Home-made hail shields

[Darren Addy]

This is from a previous thread on car insurance and chase vehicles-

Originally posted by David Drummond+--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(David Drummond)</div>

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I am glad someone started this thead. I have been wondering about this very topic.

Where does one get info on hail shields for windshields?

Thanks

You basically imagineer them out of something to fit your vehicle unless you got a lot of money to give to a welder. :wink:[/b]

but I felt that this topic deserved its own thread.

I'd be interested in more info about this. What sort of material do you use for the "screen". They make some pretty sturdy hog fencing that (layered and offset) could provide a good (if heavy?) "screen". Wondering what people use.

Also, I have a removable aluminum roof rack (affixes with suction cups and belts that go through the inside of the car). I would imagine that a screen could be attached to that (or does anyone have alternative ways of attaching the hail screen?)

Are you only be interested in protecting the front/rear glass, or do you overhang the sides at all? How far out front do you go before you sacrifice your sky visibility? I imagine the answer depends on the slope of your vehicle's windshield.

Thanks for any info...

Darren Addy
Kearney, NE

 

[Darren Addy]

Instead of saying "hog fence" I should have said "panels".
Like the bottom one on this page: http://www.metalmart.biz/19.htm and here is a wire/gauge conversion chart for those who need them (like ME).

4 layers of that stuff (correctly offset) would give you a grid of 1/2" x 1" "holes". You should be able to make several of them with a 16" panel section. I'd trim the whole thing with a split rubber hose (held on with hose clamps) to keep from banging my head against the edges (I'm good at banging my head on things). :roll:

Perhaps not the most stylish solution, but functional????

Darren Addy
Kearney, NE

 

[fplowman]

If I were to make one... As I have alot of fab experience ie. ladder racks etc... then I would use angle iron or square tubing and affix expanded metal to it. my 2c

 

[Craig Maire II]

Hail shields

After the awsome hailstorm I encountered in Dallas County Iowa on 05/10/05 I keep cut up pieces of cardboard and duct tape in my car for some quick and easy hail protection. The cardboard would only be on until the hail was done. I will only put the cardboard on my back window (big target) and back side windows. This may sound crazy but could easily mean the difference between paying 300 or 400$ on new windows, I dont mind looking funny for a few minutes if it will save me lots of $$ while I get excellent hail footage.

 

[David Drummond]

My thought was to make the frames out of 1/2" electrical conduit tubing (easy to shape and cut, but yet strong) for the frame on each window and then overlay that with some gauge of stretched steel (mesh). Not sure of what gauge yet. I was going to get some samples and mount it to my proposed frame, and then take it up to the batting cages and shoot a few baseballs at it to test it out. Figure out what gauge would hold up to the barrage.

There are some logistics to figure out, like how to mount the windshield part so you can move and/or remove it. Same goes for the driver and passenger door.

That's probably going to be a project for next year though, or for the winter.

 

[Darren Addy]

I like the electrical conduit frame idea. Your idea of testing by firing baseballs at it made me wonder if a weave of 1-1/2" wide elastic might work better than a hard wire/metal screen. (Think those pitching trainers with the strike zone on a net that tosses the ball back at you). Sure would be a heck of a lot lighter, too. (Consider the ridiculous to trigger outside-the-box solutions).

150 feet of 1-1/2" wide is under $6.00 here. (Haven't figured out yet how much one would need to cover a frame the size of a windshield hail shield.)

Darren Addy
Kearney, NE

 

[Ben Cotton]

Another ghetto idea:

Styrofoam. Those 1" thick styrofoam boards in the craft section at Wal*Mart. Bungee them across the front of your windows. Granted, you won't be able to see through them, but it'd be a good emergency option.

 

[David Drummond]

I think the elastic might be TOO flexible, and would still allow the hail to come in contact with the glass, unless you were able to mount it a good distance away from the glass, which probably isn't practical. I have thought of some of that mess type plastic, similar to the orange stuff you see around construction sites. I might get some samples of that and test it as well some time.

 

[Kiel Ortega]

What about bubble wrap????

 

[David Drummond]

Originally posted by Ben Cotton
Another ghetto idea:

Styrofoam. Those 1\" thick styrofoam boards in the craft section at Wal*Mart. Bungee them across the front of your windows. Granted, you won't be able to see through them, but it'd be a good emergency option.

I don't know about the emergency options though Ben. Realistically, by the time you need an emergency option, it's probably too bad already to get outside and implement it.

Hail shields probably aren't for everyone, but in some cases I can see their usefullness.

 

[Jeff Wear]

I'd want something that doesn't get soft when wet and that can be applied without leaving the vehicle. I would want some sort of metal that can withstand repeated blows from objects falling at 80-100 mph. Keep in mind that hailstones on occasion tear holes through roofs, and just a couple weeks ago there was an instance of hail tearing a hole through the plastic side panel of a chase vehicle.

With that in mind, cardboard and styrofoam will not hold up to the speeds at which hailstones fall and will be easily ripped to shreds. A styrofoam cup I use to protect the thermometer probe outside my window was totally ripped to shreds following a barrage of 5/8 inch diameter hail and 40 mph winds a couple years ago.

 

[Craig Maire II]

Huh?

I still think cardboard is good for an emergency hail shield, esp. for hail from golfball to hens egg, anything after that I'm not sure about. I've rode out plenty of hailstorms where the hail got up to around golfball without losing a single window and think that putting the card board TEMPORARILY on the back and side windows with DUCT TAPE couldn't hurt. I'll be installing a more "professional" hail shield in July. The only way hail is gonna go through someones roof is if they have a sunroof or convertable, hail cannot penetrate a metal automobile roof, but it can put some BIG dents in it though.

 

[Ryan McGinnis]

You're right about hail leaving big dents in the roof of your car -- I once had a softball hit the roof of my Honda Civic so hard that it knocked out the interior dome light! I literally had to collect the pieces of the dome light cover from the backseat of my car.

 

[Dave Lewison]

I figure I'd add my 2 cents, as I think we're one of the few vehicles that have had hail guards actually tested by a baseball hail barrage in S. Plains TX a couple weeks ago. But first a disclaimer...PLEASE don't think we did this on purpose! The storm caught us just like so many other chasers that day. Trust me, my chase partner is not happy with the enormous craters in his XTerra's hood and body panels!

Anyway, our windshield guard is a retractable design that folds back against the roof when not in use (held in place with twist-lock clamps). It can be deployed by flipping it down and locking it with spring pins...a process which takes about 10 seconds. We basically folded it down when we neared any storm, and left it down throughout the storm. Since it folds out horizontally above the windshield, you can drive with it down perfectly fine...it doesn't obscure your view any more than the typical sun tinting on the top of the windshield.

The guard frame is 1"x 1/8" wall square aluminum tubing, welded together. I chose this for lightness and so the guard would not bounce as much, which would risk damage to the hinges. The main arms that mount to the roof rack are tougher...same size tubing, but steel. Everything gets U-bolted to the round roof rails on the XTerra.

The mesh itself went through several designs. I first wanted to use expanded aluminum sheet (3/4" holes), but it was cost prohibitive at $60 for a 4x8-ft sheet, and difficult to get. I settled on 1/2" chicken wire mesh, found at any Home Depot for $6.99 for 3x5ft. It's held in place by 30 screws and fender washers, with a piece of weatherstripping sandwiched between the mesh and frame, to reduce vibration (which was very loud without the weatherstripping...trust me). The windshield guard worked great...not a single crack in the glass. But the guard took some direct hits, which deformed the mesh severely and partially ripped it off the frame. It probably would have failed if the baseballs had continued another 5-10 minutes. I'm replacing it with double-ply mesh this time.

The side and back glass are protected by 1" square steel wire mesh, spaced about 1.5" from the window glass. These worked pretty well, but one softball cratered it in enough to get to the glass and we lost one window.

Here's a page showing the construction:
http://www.facethewind.com/hail_guard

And here's a page showing what happened to them in the hail:
http://www.facethewind.com/chase2005/may12.shtml

The flexconduit suggested in a previous post is a neat idea. I may have to integrate that into my next design...

 

[Greg Stumpf]

Dave (chaser #1 of 3 from Wappingers Falls NY)

Originally posted by Dave Lewison+--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Dave Lewison)</div>

But first a disclaimer...PLEASE don't think we did this on purpose! The storm caught us just like so many other chasers that day.[/b]

I'm not intending to ruffle feathers, especially with my video/music colleague on the Storms Of 2004 DVD project (Dave, when will we meet?), but....

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Face The Wind[/i] Hail Guard Web Page]Let's hope we have some great storms to test it!!!

Just the fact that you built a hail guard says you had intended to be in a situation like this. Afterall, that is exactly why R.J. Evans built his hail guard - to sample some really nasty hail storms. In fact, considering the
other thread on this topic, it seems that you guys were probably one of the only vehicles that did the right thing on May 12, whether you intended to or not. My point - I'm not sure that your disclaimer is needed!

Some comments on the design - I would consider a more sturdy mesh, and possibly extending it another 6" over the windshield, to account for diagonal trajectories. Might even consider a three-position shield - allow it to also lock down to cover the front glass like R.J.'s.

Greg (chaser #2 of 3 from Wappingers Falls NY)