MTFCA Forum

Does anyone know what the procedure is for drilling a hole in safety glass to install a through the windshield spotlight? Can it be done without taking the glass out of the frame? Should I take it to a glass shop?

If it is tempered, it cannot be drilled. You can have laminated glass drilled

Allan from down under.

I believe the trick is to mask off and sandblast all the way through. I’ve had success with diamond hole saws made for ceramic and glass, but I didn’t try it on my expensive windshield….
Id take the whole windshield frame to a local glass shop and ask. Same as a hole for a handle in a shower door, but they will know how to treat the safety glass. I had a handle added to the new glass for a sliding window in a truck cab and I that’s how they did that job.
Good luck with the installation and please post some pics! I have always like those “Clymer” style lights with the pistol grip.
-Chris, in Boulder

There was an installation tool for those lights. It is a drill turned tool that clamped to the glass and worked with a single-use packet of grinding compound that essentially ground a proper sized round hole in the glass.

There was a collector near me about 20 years ago that had one of the tools and a few of the grinding packets but they are gone now.

Here it is:
https://www.mtfca.com/discus/messages/8 ... 1261769535

gary80005 wrote: ↑

Wed Oct 01, 2025 1:55 am

Does anyone know what the procedure is for drilling a hole in safety glass to install a through the windshield spotlight? Can it be done without taking the glass out of the frame? Should I take it to a glass shop?

Take it to someone that knows how to do it. Time is money & so is the windshield.
https://www.trueviewglass.com/locations ... s-company/

Glass won't drill like metal. You have to grind a hole in it, and you don't want to get in a hurry and generate much heat.