| All
glass on a motor vehicle bears a
manufacturer’s mark and (if you are lucky)
some sort of dating code. This can be
particularly useful when attempting to verify the
year and month in which a vehicle was actually
manufactured. (Although please note that this is not
a foolproof way of determining a car's age, as
the glass may have been replaced at some time
during its life). Ford used three different
glass manufacturers for the Ford Anglia, "Indestructo",
"Triplex" and "Tyneside".
Indestructo
Glass
"Indestructo"
safety glass was manufactured by British
Indestructo Glass Ltd (Chase Estate, Park
Royal Road, London, NW10). It was a glass
used by the Ford Motor Company at Dagenham during
the years of the Ford Anglia's production.
British
Indestructo Glass Ltd (BIG) was incorporated as a
public company in 1929 to manufacture safety or
laminated glass. After 1944 BIG, which was by
then Triplex's only remaining safety glass
competitor of any substantial size, incurred
trading losses and found itself in serious
financial difficulties. At the end of 1951 the
Austin Motor Co. Ltd., Briggs Motor Bodies Ltd.,
Ford and Pressed Steel Co. Ltd, provided the
additional capital required to keep the company
in business. Sales to the BMH group and Ford
accounted for about 93 per cent of total sales.
Although there was no supply agreement or other
formal understanding between BIG and its
shareholding customers, the latter were broadly
committed to placing sufficient business with BIG
to keep its capacity reasonably employed.
From
1961 to 1966 the British Motor Corporation and
Ford purchased similar annual quantities of glass
from BIG, these quantities represented less than
one-third of BMC's total safety glass
requirements, and well over one-third of Ford's.
When BIG expanded its capacity in 1966 it
received assurances from BMC and Ford that the
additional capacity would be taken up, provided
the prices were right. Unfortunately difficult
conditions in the motor industry mean't that this
additional capacity could not be taken up. In
1967 British Indestructo Glass Ltd was acquired
by the Triplex Safety Glass Company Ltd and
subsequently closed down.
The
name "Indestructo" is usually etched on
the glass in an arch shape, with two letters
under the bottom of each leg and the British
Vehicular Safety (BVS) kitemark under them. For
dating purposes, the letters of interest are the
two underneath the letter 'I' of the company's
name. The letters below the 'O' are not used for
dating purposes.
Coding
for the Quarter of Year of Manufacture
Of
the two letters beneath the letter 'I' of
Indestructo, the one on the extreme left is used
to indicate the quarter of the year of
manufacture using the word BRIT
B = 1st quarter, R = 2nd quarter, I = 3rd quarter and T = 4th quarter.
Coding
for the Year of Manufacture
The
year is indicated by the second letter below the
'I', using the word INDESTRUCTO
I = 7, N = 8, D = 9, E = 0, S = 1, T = 2, R = 3, U = 4, C = 5 and O = 6
(The second 'T' was ignored, except for the first
six months of 1966 when T = 6 and the O was
ignored)
This
gives the dating codes shown in the table below
|
