Heritage Glass - Front and rear screens

[rider]

As part of the outside of the official Toyota heritage project where people associated with this group have looked at all sorts from badges, belts, ABS sensors and control arms I've been looking at the Supra glass situation. There are some facelift windscreens still in circulation but beyond that pretty much all the glass seems to now be discontinued. Which, makes replacement following accidents, stone chips, vandalism and breakage when removing the glass (to undertake a respray or panel repair) a serious headache.

I have trawled the World and there isn't a heritage glass option for the A80 Supra anywhere in the World that I can find. There is the option to have new glass made but a couple of things are required up front. The first being a screen available to be scanned and moulds prepared (I have obtained outline quotes for this). The second being the initial cost of tooling and funding a minimum production run. This is where a club could get involved and then retail the screens World-wide but I doubt the Supra Owners Club is capable of doing that so it'd require an individual or consortium to fund the tooling outlay and go from there with purchase, storage, sales and distribution. I don't mind being part of a consortium but I'm reluctant to do it alone. So two questions for anyone here:

1. Does anyone have a rear screen sat out of the tailgate that can be borrowed to scan?

2. Who here would be interested in joining a funding group for a new Heritage glass venture for the Supra A80? 

For thread additional information:

Amayama prices April 2023
Windscreen 5610114020 £1,002 + taxes (VAT and Duty)
Rear screen (discontinued) 68131-14250 (price date unknown) £902 + taxes

Edited April 26, 2023 by rider
Added a thread introduction (see edit history)

[Andy Ven]

I am interested in this, but what sort of money are we talking collectivley as an outlay for just the tooling, and then plus the minunum screen order? Are we looking a minimum of 100 of each? With like a £20k outlay? My other worry is having the space to house such amounts of glass safely. 

 

[rider]

Hi Andy, for those seriously interested then I'm hoping we can get three to five people together to work out if its a viable business. Before I checked the Amayama prices I had estimated that the screen price would need to be around the £1k + VAT mark to cover the tooling outlay over a reasonable number of units sold. So it is a financially viable project if there is the will power and cash outlay to get it up and running. 

I have a 0.4 acre enclosed building so storage isn't an issue. What would be useful is finding someone with good contacts into the like of FedEx or UPS to get good World-wide shipping rates locked down. Amayama can ship the screens for £120, I know from things I've shipping in or out that if you went on the FedEx site and quoted it you'd probably be looking at £650 one off price. So getting the logistics right is probably the make or break.

Edited April 26, 2023 by rider (see edit history)

[wile e coyote]

When I spoke to amayama end last year they will NOT ship Glass

[Wishieftrottle]

Toyota added rear screen to their heritage production: https://toyotagazooracing.com/pages/contents/en/gr/heritage/productlist/detail.html?code=68131-14320

[rider]

Strange that Amayama have a shipping price on the part number listing if they don't/won't ship glass. 

I've sent an email to my local pet Toyota dealer to enquire on availability, timeline to supply and price on a heritage screen that has production ending in June 2023 so it should be interesting to see what comes back from the Toyota dealership on that.

[The Raven]

Looks like i got lucky i smashed my screen a few years back and the insurance got one no problem.

What on earth is going to happen if they dont have the glass anymore? 

[mc92]

49 minutes ago, The Raven said:

Looks like i got lucky i smashed my screen a few years back and the insurance got one no problem.

What on earth is going to happen if they dont have the glass anymore? 

I didn't think insurance used genuine toyota windscreens, so maybe someone does them already? See https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/184146518296 for example, there's no way it's Toyota for that price.

[rider]

16 minutes ago, mc92 said:

I didn't think insurance used genuine toyota windscreens, so maybe someone does them already? See https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/184146518296 for example, there's no way it's Toyota for that price.

You have to worry about some eBay listings, sold as for 1993 - 97 with a blue tint. Pre-facelift cars are green tint sun strip. The first glass to look into would be the rear heated element screen.

Edited April 26, 2023 by rider (see edit history)

[rider]

16 hours ago, Wishieftrottle said:

Toyota added rear screen to their heritage production: https://toyotagazooracing.com/pages/contents/en/gr/heritage/productlist/detail.html?code=68131-14320

I received a price and lead time from Toyota, £1,105.48 with 1 month lead time. So grab one while stocks last as production is due to end in June according to their website.

[The Raven]

Toyota heritage is a joke. 
 

At this rate a few smashed bits of glass and the insurance will total loss the cars 

[raddys]

23 minutes ago, The Raven said:

Toyota heritage is a joke. 
 

At this rate a few smashed bits of glass and the insurance will total loss the cars 

All it is is a marketing thing so they don't look bad against nissan, absolutely no intention of keeping them on the road 

[The Raven]

2 hours ago, raddys said:

All it is is a marketing thing so they don't look bad against nissan, absolutely no intention of keeping them on the road 

Yeah absolutely that, the writing was on the wall when they said "look door handles"  meanwhile nissan are offering blocks

Edited April 27, 2023 by The Raven (see edit history)

[raddys]

1 hour ago, The Raven said:

Yeah absolutely that, the writing was on the wall when they said "look door handles"  meanwhile nissan are offering blocks

Yep exactly, never in my 8 years of ownership have i seen anyone put a wanted ad for a door handle

It's like toyota said "what's a part that not a single supra owner will ever need to replace, hmm could sell brake boosters and door handles"

 

Edited April 27, 2023 by raddys (see edit history)

[keron]

ive been looking into this for the last few years but pulled out as toyota re-released the rear glass again on their heritage scam site. i had everything ready to go and then literally they announced it  week or so before i was about to send them and pay the deposit.... i had the last few rear screens off them during lockdown for autoglass...and kept one aside incase. front screens are avail still, qtr glass are avail and just about the odd side door glass. 

nobody has the drawings for the rear glass so i was sending two away to scan.... however not worth it now as it was costing quite a lot and also shipping glass is very difficult..... the fronts and sides are avail aftermarket too ive seen....

i keep all the new glass in stock.....

[rider]

A final entry on this for the archive.

The rear screen is toughened glass and there are only a few companies in the UK that can manufacture curved toughened glass. There are more options for the front screen available, presumably because the demand for replacement windscreens is so much higher than for door or rear screen glass. The good news is that anything glass wise is possible, at a price.

From the info I gained the minimum production run is 10 units. Tooling costs would be around £5k per item of glass. Tools would be stored for a limited time period if unused, usually around 2 years. All manufactured screens would need to be shipped off to hold in store somewhere.

For anyone doing say a rear screen then the initial outlay would be around £9k for first 10 rear screens and then £4k for the next 10. Front screens are cheaper, around £100 a unit cheaper. So, if we imagine I was doing glass I'd need to start out at £1k for a rear screen and £900 for a front screen. So it's something that is viable at Toyota dealer prices once all glass is discontinued. If someone like me or Keron ever takes this on then people shouldn't expect a bargain price per unit, but it won't cost the Earth either.

Edited May 6, 2023 by rider (see edit history)