UV lamp vs natural UV

[StarQuest]

I'm not sure what else to say here?

I can only tell the rest of you that UV lamp curing is a far better method than relying on natural UV for curing. Many of you think once the pit is cured the entire repair is cured. You couldn't be more wrong with these conclusions.

I personally cure every hit prior to ever capping it! Why? Simply because I know it takes longer to cure filled damage than a shallow pit.

How much longer? With the proper UV lamp I'd say 3-4 minutes. Pit will cure in less then 2 minutes! So what's the big deal here? You still can provide a quality repair in 10-15 minutes using a quality UV lamp.

I hate to say this..... but some of you veteran guys really confuse me at times! Taking short cuts to only shave minutes off a repair.

I'm open to your responses as always

[Jeremiahswindshieldrepair]

I still don't see any concrete advantage to curing under a lamp besides it cures faster ... I don't see any concrete advantage to curing faster either.

What I am interested in hearing is EXACTLY what will happen if my chip does not cure in just minutes inside the crack? I know you won't say it may break out because I think 15-20 thousand personally repaired chips and never having had that happen can easily disprove that theory. So that being the case what OTHER reason is there for going through the trouble? Also I don't cure under pressure I cure after I take the bridge off and apply pit resin and curing tape.

By the way I love "soft glove" discussions about touchy subjects ... I suppose it stems from my questioning myself and trying to refine everything I do all the time. I hold no sacred cows and I hold no grudges ... in no way does a disagreement about technique bring any ill will in my thinking toward anyone.

I have many things that i do that others do not or do not approve of:

I drill every chip* Not to the laminate more like cleaning a cavity, just the white part of the impact point

I don't use curing lamps

I don't use gloves

I don't use UV shields even when it is 100 degrees

I don't drill and tap long cracks .. I only drill them

I don't cure under pressure

I don't charge insurance rates for cash jobs

I don't probe or pick any chips

I don't use crack expanders because I don't FIX cracks .. I just stop them at the end

I don't use seperate resins for bullseyes, stars and cracks ... I use one resin Delta Kits Premium bond and it works for everything

I do use a torch style lighter ... which is a touchy subject with some people

I do fix chips in the drivers view

I do say FREE in my advertising

I do make time claims ... for instance, I can have that chip fixed in 10 minutes


Now if you want to find something to get mad at me about there is plenty of ammo right there... I know of at least 7 or 8 people that will be extremely offended at that list ... but we need to re-assess our dogmatic views from time to time. I would put my repair up against anybodies .. and I have the ability to do that since I train and have trained literally HUNDREDS of people in this industry on how to do rock chips. That doesn't make me any better than any of you other experienced techs .. it's just that I have seen ways that I thought were silly but they worked so I began to look twice at everyones techniques .. if we keep an open mind and don't say there is ONLY one way to do a quality repair I think we can learn and refine even after years of doing quality repairs. Fo rinstance I used to drill most chips to almost the laminate ... but now that I am doing the Marketing portion of the Delta Kits seminars and have seen and assisted in the equipment training portion several times, I have changed my view on drilling. They advocate a fairly strict no drilling policy and I advocate a fairly strict do drill policy for my employees.. I have now moved somewhere in the middle where we drill but not down like a hole , it is more of a light cleaning and no hole is drilled. That after training hundreds of people the other way and insisting it needs to be done with a significant drill hole to ensure an open and receptive chip. People open to learning can and do change regularly, not that I am suggesting anyone stop using a lamp but it certainly is an option.

[glassdoctor]

You guys (starq and jeremiah) are polar extremes. The truth lies in the middle.

A quality cure lamp is essential when natural light is not adequate. But a half hour before sunset in the winter is not the time to work without a lamp. But at 2:00pm in June on a sunny day you don't need a cure lamp. For you pressure cure addicts, yes the repair will cure in a few minutes all around the injector. Just leave some pit resin around the injector and see what happens.

Jeff already hit the truth when he said a good lamp is a known value vs. the variable strengh of the big fireball.

IMO, it's a good habit to always use a good cure lamp (not a AA powered one) except under obvious good natural sunlight conditions.

Sometimes I use a cure lamp even in mid-day in the summer because I'm hiding under the shade of my umbrella. You don't need a full 2-3 minutes... only 30-60 seconds to get a solid pit cure. The sun will finish curing if needed. My experience has been that 1-2 minutes makes a solid cure with a good light... the repair is strong... but an extra minute or two is good insurance if it's after sunset, etc... to make sure the repair is 100% done.

BTW, I would never tell a customer the repair isn't done curing and they need to baby it. That doesn't sound good, imo.

[glassdoctor]

Question on your "list"... only two seem peculiar to me...

You don't use any kind of UV screen? no rag, nothing?

You do cracks by only filling the tip and leave the rest unfilled with resin?

[Delta Kits]

Originally Posted by Jeremiahswindshieldrepair

I know you won't say it may break out because I think 15-20 thousand personally repaired chips and never having had that happen can easily disprove that theory.

Come on Brian!

That's like saying "I know I can't get hit by a car because i've crossed the street a ton of times and never have!"

First of all, if you admit that the chip is not fully cured, the risk between the time you worked on it and the time it was finally cured is no less than if you hadn't done any work at all. The chip will not break out once it is fully repaired, not before.

You're saving a couple minutes, at the expense of added risk, it's as simple as that. You may think because only one person has TOLD you it cracked out (which does not necessarily mean that was the only one that did it), that the risk is worth it. That's your judgement call.

I would recommend to everyone though, to spend the extra couple minutes with a good light, and not take that chance.

[Jeremiahswindshieldrepair]

The two items in question:

I use a rag sometimes when I have many repairs to do but usually in the warm sun I can fix a chip in very short order and have no need for a UV screen


question 2 .... I don't fix cracks .... I stop cracks .. big difference. When a crack is "fixed" you can still clearly see the crack and it even appears to have not been touched at certain angles. When I do a crack I let them know it is for solidity not aesthetics. I guarantee that it won't run from that position not that they won't be able to see it. No crack ever ran from the middle .. they run from the origin and the end .. I fill both of those.


Honestly I have given my opinion and will have nothing further to say about it. I honestly hadn't even heard of anyone using a light on every repair before this thread so it kind of shocked me to find that it is even a consideration. I don't care if someone wants to spend an extra 30 minutes and cure with a keychain laser ... it work great both ways and honest money can be made in both instances. We are all doing windshield repair as a way of making a good honest living and as long as both criteria are met it shouldn't matter how we get there.

[mafsu]

I preface this by saying that I almost always use a light on insurance jobs and vehicles that are being turned back to the manufacturer. I also do plenty repairs that I don't use a light on. Even if the repair is not completely cured when you scrape the pit(about 6 minutes for me). I'm not a chemist but you have provided the two ingredients necessary for curing light(as long as you have a uv index of 3 or above) and a lack of air as you have at least cured the outer portion of the pit resin. The resin surely will be cured in less than 15 minutes under these(very ordinary) conditions.

[Dave M]

Jeremiah,

The cracks that you don't repair but stop from cracking further.......will that windshield pass your state inspection?
Here in Maine, if a crack is over 4 inches long from the edge of the windshield and has not been REPAIRED, it will not pass inspection.
I don't repair a lot of cracks (nothing over 6") but the one's that I do repair are very difficult to see. Sort of like a fine hair is in the glass. I guarantee it passes inspection and will not crack further.

[sunshine wr]

I agree with Dave on the crack repair , I do the same.

[sunshine wr]

TO : Delta Kits do you guys really let Jeremiah do your training classes ?