rear window broken on Topaz

At the weekend I managed to break the back window of my 2009 Topaz.  One of those nightmare coincidences - I was reversing at night, and did not see a pipe jutting out from a post.  The reversing sensors did not sound and suddenly there was the sound of breaking glass...

As you know on the Topaz a lot of the glass is blacked out with a special paint to hide the built in panels for the washroom,  leaving a smaller space in the middle clear, for the rear view.  Autosleepers will no longer do this and don't have the paint anyway.  So I can't get a direct replacement.  Any ideas?

A fallback will be to replace with all-over tinted "privacy" glass if it is too difficult to get it back to the original look.

It's a standard VW window glass, isn't it? Others on this forum have solved similar problems using black vinyl (often used for "vinyl wrapping" parts of vehicles).

I've not needed to try it myself, but I think you would get a very good result by buying the glass and then applying the vinyl wrap yourself to the inside, cutting out the clear centre area and peeling that part of it off. You can then get someone like Autoglass to come and cut out the old glass and bond in the new. You would ~probably~ need to leave a clear border round the edge of the glass to ensure a good bond to the frame, but no doubt the glass fitter would be able to advise how wide that border needs to be.

Here's the thread on how it was done on a side window - I think you have the opportunity to put the wrap on the inside, which I suspect will be better looking and more durable:

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National Windscreens will probably be able to replace the glass.
They can cut to fit and have the blackout paint as well.
(I speak from experience!!)

PB

peugeotboxer wrote:National Windscreens will probably be able to replace the glass.

Shouldn't be expensive either - our local Autoglass charged £40 to cut out the old sliding window on our Trooper and bond in a new one (which we supplied). National Windscreens should be roughly the same, I would think.

Thanks for the suggestions - made me realise there are several ways to do this. I want to keep the original look, so following more research with Autosleepers and Autoglass, I am going to get the standard glass replaced, and then apply the blackout paint myself.

I'm going through Autoglass because that way part of the cost is covered by my insurance. But they won't allow me to touch the glass before it is put in or put any paint on themselves.  So I will have to remove the interior panels on the tailgate afterwards, to get access and apply the paint.  I would have to do this anyway, according to Autoglass, to connect up the wires for the heat elements (they can't do this from outside).

Autosleepers have given me some hints about removing the panels (not that difficult apparently) and have said to use Dinitrol black primer for glass for the black-out paint, not a top coat.  So that is what I will do, the end result should be identical to before!  Fingers crossed.