Very large pits - tips and tricks??

[crackhead]

Please share your methods and tips for repairing damage that has a large pit or large chip out of the glass - ones that exceed the diameter of the seal on the injector. I have a large pit adapter but hate to use it because it wastes resin. I've also first pit filled the oversize pit and then drilled back into it to inject. Even tried covering the damage with clear heavy duty packing tape and then injecting through a hole poked in the tape. We've all run across those wicked pits that make getting the injector to seal against the glass very difficult. How do the rest of you guys deal with it?

[gold star windshield repair]

I also have a large pit adapter, which I find is quite a pain to use, since it reduces the amount of pressure that can be used, and yes, it also wastes resin. My preferred method now it to apply a very thick pit resin, cure it off, then scrape it level with the glass. Once this step is done, I drill into the cured pit fill and proceed as usual. The key is to use very thick pit resin, as that will not hamper the repair, since it wont be absorbed into the break.

[Bill D]

Hi Grace,
The only thing I can add is to immediatly place your curing tab, before the resin starts to seep into the break. Heard from Crackman? He and Johnny have disappeared-guess they got real jobs!

[sunshine wr]

I also like to use the pit fill then drill method but I like to leave the pit resin on the glass until I'm done and then scrape it all off. I found when I scraped before-hand I would get leakage between the glass and cured pit resin, which caused problems during pressure and vaccum cycles.

[gold star windshield repair]

Sunshine, that's a great tip. I will try it next time. Thanks

Bill D, havent seen anything from Crackman or Johnny in quite a while. Dont know what's happening with them. Mabye they are just lurking and have nothing to say LOL.

[Gr8tTech]

I agree with gold star...Thats the best method i've found.

[Bois]

I'm retrieving an old thread on large pits.

Yesterday I had a 3/4" bulls-eye with small legs that turned 90 degrees. There was a 1/4" pit that was deep. I think the pit may have exposed the laminate but not sure. I filled the pit with pit resin, cured and scraped. I then drilled a hole and proceeded as usual. The bulls-eye itself filled with resin but I couldn't get resin to fill all the legs. My thought is that when I first filled the large pit I sealed off the cracks/legs thus resin would not enter. Any thoughts?

Dale...

[sunshine wr]

Use the thickess pit resin you have, have your curing light on and ready, then place pit resin, cure tab and cure light quickly to prevent resin from flowing to deep into damage.

[mafsu]

I would guess that you didn't get resin into the legs. With a pit that deep you may have simply closed them off with the pit resin. After curing and scraping the pit, you probably needed to pop a bullseye to allow for another channel for the resin to flow to the legs through. This can be tricky with a pit that is open down to the laminate but can be done by popping at an angle instead of perpendicular to the glass.

[ChipDoctor]

From the NWRA Recommended Practices for windshield repair. Note the 9th recommendation.

Windshield repair is not recommended under the following circumstances:

Damage penetrating both layers of laminated glass

Damage with three or more extended long cracks

Damage or crack contaminated by chemicals which inhibit repair

Damage or crack on the inside layer of glass

Damage or crack that is dirty

Damage or crack in a heated wiper rest area

Damage or crack in a fully heated windshield

Damage with pit size larger than 3/8 of an inch (9.525 mm.)

Damage with pit depth to the laminate

Cracks that run through the acute area of the windshield

Edge cracks that intersect more than once with an edge

Stress cracks

Bulletproof windshields

Regards,

Mike Burstein
Dominion Windshield Repair Inc
http://www.ChipDr.com