A few winter drives has made me think about a wind deflector to make the cabin more cosy as I definitely get a bit of backdraught when motoring. I was thinking along the lines of some clear plastic fastened to the roll hoop to fill up the hole. Following a comment from a Westfield owning friend that if solid rather than mesh it may create more turbulence I decided to try a mock up first and as luck would have it I found a bit of old 2mm perspex in my daughter's loft. It looked like it had previously been used by a past owner of her place as secondary glazing and as the upvc windows seem to be at least 10 yrs old it must have been quite old but apart from being dirty, a bit scratched and one small crack I thought it'd be worth a go for a trial.
Not sure if it gets more brittle with age? I guess if it had been secondary glazing it would have seen a bit of UV in its life too.
After making a CAD template I cut it to size quite easily using the score and snap method and then sanded the edges a little. I found it clashed with the action camera mount on the harness bar so needed a cut-out. In making that I managed to crack it a bit as the drill went through the last bit and snatched. I took more care drilling the holes for the cable ties to attach it with but still managed to make another crack or two. I mastered the technique: clamp it tight between two bits of wood and drill through rather than just holding against one piece of wood, so good experience before the real thing.
Taking it out for a spin on Sunday afternoon the air certainly felt cold enough for a good test. I'm pleased to say that no buffeting, no turbulence and a significant reduction in backdraught so a complete success. A side effect is that the induction noise is much reduced in the cabin - not sure if that is a benefit or a snag! I can still get a decent mirror view despite it being very scratched, I was worried about reflections but not a big problem.
As this is only 2mm I was expecting a bit of flex/wobble but actually seemed okay, just a slight vibration near the bottom (oohh matron). I'm thinking I'll go for polycarbonate (Lexan) rather than acrylic (Perspex) as less prone to cracking and more scratch resistant and I'm thinking 3mm should be fine.
Here is the result, as I said this is only a mock up/practice run so ignore the scratches etc.
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