It has been brought to my attention that there are no windshields for an 89 Econoline anywhere to be found, have tried 3 glass shops to get mine replaced, in fact, the warehouse had only one, and upon hearing my name they broke it, obviously on purpose, because getting this thing to stop leaking at both ends this year is will require an act of god, I'm about to call a priest to have the van exorcised. I hate glue in windshields, they break upon removal attempts, mine especially as it has cracks from the screws placed in the trim by the previous owner, the only place I have yet to call is Safelite, been holding out, tho I am near finished replacing the front floor and would like it to remain dry.

 

1989 Club Wagon
When I removed the clips trims around mine for doing the new paint, I cracked the windshield. I called at Montreal, QC because they speak French (more easy for me by the phone). I found several shops where there were some available, but none wishing to ship to France. Finally after several hours of research, I found one in Germany. Send to me in the big regular cardboard box for windshield and coming safe, thanks UPS.
For the record, my new windshield, since one year, received 3 strong gravel impact. All 3 requiring resin repair before a crack can going. Incident that had never happened to me in 35 years of driving on my others cars !

It's really surprising that your dealers can't find you a 1989 windshield in the U.S.A
Still call on other stores ....

 

here in southern AZ we have no issues with getting windshields for old vehicles. Maybe you need to search the independent shops further south or do a search and call some in this area?

 

I had to get a nationwide glass company, so hope Monday its all sorted out, as many of these vans are on the road, its hard to believe there are no stockpiles of windshields.

 

Too many who own these "older" vehicles mistakenly equate the number they see on the road as being potential profitable jobs for manufacturers and repair shops. Truth is IF there is truly a demonstrable need for it would be made available. Oddly enough locally for me there is no shortage of these windshields so unavailability may be due nothing more than local or regional demand.

Every glass shop tends to have access to a national inventory of near obsolete and no longer new manufacture glass so one simply has to call around. An installers preference could indeed have some outright saying they're not interested in that sort of work or the part is no longer available. Its a cost of owning and maintaining a vehicle not produced for 30+ years.

 

These were small glass shops run from the persons home, the ones who have it are nation wide companies, covid caused a shortage in several sectors of things, found that with the radiator shop, the last hold out we have here ran into an issue of getting cores, slowing down his business.

 

Every glass shop working on vehicles and buys wholesale have the same access to the same parts as the so-called big shops or those with nationwide presence. Safelite is thought to be the biggest and yet along with manufacturing their own crappy windshields also buy from other manufacturers as well. I'm one who runs their glass shop out of the house and have an abundance of parts because I buy when things are available for my use, just now I did a search for Mygrant Glass company (my main wholesale supplier) and even in my town there are quite a few of the DW837 windshields ready to be bought.

 

I'll see Monday, thats when they are to come fix it.

 

You were spot on, no one wants to touch it, glass shop I mean, so off to the bodyshop, to get the glass out, and screw holes welded up so someone will put a damn glass in it, I could do bodily harm to the fool who created this mess, he need be on a ban list at all stores, no one should sell him any tools!

 

JWA, I ran across this short article about installing windshields in older vehicles. It says that the older vans up until 1992 used butyl and that today urethane is the preferred. The article goes on to mention an incompatibility between Butyl and Urethane. Says that if you are going to use Urethane then one must clean all of the old butyl off, and prime the surface.
In the case of Maples windshield frame full of holes and possible rust, seems like urethane wold be the rout to go.. In my case though, unless I was to find rust under the old butyl, seems like byryl wold be the best method for my replacement?

Maybe you have a completely different view point on this then the guy that wrote the article...
https://beranek.agrrmag.com/tag/windshield-replacement/

Also he mentions 2 different windshields DW837/836. Maybe one is tinted at the top? It appears like mine might have just the slightest tint at the top 6 inches or so... Or perhaps the old glue between the glass is starting to shade across! I have a little of that on the drivers upper corner but its not a problem for me and as long as there is no leaks then I thought it is best left alone...

 

The article is correct in that butyl and urethane are NOT compatible, if using urethane the pinch weld area needs to be 100% free of any butyl. Regardless what year vehicle urethane would be the preferred adhesive as butyl has too many problems that occur over time. It degrades, the windshield will "sink" into it and eventually come to rest on the actual pinchweld causing it to bind and break. Urethane will last at least 100 years with no change, no "sinking" and assuming the pinch weld has been properly prepared it will not lose its adhesive properties.

The difference between the DW836 & DW837 is one has the rearview mirror button already attached to the windshield, the other does not. A windshield with the darker tint at the top would be designated like this: DW836GBY, without that tint it would be DW836GTY as an example. A quick search of my supplier's inventory show the DW837 available in various configurations, no shortage it would seem. There is also an upgraded Carlite version DW1359 which seems to have the Ford logo in the center top---its considerably more money and at this point not to be found in my supplier's national inventory.

The darker tint at the top is called "shaded" and over time it will fade due sunlight. FWIW that "shade" in is in middle layer of the glass we call "laminate". When/if the "laminate" becomes whitish it means water has found its way between the two layers of glass and it being absorbed by the "laminate".

 

My windshield has white all the way up the passenger side, I figured it was where the seal was broken, I can see the hint of shade at the top, most of it is washed out, I don't need a rear view mirror, solid rear doors.