Whether you have a newer or older boat, broken glass on windshields happens. Oftentimes storms or other disasters occur—natural or manmade—making the need for replacement necessary, which is an expensive procedure. You can replace it with glass, which is not only complex, but also about $4,000. Or you can choose acrylic, which looks the same and costs as little as $300-$400. The savings of time and money are substantial, and if your boat is a bit older, this is by far your best option.
Replacing glass for windshields on boats is not like the auto industry, which is regulated (so manufacturers must keep parts for 20 years). It’s not regulated in the boat industry, so after about five years the manufacturers discard the molds and do not make these products anymore, so you must go to an aftermarket to get it re-fabricated. When you decide that it is not worth the cost and trouble of dealing with this, we at UPD Plastics can offer the acrylic solution.
So what do you do when this happens? Simply contact us and we will email you a quote and attach a set of instructions on how to handle your frame while it’s still on the boat. We’ll give you detailed instructions on how to dissemble that part of the frame along with rubber seals, screws, and brackets, and you simply send it back to us. We then fabricate a new windshield and send it directly to you. It’s as easy as that. And if your broken glass also involves a bent frame—another costly and tricky event—we can provide you with our preferred source to have the frame resurfaced and then a new piece of glass or acrylic can be put back into the frame. Let us help take the worry out of it.