Went on a little road trip yesterday, seems there were some windshields that had been sitting in a barn for about 44 years.
A little history: I found some pretty rare new old stock Custom Craft and MFG windshields. I found out about them from a girl that was looking for a windshield for her Correct Craft. She heard about these windshields from a friend of a friend, and went to check them out. They weren't what she was looking for, but she kept searching. Somewhere in her searches, she ran across a website featuring Custom Craft boats. She figured that she would share the information that she had so that others could benefit from this rare find. After all, if they were bulldozed with the barn that they were in, it would do no one any good.
Shelly sent me a message about these windshields about a month ago on my website. She put me in touch with the guy that had them, and I started to make arrangements to pick them up. I got some help with some pre-orders from some FiberGlassics members, and arrangements were made. A friend of mine from Silver Lake decided that he would come along for the ride and we set it up for the 22nd of March. I made arrangements to borrow the truck from work, and set out on the road at 6:30 in the morning. I met up with my friend on the way and we headed out towards north western PA.
We get down there a few minutes early and decide to check out the lake. It's a beautiful lake. Bud from the Navigation Company meets us at ten, and we head over to the warehouse/ barn. The windshields are all there, up in the loft. It took us a little longer than I though because we had to lower each one down individually. There were a few more than I had thought, but at least they weren't in boxes. Turns out there were alot of MFG windshields too. Some of them even included the rubber gasket as well as the brackets. All in beautiful shape aside from about 44 years of accumulated dust. While we were loading we set one of the buyers off on his way with a new windshield and we met Shelly and her friend. After a couple hours of passing windshields back and forth we were finally loaded. We call Bud and let him know we were all set to go. He says, " we are going through some old stuff in the attic, you can stop over and check it out if you want". We head on over to the Marina, and check things out. He says, "I still have a box of old wiring harnesses I had forgotten about, you're welcome to take some if you would like". Well I had to think about it for a minute, but I said, OK sure thanks, I'll take some brand new 44 year old wiring harness with the factory tag still on them. So I've got a couple Sun Ray factory wiring harnesses, and one Tiger Ray harness.
We're ready to leave and we ask Bud if he knew anything about the old MFG factory. Turns out it was in Union City which is on our way back. He tells us that it closed in 1987, and we get directions. So we head for Union City, and when we get there we check in at a local store to see if they know were the factory was located. We ask the lady at the counter if she knows anything about the old MFG factory, and she says, " sure, I work there". You mean you used to work there we say. "No, I work there. it's right around the corner. They make truck hoods. They have some boats inside the lobby". We head over and take some pictures. "Too bad it's Sunday, and it's not open", we say. Might make another good road trip.
Get home after unloading all the windshield at 9:00, exhausted. Eat dinner and go to bed.
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