Quote Originally Posted by industrialfish View Post
STILL WRONG, despite your "research".

OEM HUD windshields have an additional interior layer to prevent the HUD from being reflected from the 2nd layer of glass which prevents ghosting. While Non-HUD etched glass is fully compatible and works "just fine" it IS NOT THE SAME and nor even close the the same quality.

(NOTE: I honestly do not know if this applies to the pre 04+ windshields, but I can guarantee this is the case with 04+ GPs)
Sooo....you admit you don't know whether it applies to Gen I & II w-bodies....yet you are stating "STILL WRONG, despite your 'research'" in a pompous manner? His original question was pertaining to adding a '99 HUD to a '98, so what YOUR research shows about the Gen III GPs is irrelevant to his question. And even with the 04+, your ordeal still doesn't really prove anything. Just because a GM rep claims something doesn't make it fact. GM has a long track record of making such claims, and then having them shown to be false later down the road.

Truth is, while they've always had separate part #s, and there have been many rumors/"people with insider info" throughout the years declaring that HUD glass is slightly more polished in the HUD area, or uses different glass, etc., in reality, there has never been conclusive evidence that anything is different about HUD vs. non-HUD glass (at least not for the Gen I & II). In either case, I've seen HUD on several non-HUD factory windshields and I've never seen any significant difference. No ghosting, no lack of sharpness, etc.

AFTERMARKET glass, on the other hand, DOES make a difference. I went with non-HUD aftermarket glass on my '01 GTP last year, and you can tell the glass in general is not nearly as nice. Despite this, the HUD was still 100% visible, just different looking. The numbers were not as tall and spread a bit wider, which took some getting used to. However, there was still no ghosting or issues seeing it in the daylight, etc. So even with YOUR anecdote, the question becomes is there really a difference between the HUD vs. non-HUD windshields as GM states (again, I've read/heard several different reiterations of how/why they're different from "GM reps/sources" over the last 10 - 15 years), or was it more a matter of aftermarket glass (it's not 100% clear, but your other thread makes it sound like you went aftermarket)?