[Brent Deines]

Fasttalker,

I think that everyone who answered your post so far was right on track. There are some resins that have very little odor, but you sacrifice a bit of bonding strength and other important characteristics as a trade off. Without a doubt Premium Bond has a distinctive odor, as do all acrylic acid based resins, and it does have a higher acrylic acid content than MagniBond, which as Wade said is what we now put in all kits and use in all of our training classes. I can't really tell the difference in performance, but in laboratory testing the MagniBond performs slightly better than Premium Bond. I had intended to discontinue Premium Bond altogether, but we have some very loyal users that would probably behead me.

When used properly in a well ventilated area or outdoors we have heard very few complaints about the odor of any of our resin products, but I have seen how many people care for their equipment I would agree with you that resin has probably been spilled in the tool box and soaked up by the foam.

Even household cleaners like ammonia or acid containing bowl cleansers will make you very sick if you have a high concentrate of fumes, and windshield repair resins are no different.

You may be able to get away with replacing the foam or you may find that you need to replace the entire box but I think once you get the box cleaned up you will not have any more problems as long as you follow recommended resin handling procedures.

On the other hand, some people are more sensitive to chemicals than others, and some resins do contain more acrylic acid than others. There are a few resins still on the market that are very harsh and once someone has had a reaction to one of those they often find it difficult to work with anything containing acrylic acid, no matter how minimal the content.

There is absolutely no downside to using MagniBond resin so I would try that first. It's unlikely, but if you continue to have problems I would be happy to send you a sample of our Acrylic Acid Free resin. We don't push it because it does not perform as well in laboratory testing as MagniBond, but it does perform as well or better than many other windshield repair resin products on the market, and so far those that have purchased it have been extremely happy. In fact, without seeing the lab reports I don't think most people would notice a difference in performance when compared to acrylic acid based resins. It does still have an odor, but it is extremely safe to work with.

In the interest of fairness I will mention that there are a number of other windshield repair suppliers that sell acrylic acid free resin products. I cannot vouch for the quality, but as long as you are comfortable with the MSDS (which should always be provided), and the spec sheets that the supplier furnishes, there is certainly no harm in trying other brands. Most of the members of this forum have experimented with many resins, some choosing Delta Kits, and some choosing others.

First things first though, you need to take care of that box. Delta Kits does have replacement foam if that is all you need.