designs for many years. See: http://hhscott.com/
> evinrude/brooks_stevens.htm
>
> The tooling for forming the Deluxe 17 - Sweet 16 windshield (USA
> market-only*), was designed, funded and owned by OMC and used by
> PPG in their Pittsburg, PA plants to produce the OMC USA-market
> windshields. The windshield was made of "float" plate glass ( a
> process relatively new in 1960), in which the molten glass is
> floated on a pan of molten lead and allowed to solidify there,
> producing a smooth surface and optically uniform thickness, just
> like ground and polished plate glass. This is a very touchy process
> in which the glass (in a plastic state, maintained by gas flame
> heat), is laid on a flex frame which warps the glass into its
> unique curved "sagged" shape and then is rapidly cooled by air jets
> to temper it. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Float_glass
>
> The tubular stainless steel perimeter molding was installed by
> another company with a rubber insert all around that was bonded
> right to the glass to protect the edge of the windshield. This was
> needed so the ball sockets for the tilting pivots could be welded
> right to the molding before it was put on. Windshields were shipped
> from Pittsburg, PA eventually making their way to Waukegan, IL for
> final assembly.
>
> It is important to point out that these marine-application
> windshields were manufactured of non-laminated tempered safety
> glass, which cannot be used in the U.S. for automotive windshields.
> Automotive laminated plate glass has been mandatory since 1927,
> which has a thin layer of flexible clear plastic film called
> polyvinyl butyral (PVB) sandwiched between two or more pieces of
> glass.
>
> So, for the OMC Deluxe 17 - Sweet 16 marine windshield THERE NEVER
> WAS A CONNECTION WITH ANY AUTOMOTIVE WINDSHIELD, though some of the
> same manufacturing processes were used for both, but DEFINITELY not
> the same shape.
>
> Next time you have your Deluxe 17 or Sweet 16 out, enjoy the view.
> Take extremely good care of that rare piece of glass; as it will be
> hard to come by a replacement. The re-tooling costs to reproduce
> this baby would definitely be astronomical!
>
> Myth most definitely busted!!
>
> * Canadian market, Peterbourgh-built boats used Plexiglas windshields
>
> Lee Shuster
> OMC Boats Myth Buster
>
> Keep 'en floatin'
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Received on Tuesday, 12 May 2009