10 replies to this topic

[THE ANORAK]

does any one out there understand the glass dating codes on early 80's minis.

the reason i ask is that i am trying to date a car with a bogus identity.
going by fixtures and fittings, i have narrowed it down to 1984 to 1986, but
i will get a bit closer if i can date the glass.

the glass was made by SICURSIV and the front and rear screen have the
codes 5 GF P.
the door class has the codes 5 GF N
the rear side windows ( possibly not original due to evidence of opening windows being fitted at some time) have the code 6 GF C.

does anyone know of any other parts of the car that will be dated.
(original chassis and engine numbers have all gone)

i'm also sure that the interior is not original but does anyone recognise these
door cars, they are a distinctive silver with red stripe pattern.

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[Steve@RetroDash]

Where did you get the car? sounds a bit dodgy

[THE ANORAK]

it's an abandoned project and has been bought only for spares and will be cut up and scraped, but it's been masquerading as a 1976 mini city for the last few years,
which it definitely is not.

as it's gonna be killed off we were not to worried about it, but we just wanted to know what it really was out of morbid curiosity :erm:

[Dan]

The boot lock has the month and year of assembly stamped into it. The actual latch on the inner boot lid, not the handle.

[THE ANORAK]

cool, thanks.
will go and have a look.

[THE ANORAK]

well that says 21 78, but its on a different key and the boot lid is a different colour
on the inside so we can't really go by that, it doesnt seem to be a 1978 car either.

just checked my 91 cooper and that says ? 91 so i guess that ones alright. (sorry, in the time it's took to come inside and type it in, i forgot the first number )

any way, thanks for the tip, that's a new one for me.

anyone know of any thing else ???

[Hagar]

This might be too early for your Mini (it does apply to Morris Minors and (I believe) several other makes):

Look for a symbol like this on your windscreens or side windows (my quarter vents are different)



the dot under the 'E' on 'TOUGHENED' dates the glass to the eighth year of the decade ('T'= First year, 'O'= second year, 'U'= third year, and so on) No dot means it was a 'zero' year (eg 1960)
There is another nine letter word which was often used in the same way (laminated?), but I can't remember what it was (and it might be what's used on later vehicles.)

[Dan]

I think only Triplex used that code though not Sicursiv.

And I think I'm right in saying that genuine Mini glass had always been by Triplex. I reckon all your car's glass has been replaced over the years.

[pete]

The codes you refer to are the manufacturers code. Doesn't have anything to do with year of manufacture so not a lot of help. I don't believe Sicursiv have ever dated their glass.

Pete

[THE ANORAK]

thanks Hagar, but yes i was already familiar with the triplex system.
very early cars had glass made by indestructo and they used a similar set of codes
to triplex.

the triplex windscreens were marked with laminated
after 1969 they changed their system to dots above the word triplex
these codes are explained in "original mini cooper and cooper S" by john Parnell.

just checked the other cars on my drive (91 cooper and 89 city) and these both
have a mixture of triplex and sicursiv glass so things get more and more confusing.

is there a chance that more than one glass manufacturer was used from time to
time, just like on the tyres ??

any way, going by the fittings to the rest of the car i'm sure its between 84 and 86.

does any one know when the rear seat belt mounting were fitted as standard, and
i mean the mountings, not the belts themselves. this shell has mountings
for three point belts in the back.
i know that rear "lap" belts were not made standard until October 1986, but when
did they start adding the mountings ???

[THE ANORAK]

cool, thanks Pete. looks like i'm gonna have to find another way to narrow things down a bit .