Greetings... I hope one of you guys can help me. I am toying with the idea of buying a used rear windshield for a '68 GTO but have reached a snag. I was jumping around the web yesterday looking for one and only came to the conclusion that I don't know what I'm doing. I'm not sure if my old glass is tinted, soft ray or just plain... From glancing through this forum I get the idea that tinted may be the same as soft ray? And soft ray is usually in AC cars? No AC in my old car. I did find some tiny pieces of the old window and it does look just very slightly gray (maybe) when compared to a clear glass jar. Just what kind of glass should I be trying to buy? Can anyone give me some guidance here? I sure hope so. Thanks. Sincerely, R. Smith

Greetings... I hope one of you guys can help me. I am toying with the idea of buying a used rear windshield for a '68 GTO but have reached a snag. I was jumping around the web yesterday looking for one and only came to the conclusion that I don't know what I'm doing. I'm not sure if my old glass is tinted, soft ray or just plain... From glancing through this forum I get the idea that tinted may be the same as soft ray? And soft ray is usually in AC cars? No AC in my old car. I did find some tiny pieces of the old window and it does look just very slightly gray (maybe) when compared to a clear glass jar. Just what kind of glass should I be trying to buy? Can anyone give me some guidance here? I sure hope so. Thanks. Sincerely, R. Smith

Original Soft-Ray will say just that in the corner where the date codes are, and it will have a greenish tint to it. If it is replacement, it could say E-Z Eye. Tinted was an option on all cars, almost always on air cars, but still an option. Build sheet will state option as "all" or "w/s only".

So, either ALL the glass is tinted or only the windshield. What's the side glass look like?

Sides, as well as front and rear, will still be greenish and will say "Soft-Ray". Windshield only will say "shaded Soft-Ray", referring to shaded area at top of glass, standard on non-tinted windshields as well.

Thank you everyone for your help with my little so-called problem concerning the rear glass. I removed a few years of dirt etc from a side window and since there was no mention of "soft-ray" I guess I must have just plain old clear glass. (Did find "FLOAT SAFETY [LOF] FLO-LITE SOLID TEMPERED DOT 15 M71") Now all I have to do I guess is find some good used glass somewhere? Thanks again everyone.

I do have an original 68 GTO back glass. Looking for a Jan/Feb 69 Backglass (date code is of importance to me). Would be willing to trade or sell it, if someone can get me the glass I need...

osculate, I'm not 100% positive about this but I don't think that just because you don't have the etched logos that that necessarily means it's not tinted. It could have been replaced at some point.
You'll be able to tell if your glass is soft-ray by holding a sheet of plain white paper halfway behind it. Half of it behind the glass and half of it outside.
There will be a definite but somewhat subtle green tint to the half behind the glass.

Greg-- I was just going to say the same thing. The plain white paper (or business card) is the way I always check for tinted glass. Tough to tell with just the naked eye since it isnt really tinted much.

From what I know, its std on AC cars, optional on all others.

dave

Again, not standard on air cars. I've got a '69 GTO air conditioned ragtop...straight glass! Also had a '69 4-speed GP, air conditioned...straight glass! It was about $35 extra on average and strongly recomended on air cars by dealer and factory both, but not mandatory and definitely not standard.

PS...if your naked eye can read...not hard to discern. Says "Soft-Ray" or "E-Z Eye". You are making this way harder than it should be. Next car show you attend, walk around and make it a point to inspect some original cars for this. Most GM cars used "LOF", I believe a Ford owned company.

LOF=Libby-Owens-Ford, as I understand it.

Good attitude there jegstek. sorry if i was wrong on something, didnt mean to get you all worked up.

dave

Hey Dave! No attitude intended. Sorry if it read that way. The exclamation marks were there because, out of all the air cars with no tinted glass that I have run across, I got stuck with both of them.[!] I can see why people figure this to be standard equipment and I am not trying to insult anyone's intelligence. I guess I just felt the message wasn't getting through in the previous posts and wanted to reiterate the facts. My responses to these posts are almost never speculation, but the results of extensive research or costly mistakes on my part. I try to pass the info on to others, take it for what it is worth. Much of what I've learned was from watching the real pros, like Scott Tiemann and some others that do this for a living and MUST know what is correct. I take no personal credit, as I knew nothing about Pontiacs before these folks educated me. Again..sorry if I came off otherwise. Good luck with your car.

just to add a twist in 70 and later cars the back window was tinted if the defroster (wires in glass rather than blower) option was installed even if car did not have the tinted glass option. i had a 70 like this.
another nice find is a convertible back glass with tinting, factory installed but never availible as a replacement even back then from what i can gather.

Here’s a few pictures below of slightly different soft ray tint. One is more blueish than green.

Ancient thread revived
 

You guys do realize that this thread was last active in 2005?

Two decades ago..... :)