Lost confidence

[jaydog]

After spending $2000. in equipment, training, business licenses in two cities, and $500,000 liabilty insurance, along with business cards, flyers, UV bubble, business checking account, I was finally ready to go make money. I've done about eight repairs free of charge for family and friends while I built up confidence and practice. The other day, my next door neighbor said I can repair her large star break in the center of her 1994 Crown Victoria. I went over there with my truck, gear, and my newly made up invoices with my company name and waiver on them. I figured very easy repair. I began with star fill resin in a vacuum mode with my GM injector after I cleaned the pit with my probe. Had my neighbor sign the waiver without really explaining results or potential problems. Break would'nt fill on a warm day, so I added a little heat. ONE OF THE LEGS SHOT OUT A CRACK ABOUT 6 INCHES LONG!!! I tried to drill and popped a mini bullseye to try and fix the crack. THINGS JUST GOT WORSE!! I gave up, told my neighbor it was too unstable. I made it look bad. The neighbor was upset and so was I. Now I have to live next door to these people. Obviously didn't charge anything. MY CONFIDENCE WAS SHOT TO HELL!! So my friend calls two days later with a small combo in his wife's Honda Civic. So small you can barely see it. I did the repair which didn't look much better than before. I was afraid to put heat on it for fear of another crack out. DID N'T CHARGE HIM EITHER!! i FEEL LIKE SELLING MY GEAR AND TRYING SOMETHING ELSE!! ANY THOUGHTS???

[maxryde]

Jaydog, easy does it man, the good days out number the bad!! Remember that cosmetics are second to restoring strength to a damaged shield. You should allways bill if you have completed the repair in a situation like that, as long as your certain that the thing was entirely filled the repair is going to save the shield and your customer if you preped them correctly will thank you!!
Last week I had a crack come on a real sensitive star on this 200.000$ pusher Sit happens, I explained to my customer that I couldn't stop in the middle of fixing the thing to go get him and finished the repair. He looked at the finished repair and I told him that it was free if he was not 100% satisfied. Well guess what he paid for it and had me fix two more so you never know. Just be patient with yourself and it'll work out! Best to ya. Scott

[Jeremiahswindshieldrepair]

Sounds like maybe you just got unlucky right up front. That certainly happens to everyone but not too often and usually not right upfront on your first few repairs. I have broken out 2 shields in 1 day before and both were due to heat. I would only heat things that are either wet or when the windshield is under 50-60 degrees and then only slightly to just heat it up to 70-90. GM should have taught that to you in the training though. Did you go through a course on how to use the equipment? If so they should have told you to be sparing with the heat. Also sometimes people say not to drill a chip but there are a great number of chips that won't fill right without drilling. I at least surface drill every chip, which means instead of using a probe to clean out the broken glass, use a drill and go just a tad deeper than surface but not making a spiralling hole to the laminate. Hopefully that was clear to you. If you do not drill on some of them you just won't get results. Also when you were at the class they should have told you how to prep people for differing results and how to notice when a chip is done and when it is not.

[jaydog]

Scott and Jeremiah, thanks so much for your responses. I do feel better now. I agree I just had a bad start. I will continue to go forward. I guess I was just too confident about the perfection of my first few repairs. I need to be more patient. And yes GM did tell me what to explain to the customers, I just didn't think this would happen to me, especially at first. I agree that some need to be drilled, at least a little bit to fill properly. Thanks again, Jay

[GlassStarz]

If the leg wouldnt fill on a warm day why would you then add heat? cool will open a leg heat will close it. next time try some alcohol/water in a spray bottle or turn on the air. adding heat under pressure will only cause major nitemares. Trial and error and a couple days in the wrecking yard will do wonders for the ego.

[jeff2]

Read your post jaydog before heading out today and boy can I sympathize. I am new also, so I know where you are coming from.... anyway I went to friends house to get more "practice" and fix a star, I am in Tucson AZ and it was a warm day, about 90 degrees. It was going well and while flexing one leg that did not seem to be filling BAM that leg cracked about 5" and another leg on the other side cracked about 2". Man was I felling down. :eusa_doh: I gather myself up off the garage floor and came up with a plan to drill the long one and attempt my first long crack repair, oh yeah I called Delta Kits to make sure I was coming up with the correct plan of action. Well long story short (about 2+ hours later) I believe I have stabilized the glass and I have learned from the "no charge" experience. Hang in there!

[gold star wsr]

I advise every newbie to practice, practice, practice ... get you a scrap windshield from an installment shop and practice until everything feels like second-nature to you. You can simulate stars with a spring-loaded center punch, and make bull's eyes with a steel bead on a thick rubber band (hold it like a sling shot and let go). Set a goal for yourself of a certain number of successful repairs without a crack-out ... its up to you ... but I would say about 100 is reasonable. Learning windshield repair takes time and patience, just like anything else worth while, and you have to be prepared for a certain amount of difficulty. Dont get discouraged, and dont be disappointed. This is how we learn. Go back over that repair in your mind, and talk yourself through it, trying to determine what you could have done differently to produce a more suitable outcome.... was the glass too hot? did you apply too much pressure ? did you lean too hard on the probe ? And maybe it was none of those things. Maybe it was the unstable condition of the glass... it was, after all, broken already when you started the repair. Some glass is just cheap... and old glass gets brittle, especially if it has been exposed continuously to the elements and air pollution. Even seasoned veterans lose some now and again. Just last week I had one ''run'' on me. I managed to get it stopped before it went too far. It's a humbling experience, that's for sure. Hang in there, jay.

[repare-brise]

JAydog

Hang in there, it's not the end of the world. As mentioned above heat is like drilling, use only when absolutly nessecary. Also learn to recognize an existing repair. unfortunatly not all techs are as good as the posters here. I have seen some repairs that are nothing more than a hole drilled in the WS with a bit of resin in the hole, the legs are as resin free as when the rock hit the shield. The star with the legs that would not fill may have been one of these. I have customers call me to fix there WS just to get there and find out it had been previously "repaired" by a tech that wanted to change the glass, hence the poor repair. These can usually improved, but it requires both drilling and heat, and good repair circumstances. As you have now learned heat is a last resort. As mentioed by others go to the local pick and pay and look at the WS's, repair and experiment. When I do training my trainee's do atleast 25-30 repairs plus cracks, and I do some bad repairs(replacement tech style) for them to re-do and get a feel for that style of work. Remeber practice makes perfect.

Enjoy

[Sneck]

Jaydog, you now have valuable experience! I remember the day when I was bran new to ws repair years ago, and felt "over-confident" after doing numerous perfect repairs. I cracked out a windshield during a vaccum cycle on a combination break. When it cracked out my heart pounded hard and I felt a lump in my throat. I felt like putting my tail between my leggs and go home and never do ws repair again. I was really upset. In fact I think I was more upset than my customer was. I learned from my mistake - that being too hot of windshield, not cooling it down, and not really knowing first hand yet what could happen under certain conditions.

Back then I felt alone and on my own (that was before this forum was around). But with this forum, you have all the moral support (and tech support) you will need to do better and move forward.

We all need to have experiences like that to keep ourselves in check. So now go out there and do the best you can do. Kick some butt over your competition. Do something that your customers would never expect. Serve them the best you can and things will all come into place.

Sneck

[cure4glass]

Jaydog,
I've got one that'll make you feel better.This happened when I first started quite a few years ago but I learned a few lessons from it that have been very useful since.I got a call from a News Anchor close to where I live to do a repair for her.She was at a Suit shop buying clothes and wanted me to do it while she was shopping.No problem.I felt Somewhat "honored" to be doing the repair for the local news anchor. I thought if I can do a good job for her she'll get my name out to some more of the "celebs" in town.
The repair was a dime sized starburst about 1-1/2 or 2" from the top of the glass,No problem I thought.I began the repair process and I relaized pretty quick that at this pace she was gonna be through shopping well before I was done.This was gonna be a stubborn repair. I was'nt nearly as patient then as I am now so I resorted to using heat(with a bic) from the inside ,flexing some too and the legs just kept reappearing.I was hoping she would'nt come out of the store and see me frustrated with no results.Now, as if I needed to be stalled any longer a guy pulls up and wants me to look at a chip on his car.I looked at it and told him I could'nt get to it until the next day, first because I did'nt want him hanging around to see how hard I was struggling to fix the one I was already working on , and secondly I just did'nt have the confidence at that moment.So I scheduled him for the next day and he went along.I get back to my stuborn starburst after probably ten minutes of talking with the guy and WOW- the legs are filled in and I am proud.I put my curing tab on and began to cure.While I'm waiting around for the repair to cure I clean the remainder of the shield as I always do still. I then get in the car, remove my mirror and begin wiping the interior glass when I realize I smell something Burning.I look up and the entire front seam of the headliner had singed it's way end to end and was just about to drop.I panicked! I grabbed my spray bottle and stopped the burning.This was gona be my real first real public relations test.I took my UV lamp off of the repair (which turned out great by the way)and put my equipment up.I had no idea what this was about to cost but I do know it could have easily been worse, like a total loss of the vehicle had I not have got back inside and discovered the singing-still making it's way across the cab.The first thing I did was call my friend at the body shop.he gave me a quote of $170 to come to any location convenient to her and replace it.That was good information to hear .Now I had to go inside the Suit shop feeling about two inches tall , find her and explain what happened.I was now thinking that if a good job would get me some referrals there's no telling how many I'll lose because of this.I found her and told her that as a result of the repair being so close to the roof of the vehicle and as a part of the process it was over exposed to heat in that sensitive area and began to singe....I was probably babbling nervously trying to sound intelligent..I told her I'd be glad to pay the cost to have it repaired at her convenience wherever she liked, but if she did'nt have a preference I'd like to use so and so( the guy I called) . She was so understanding and could not have been nicer about it.My friend's interior guy went to her house( I was glad he did'nt go to the Television station where she anchored-She'd have to explain the whole thing for sure to her co-employees I thought).
I did not charge for that repair.I lost $170 for the headliner, $40(at the time) for the repair,and a lot of pride. But for that $210 I learned some things too.Oh yeah, this is the incident that prompted me to go ahead and get the insurance.
I haven't done any more for the news anchor, but I have done a couple through the years for her husband and for one cameraman at that particular station so Apparently she did'nt talk to bad about me.
Jaydog, Keep your head up, practice all you can and one day these bad days will be a distant memory.