Window Meshes

I have just received a pair of window meshes for Defender side windows that allow the windows to be left locked in their first open latch position whilst keeping the car secure.  They sit inside the window frames’ channels and overlap the sliding glass panes’ front edges to make them secure and to prevent wind noise from any gap.  They are similar in concept to the long-discontinued Mantec meshes, but have slightly larger holes to improve ventilation while remaining small enough to avoid wind noise and significant rain ingress.  They’re also made of one piece rather than glued together like the earlier Mantec ones.   I didn’t want the big grilles made by mainstream accessory manufacturers because, apart from being so ugly, they are permanent, make window cleaning a problem, make a huge amount of wind noise and rust if fitted externally and interfere with opening if fitted internally, and most of all they prevent the use of those windows as emergency exits.  These small meshes don’t have any of those issues – they are fitted only when you need them and will not impede egress when fitted if the window is slid fully open.

They’re well made – no burrs or sharp edges anywhere at all and have a  good, even powder coating free from any defects that I could detect.  The satin black is similar to that of the window frames so they really do look good fitted.  These will be a great accessory for camping trips and green laning, allowing lots of ventilation while keeping the car secure when parked and preventing branches or stones being flung in at the kids through open windows off road.

Barry Fein, the chap who produces them is a Californian, which is why he sells them for 200  US dollars (about £130 at the moment) plus shipping.  He hopes to sell to the UK and presumably anywhere else that anyone wants them, and to make things easy takes Paypal transactions amongst other forms of payment.  He didn’t skimp on the packaging, either – they were very well protected.

I’m glad I stumbled across his thread on a 4×4 forum as I had been unable to find this type of mesh anywhere, despite remembering seeing something like them several years ago.  I think he’s the only person making anything like them now. I haven’t tried them out on the road yet, but I really just bought them for camping.  I’m very pleased with them.  Contact Barry at “barryfein at g mail.com” (written as a normal e-mail address rather than the spambot defeating method I’ve just used) for more details.