How cold is too cold?

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kingmonkey

How cold is too cold?

Post by kingmonkey »

With winter coming on I was just wondering how cold is too cold for resin to work before I have to try and heat up the windshield?
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Re: How cold is too cold?

Post by Glasseye »

I normally target a minimum, all-over, windscreen surface temperature of 13 Deg. Centigrade. I avoid using the windscreen demister vents as this can cause uneven heating and increased stress in the glass.
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Re: How cold is too cold?

Post by SGT »

kingmonkey wrote:With winter coming on I was just wondering how cold is too cold for resin to work before I have to try and heat up the windshield?
As far as I know temp. does not affect a resins ability to bond but I am not an expert on resins either. It may cause the resin to become more viscous though and a little more challenging to work with. I would check with your mfg on what they recommend but I like to have the windshield between 70-90 deg. when possible for repairs. Make sure your resin temperature is within ten degrees of the windshield temperature to avoid thermal shock. Very hot or cold temps affect me more than the resin.
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GlassStarz
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Re: How cold is too cold?

Post by GlassStarz »

Cold is harder on the tech than the resin I have done repairs as low as -30f Things are more brittle and apt to crack out when cold if you put the heat on in the car and place a terry towel over the break the glass will warm quickly When really cold I avoid the defroster to rapid a change can set things to cracking. I find the best way to avoid the cold is move to a warmer climate LOL thats what i did anyway
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Brent Deines
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Re: How cold is too cold?

Post by Brent Deines »

As usual I buck the trend and use the defrosters all the time. If the car was used recently the glass has already been warmed by the defrosters so if it was going to break it probably already would have, and if the car has not been used recently the defrosters are going to blow cool air at first and gradually get warmer. That's about as safe as you can get in my opinion and I have yet to break a windshield using the defrosters. I also warm from the outside in most cases with a hair dryer, and under a bubble dome when possible, but using the defrosters helps maintain the temperature and controls condensation.

Like GlassStarz I've done plenty of repairs in below zero weather, but since moving to Oregon have rarely had to work in anything colder than 30F or so. Hopefully my next move will up the minimum temperature to about 50F or so. We are really spoiled any more as we do most of our repairs indoors. We have customers in Siberia and Alaska who do repairs all year round, but I have to assume in the really cold weather they figure out a way to get the vehicles inside. I've worked in the oil fields at -50F and it ain't no fun!

I keep my resin warm by keeping it in the vehicle and use the hair dryer if additional warming is necessary.

How cold is too cold? That depends on how hungry you are. :D
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Re: How cold is too cold?

Post by PG Bullseye Repair »

I've always gone by, if you have to ask yourself if something needs to be done to complete a job perfectly than just do it. Example: if one of my employees (in my sealcoating company)needs to ask me if they need to clean the asphalt better to make the sealer stick, they know to just make it happen. With that said if I'm not sure by touch if it needs to be warmed up, I also will use a defroster on low to warm up the glass, I also have a new Delta thermometer which takes the guess work out of everything. Today it took me 30 min. to get two windshields to the correct temp., had to scrape off snow and Ice, turn on defroster, and used a blow drier on the out side of the glass till break and surrounding area was in the 70's then I used my spot heater to remove the moisture from the repair, than I started doing the repair after that point.
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