Windshield Repair Forum

Recently due to the cold I have been using a lighter more than usual. On a job I did yesterday, I could see the resin easily flowing as I heated the area in front of the flowing resin. Great right?....Well, after a minute or so the crack regained a partially unfilled appearance. It looked nothing like it did when heating. No resin was leaking and it would regain its filled appearnce if i re applied heat to the partially filled area. My question I guess ultimately is - did the repair fill. A guess I came up with is I was possibly heating the area so much I created moisture, giving it a filled look. Anyway, any previous experience or feedback would be helpful. Thanks you in advance!

By heating the glass you are probably just expanding the glass and it is closing from the expansion. When it cools down, it will be back open. You probably got no resin into it, just mistakenly thought the glass closing up was resin fill. - David Casey - SuperGlass

Yep! just as SGD says. Simple test on your practise glass make a small star and warm it up, stand back and observe. You will find the legs will close on its own, now wait and see how long without a heatsink they take to open back up again. On tests I carried out I could close a leg with heat and 4 hours later it was still closed.

Not a big fan of heat! I will use at last resort if the star will not fill.

If I have a star that will not fill I try the heatsink. Cold glass contracts making the space in the legs larger(this does not mean longer), only when I have tried every trick will I turn to heat and then only on a vacuum phase followed by cooling whilst under pressure again.

Durring a repair when a lighter is used the customer usually has bad reactions. We try to avoid it.

I never use heat as a tool to move resin. Only for drying wet damage.

Screenman, Sunshine WR, and Bill Lambeth all prefer cold glass to warm glass. By logical extension this would indicate that the colder the glass the easier the repair. So, guys, does this mean that given a choice you all would prefer, say, -20F (-57.6C) glass rather than +75F (+57.4C)? Personally, I prefer the Goldilocks approach: not too hot, not too cold - but just right. If that means warming or cooling the glass to achieve an optimum temperature range, so be it.

Cheers;

Puka Pau

I didn't say I prefer cold glass .

Sunshine;

You said you don't use heat to move resin. In your experience does resin flow as easily through -20F glass as it does through +75F glass?

Cheers;

Puka Pau