How can you tell if your glass is original to the car? All of the glass in my 82 reads as follows;
Soft Ray Safely Flo-Lite
Solid Tempered
DOT 15 M 75 (left fr.
" "74 (rt fr.
" "85 (back glass

I believe these are original but thought I'd ask the experts.

 

The original glass was made by Libby-Owens-Ford, and can be identifies by the LOF logo.

Below the words "Flo-Lite", there should be a two letter date code, such as "CX", "GV", etc. The first letter is the month and the second the year. "X" as the second letter is 1981, and a "V" would be 82. Depending on when your 82 was built, the date code has to end in either an X or a V.

 

Hmm had to put the glasses to see those. The left glass reads AS-2 CX,
right is AS-2 JA or maybe IA, back glass is AS-2 YX and both T-tops is AS-3 IA

Can you make anything of that?

 

The left door glass CX date is November (C) 1981 (X), and likely original.

The right door glass appears to have been replaced. "J" is May and "I" is June, but the year date code "A" was used for 1966, 1979 and 1992 (plus possibly 2005). I'm guessing that the right glass was either replaced with a used glass from a 79 Corvette, or a new piece of glass in 92. Most likely it was used, as LOF glass rarely turns up as new replacement glass.

The back glass is dated October (Y) 1981 (X).

The dates on your glass tops are interesting. IA should be either June (I) 79 or 92 (A). If your tops are 1979 tops, then they should be marked as "Laminated" glass, as the Solid Tempered glass wasn't used for tops until 1981. If the tops are Solid Tempered, then they are either GM service replacement tops, or re-glassed original tops.

From the dates, I'd say that the tops and the right door glass have been replaced. It's not surprising that the tops have been changed, as very few 78-82 Corvettes, still have the tops they originally came with.

 

Now since it's dated 1981 could it be because it's a early 82 build? Very interesting indeed but why is it normal for the tops to be replaced unless they get broken? I'm sure it happens but have never seen or heard of one getting broke.

Thanks you for deciphering for me. I was just hoping that the left glass was replaced.

 

Your 81 dated glass is likely original to the car. 82 production started in late October 81, so November 81 dated glass could have been installed in any 82 built in late 81, or the first 3-4 months of 82.

I have an 81 that I bought new. My 81 was built near the end of 81 production, in October 81. The glass in it is dated September 81 (windshield), August 81 (right door & rear window), and July 81 (left door). My glass tops are both dated May 81.

Like any piece of glass, the glass tops are easily broken, especially the 78-80 Laminated ones. Besides being broken, they were often stolen, and a lot of owners have retrofitted them to cars that originally came with painted tops. It just seems that many of the 78-82's, have had the tops on them changed.

 

Pilkerington...I hope I spelled it correctly.

When it comes to automobile glass, Pilkerington is the 800 pound gorilla. They own a vast number of automobile patents. They've been making automobile glass since the turn of last century. Pilkerington owns the Libby Owens Ford brand name...in addition to a lot of other brand names...even if they don't own the brand name, they own the patents that are behind a lot of glass making.

Pilkerington has a sales center in the US for making factory duplicate glass. i ordered two windows for my 68 Convertible. Pretty straightforward. The windows came with the Libby Owen Ford logo. They asked me to specify the date codes on the windows they were going to make for me. I got the date codes off the windows I was to replace. Not too terribly cheap..the driver's side and passenger's side windows for my 68 were a little less than $800! A little detail..Pilkerington would not make 68 windows, they would make 69 style windows that would fit the 68 with an adapter bracket, out of sight. So my actually 69 Convertible window glasses have all the correct 68 window embossings. The adapter brackets cost $30..once again, the adapter brackets are deep inside the door frame and no one can tell.

This is a really great service that Pilkerington provides. Producing duplicate original window glass from companies that they've bought out...even a long time ago. I think their factory duplicate glass office for old cars was in Columbus, Ohio.