Ford Mondeo MkI

James’ Mondeo gets a new windscreen – good job, judging by the old one!

Just as I was thinking about how I’ve had little to complain about since purchasing the Mondeo, I noticed a problem. Isn’t that typical? A crack in the windscreen had grown larger over the winter months and was steadily creeping into the wiper-blade area.

A white fog had also started to appear along the windscreen edges, so I decided to replace it sooner rather than later. A quick call to National Windscreens had a booking for a replacement arranged and two days later they were there to do the job.

‘They don’t make them like that any more,’ the repair man said as he admired the 23-year-old Mondeo. He mentioned that his company allows him extra time to fit windscreens on classic cars, because modern cars have a much simpler method of replacement. It was also fairly obvious that my Mondeo’s windscreen hadn’t been changed in a while and the repair man had concerns that it would fall apart when removing it.

Before that, though, he got to work on preparing the new glass. After a few sprays of glass cleaner, he applied some primer so the silicone would take hold. While that rested on a stand glistening in the sunlight, he began the arduous task of removing the old glass. As the various bits of plastic and rubber trim were removed, the effects of ageing became apparent.

With a tool like a fine chisel, the repair man scored around the outside of the glass. Tense minutes passed as he prepared the glass for removal... then he started to remove the windscreen from one corner. It immediately shattered, halting progress and prompting him to tape along the weak areas of glass to prevent the screen ending up in hundreds of pieces. I wasn’t too fond of glass shards ruining the immaculate interior of the Mondeo.

With the masking tape in place, the slow process of removing the glass began. What was supposed to take around 40 minutes lasted an hour. Once all the old silicone had been removed, the new windscreen was ready to be fitted. This is where the process speeded up – within minutes the rubber and plastic fittings were being slotted back in place.

I had to wait half an hour for the silicone to set before driving the car. But it was worth the wait – after that I was rewarded with something new on my ageing Mondeo, and one less thing that would flag up on a future MoT!