When I drove home for lunch today I had my hand on the front pillar, with the tips of my fingers across the windshield trim piece and onto the edge of the glass at the upper left corner of the windshield.

I was really surprized to notice how much the windshield flexes in it frame when you are driving, going over small bumps, and esp when you round a corner.

At first it had me worried, but I guess the frame of the car has to flex some, and the windshield cant flex, so it must be installed with some significant soft glue or a weather strip type of thing in the frame somewhere,

but it still surprized me that you can feel the frame of the car moving relative to the windshield, even just driving straight down the road.

check it out on your car - its kinda creep-pee.

I should quantify this here, I would guess its only moving a 1/32nd of an inch at the most - not alot really.

but still enough that you can feel it under your fingertips.

I'm guessing that's part of the reason they use silicone type sealant to put in the windshield. It's got enough give to make up for the body flex that a more rigid material wouldn't be able to take.

A friend of mine had the rear window blow out of his Lexus! It happened while he was driving, and thinks it was from body flex!

I was in Bolder CO about 10 years ago, and there was an incredible windstorm during the night.

The rear window of some guys luxury car blew out, parked in hotel parking lot, shattered and blew out. I dont think anything hit it, I think it was the pressure of the wind.

wierd!

I saw a kid blow out his new windshield because he was playing his system too loud, too much bass.
I laughed.

I know a guy who rebuild a V8 Duster in his parents garage. When he got it all put together he was anxious to try it out, so he started it up before he got the exhaust manifolds put on.

and blew out half the windows in his parents garage.

and then he realized he forgot to put the ground strap on the engine, so when he started it, the engine grounded itself through all his nice new stainless braided aeroquip covered hoses, lines and wires.

they were all funny blue and yellow and red colors after that, like someone had heated them up with a torch.

My sunroof flexes... Is it bad that the freame flexes like that.. its freaky! Almost makes me think cars welds are junk.. hope not!

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~In Memory Of Jesse Cesek~ 1980-2000
1985 GT ~Purple, Black and Yellow Interior(Fastback Converted)
1997 Mitsu Eclipse GSX (AWD, Turbo) DOA on 12/10/2000

my sunroof flexes and makes noises too, esp when driving the car over uneven surface when the frame twists.

this all makes me very skeptical of fieros with T tops, targa tops, and convertibles. The roof is obviously supplying alot of support the the frame of the car.

Had my windshield replaced in my 88 a while back. It creeked and groned to hellinback for months.

I was trying to get out of a parking lot a few years ago in my Corvette. The driveway was a very steep angle and I had the top off of the car. I was going very slowly and just happened to glance up and see that the corner of the windshield was only about ten inches from the rear roof section! This is normally a couple of feet! I about died! Needless to say I backed up and found another way out of the parking lot! This is why Corvettes with the Lexan roof panels always have cracked roofs!

I notice it a lot in the T-top Fiero too.

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Tennessee Fiero Owners

My 87 coupe would flex like that and make the interior panel’s creek and crack when I drove onto raised driveways and over bumps. My 88 formula on the other hand doesn't flex as much as my 87 coupe did, probably because of the redesigned front cradle and solid mounted rear.

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A while back, someone on the Forum posted about getting airborn in his Fiero, coming off a hill. Said when he landed it cracked his windshield.
Think he said it bent the roof frame. Glass popped out at the top right corner I think.

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Raydar - aka Steve

Black 88 Formula.
Red 88 Duke coupe. "The Project"
88 Formula parts car. "The Donor"

[This message has been edited by Raydar (edited 06-07-2001).]

When I had the windshield replaced in my GT, the installation shop made the mistake of moving the car before the silicone sealant/adhesive had cured and the windshield actually partially popped out when they were driving it. Then they couldn't redo the job without breaking the new window when removing it and then replacing it with another new window (this one they let cure for 6 hours before even moving it out of the shop). I guess they learned their lesson and probably couldn't have made any money using 2 windshields on a $150 job.

Anyways, a mechanic friend of mine said that the Fiero actually uses the windshield and rear window as structural supports in the design of the car. The upper chassis looses a lot of its stiffness if those pieces of glass are broken, loose or removed. Don't know if it is completely true or not, but it does make sense.

Ken S.
'87GT and '86SC
www.westpennfiero.org

Aah... that airborne thing was probably me. except it was not a cracked window. it was a cracked control arm and a bent anti-roll bar. And that was from probably 5 feet of air. Come on man, Fieros can take abuse. You haven't lived until you have been flying through the air in a car. It is just so cool! Just don't get too high, or you will do what my friend did to had Taurus. He hit the ground so hard that it demolished his front suspension, and blew out the front tires (both of them!)

I been airborne in VW bugs - over railroad tracks and doing a little offroading.

way cool! but you dont want more than a couple feet of sky under your car.

I had mine airborn sideways for about 15 feet. I wasn't very high off the ground, but I was going way too fast. I didn't know I was off the ground becuase it was a smooth ride, at night and all I saw was dust in my headlights. I saw the next day where my skid marks started then stopped then restarted going off the road and plowing down a hill sideways. What kept the car upright I don't know. I could have planted a garden with the trenches it left. Ended up changing the hub on that side to get rid of some bearing noise.

>Anyways, a mechanic friend of mine said that the Fiero actually uses the windshield and rear window as structural supports in the design of the car.

Yes, that could be correct. The frame's wall thickness is mostly .029", so I'm not surprised that it flexs unless the frame is stiffened/reinforced.

>this all makes me very skeptical of fieros with T tops, targa tops, and convertibles. The roof is obviously supplying alot of support the the frame of the car.

Well said. The frame is typically reinforced with 1x2" along the inside corners of the floorpan & running up behind the shoulder seatbelt mounts to the new frame tubing around the rear window area, along with 2x3" tube welded into the rockers & additional tube welded along the hump that the gas tank sits in, continuing up under the dash.
The roof does add a great deal of stiffness in any car, & that needs to be replaced.