Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Classic Morgans (pre-CX) Invisible Sidescreens

I'm sure some people are thinking "why?" but it was an idea I've had for a while and wouldn't have wasted much if it didn't work.

I was surprised how clean the cut was in polycarbonate, I've used a jigsaw on acrylic before and the heat from the blade leaves a rough (melted) finish whereas the polycarbonate was very smooth and just need some sanding and plastic cutting paste to get a pretty professional looking finish. The bending was a little tricky due to the thickness I used, I'm going to try thinner sheet for version 2 and see if that's better.

Very nice idea. It has been crossing my mind for a while after seeing a variant somewhere that was shaped lower and not full size like your version.
How did you cut it Kevfitz? Poly is prone to cracking. I made replacement greenhouse windows with it so no real problem other than a few small cracks I ignored.I think using a blowtorch played over the edges to soften the material is one way of removing the cut edges to a nice rounded shape.
I have some offcuts to experiment on.

You may be confusing polycarbonate with acrylic SOSPAN, you can't use a flame on the edge of polycarbonate but that does work well on acrylic. Similarly I've found acrylic does crack easily whereas I managed to cut the polycarbonate with a fine tooth jigsaw blade running the saw at medium speed.

As above...slow speed.fine tooth..give material time to cool.

Excellent cut with very little finishing required.

Good info thanks.
My plan was to make a sort of half sidescreen to replace the bolt on wind deflectors that I removed. Didn’t find them very effective and and fouled the side screens.

Since my car came without side screens (they were lost back in the 50's) would these work for side screens when the hood is up?

I’ve made them the same size as the original sidescreens so that they will work with the hood up. The only issue could be access if you don’t have external door handles, and ventilation. I plan to address the ventilation by fitting plastic snap vents. I’ll post photos when done.

Polycarbonate (Lexan) is fire retardant and will initially resist bending into shape. The correct process seems complex, see here, which involves uniform drying at 125°C until bubbles removed before bending at >150°C when it becomes plastic.