Fesler is tooling flush glass for the 1978-88 G-body: what we know so far

There is a 1978 to 1988 GM G-body in our shop right now, and we are pulling a mold off it. That is the whole update. Fesler is tooling trimless flush-mount glass for the G-body platform, starting with the windshield, then the back glass. Pre-order is open, the fitment matrix is not published yet, and we are not printing a ship date until we have a finished part in our hands.

If you own a Monte Carlo SS, a Grand National or Turbo Regal, a Cutlass Supreme, a Grand Prix, a Regal, or an El Camino, this is the post that explains why we picked this platform, what we know about it, what we do not know yet, and how you can help set the order we build things in.

Why has nobody made flush glass for the G-body?

As far as we can find, nobody has. We looked. There is no flush-mount or trimless glass for any 1978 to 1988 G-body from any seller at any price. There is no existing tool to copy and no pattern to buy. So the only way it gets made is off a real car, in a real shop, with someone measuring the opening, building the buck, pulling the mold, checking it, fixing it, and checking it again.

That is where we are. It is slow. We would rather take longer and ship a windshield that drops in than rush one that fights you on the way in. Anyone who has wrestled a bad piece of glass into a body knows exactly what we mean.

Is it an A-body or a G-body?

Both, depending on the year. GM called this platform the A-body from 1978 through 1981, then renamed it the G-body for 1982. The cars did not change under the badge. That is why people who know the platform write A/G-body, and why the biggest owner community for these cars calls itself the 1978 to 1988 GM A/G-Body Community. When we say G-body in this post, we mean the whole 1978 to 1988 run.

Did the 1981 restyle change the G-body glass?

No, and this is the single most useful fact in the whole program. The 1981 restyle changed front fascias, hoods, decklids, and the sedan rooflines. It did not change the two-door glass openings.

Aftermarket interchange data puts the 1978 to 1988 two-door windshield under one part number across Monte Carlo, Regal, Grand Prix, Cutlass Supreme, Cutlass Salon, Grand Am, LeMans, Grand LeMans, Bonneville, Century, El Camino, and the GMC Caballero. Chevrolet, Buick, Oldsmobile, Pontiac, and GMC. Eleven model years. One piece of glass.

Go look at your own car. If it is a two-door 1978 to 1988 A/G-body, the windshield opening you are looking at is the same one on the Grand National in the magazine, the Monte SS at the show, and the Cutty at the car wash. That is why this platform is worth the trouble. Get the windshield mold right once and an entire generation of cars is covered.

What about the back glass?

This is where we slow down on purpose. The parts catalogs disagree on the back glass year range. One major supplier lists one range and another lists a different one, and both cannot be right. So we are not publishing a back glass year range until we have measured cars ourselves. When the number goes on the site it will be because we checked it, not because we copied it from a catalog.

The same goes for a few other questions people have already asked us:

• T-top cars. Factory RPO CC1. We have not confirmed fitment on T-top cars yet, front or rear.
• Aerocoupe. Chevrolet built 200 Monte Carlo SS Aerocoupes in 1986 and 6,052 in 1987, with a different rear window. Whether the Aerocoupe is in the program is not decided. And no, the 1986 Pontiac Grand Prix 2+2 did not share that glass and was never called an Aerocoupe.
• Quarter glass. It is part of the plan. Flush front and back glass only looks right when the quarter glass matches, so quarter windows are being sequenced rather than skipped. Which model gets tooled first is genuinely undecided.

If a claim is not on the product page, we have not confirmed it. That is the rule for this program.

Which G-body cars are we talking about?

A few notes for the people who police this stuff, because they are right to.

• Grand National. 1982, then 1984 through 1987. There was no 1983 Grand National. There was a 1983 T-Type, 3,732 built. The GNX was 1987 only, 547 built. T-Type and Turbo T are their own trims, not GN synonyms.
• Oldsmobile 442. Two separate runs on this platform, 1978 to 1980 and 1985 to 1987. Hurst/Olds was 1979 and 1983 to 1984 only.
• Aeroback. Offered as a two-door and a four-door. Only the back glass differs. The windshield is shared with the notchback cars.
• El Camino and Caballero. Same two-door windshield interchange as the coupes.

We are not going to call any of these a box Chevy. That term belongs to the full-size B-body Caprice and Impala. A Monte Carlo is a G-body, and the people who own them will tell you so.

What is Fesler building for the G-body?

Glass first. The windshield is being tooled now, then the back glass. It will be the same thing we build for every other platform: DOT-certified, American-made, trimless flush-mount glass that bonds into the body with no chrome or rubber reveal molding. If you want the long version of how that works and why we do it, read our complete flush-mount glass guide. If your first question is whether it leaks, that is answered in does flush-mount glass leak.

Interior comes after the glass. Hand-laid fiberglass, molded off the actual car instead of a universal blank, same as everything else we build in Phoenix. We are not listing specific interior pieces yet because we have not confirmed which parts carry across which nameplates. When we know, we will say so.

How does the pre-order work?

The 1978-88 G-body flush-mount glass kit pre-order is live in the 1978-88 G-body collection. It is priced to match our other car kits: $2,099 for front and back glass together, $1,299 for front only or rear only. Final pricing will be announced before the first kit ships. There is no one-dollar deposit and no placeholder product. If you order, you are ordering a kit.

You do not have to pre-order to be part of this. The free list is the part we care about most. On the program page there is a short form: your email, your model, your year. Two reasons to fill it out. You hear the moment the first part is real, and the model you pick genuinely helps set the tooling order. That is not a marketing line. The quarter-glass sequence and the interior sequence are undecided, and the board is how we decide. You can find that form on the G-body program page.

Before you order anything from us, on any platform, read our builder's guide to ordering Fesler parts. It covers lead times, what ships when, and what to check on your car first.

How do you watch it get built?

The shop updates go up on Instagram and Facebook as they happen. Molds, test fits, the ugly parts too. We have wanted to do this platform for a long time. We are going to show you the whole thing, including the parts where we have to redo something.

Quick answers

Does Fesler make flush glass for the G-body? We are tooling it now. The windshield is being molded off a real car in our shop, with the back glass next. Pre-order is open and the fitment matrix publishes after cars are measured.

Does the 1978-88 G-body windshield interchange across models? Aftermarket interchange data lists one two-door windshield part number for 1978 to 1988 across Monte Carlo, Regal, Grand Prix, Cutlass, El Camino, and the other A/G-body two-doors.

Did the 1981 restyle change the G-body glass? No. The restyle changed fascias, hoods, decklids, and sedan rooflines, not the two-door glass openings.

What years is the G-body back glass? We are not publishing a back glass year range until we have measured cars. Parts catalogs disagree on it.

Will it fit T-top cars or the Aerocoupe? Not confirmed yet. T-top fitment and the Aerocoupe are both open items in the program.

What does the G-body pre-order cost? $2,099 for front and rear, $1,299 for front only or rear only, matching our other car kits. Final pricing is announced before the first kit ships.

See the 1978-88 G-body flush glass pre-order or browse the glass kits we already build.