OEM Windshield Glass Pretty Tough

60 mph, no one around, figured it got thrown up by a cement truck far in front of me. Windshield exploded. When I pulled over I saw a large galvanized steel bolt roll off the hood. When I got home I measured it - 6". You could see the head and the threads in the impression on the glass. Almost came through so lots of small shards. Interesting how glass is installed these days (had it replaced the next day). Damned rearview mirror still fell off the next day (5x for the previous). Now I use silicone glue. Works great. Glad I wasn't on the motorcycle that day.

lami glass does its job.

BMWGuy said:

Glad I wasn't on the motorcycle that day.

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I know how you feel there, I was on the Freeway and a big Ford F650 kicked up a baseball sized rock and threw it at me on my motorcycle... It smashed into my shoulder (I saw it and tried to move.. If I didn't it would have been a throat shot) and popped it out of place, I thought it was broken..

I pulled off the side of the road and wrestled my shoulder back into place.. A night of ice / heat / painkillers and I was all better except for a huge bruise..

The curve on the glass seems to be a great angle to make it very strong. I'm still on my stock glass, but I've only had one issue. A TJ in front of me lost a rock from its M/T tread and smacked into my windshield leaving Camp Jeep. *BANG* scared me pretty good, hit the brakes and pulled off the road and found the rock broken in half sitting under my wipers.

I don't know what it is with Jeeps but it seems they like to catch debris with the windshield. My household has 4 other different cars. None of them catch rocks like the XJ. My 90 caught two. Bullseyed the windshield once which I repaired. My 98 so far has caught about 4. Two on the old glass. One bullseye followed by another in that area that caused the bullseye to start a spider crack that went from the bottom to the top of the glass. Had that replaced a month ago. My new glass caught two. The last one made a bullseye on the lower left next to the inspection sticker. Repaired that one yesterday.

The OEM glass on the XJ was still in pretty good shape. I'd rather have had the bolt hit my BMW windshield which has a (repaired) dime-sized hole for the past 6 years.