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What were big mistakes you had as a rookie?

Posted: April 10th, 2014, 9:57 am
by Windshield911
I remember doing my training on what seemed like pretty simple vehicles with step dad and got on at a Chevy dealership. When I felt I had enough experience I did my 2nd or 3rd windshield for a customer on a Tacoma and freaked out when I realized there was no place to put a setting block. Also around that same time someone called me who had a ws replaced by another company out of town while they were on vacation that was leaking at headliner. I checked it out and could see a hole in urethane bead. Got my plastic paddle and dabbed thane on it, pulled headliner back trying to be careful. I even had paper towls covering the fabric but thane got on papertowls and then the fabric of headliner. Before I realized it all of it smeared into the fabric about the size of half dollar. I was mortified. Told customer to give a few days and I went back out with tape and most of it pulled up. Fortunately he was pretty cool about it. Dumb mistakes, though as my step dad has correctly pointed out, in auto glass, you're never done making mistakes, you finally just start limiting mistakes.

Re: What were big mistakes you had as a rookie?

Posted: April 10th, 2014, 4:30 pm
by pa glass
I remember roping in a slider and it was backward.

Re: What were big mistakes you had as a rookie?

Posted: June 13th, 2015, 11:19 am
by schotz1
Back in the day we had to glue the rear view mirror mount on the winshield. Yep, I glued one upside down. I mounted the mirror upside down and customer never did notice. The slow learner that I am, I mounted one flipped over so the taper was the wrong way. No way to mount the mirror would hang on that, so I glued another mount on top of the mount. Another customer that didnt notice. I guess we are the only ones that look at those kind of details. Sure glad the glass comes with them glued on now.

Re: What were big mistakes you had as a rookie?

Posted: June 14th, 2015, 10:20 pm
by Brent Deines
schotz1 wrote:Back in the day we had to glue the rear view mirror mount on the winshield. Yep, I glued one upside down. I mounted the mirror upside down and customer never did notice. The slow learner that I am, I mounted one flipped over so the taper was the wrong way. No way to mount the mirror would hang on that, so I glued another mount on top of the mount. Another customer that didnt notice. I guess we are the only ones that look at those kind of details. Sure glad the glass comes with them glued on now.
Many rookies have made that mistake. A torch or heat gun can be used to remove rather than gluing another over the top if you are careful.

Re: What were big mistakes you had as a rookie?

Posted: June 17th, 2015, 4:45 pm
by Glasseye
Back in the late seventies, most windscreens(UK) were still made of toughened glass, so they would shatter into thousands of pieces like most doorglasses do now. I was called out to replace a windscreen on a small truck about fifteen miles from my depot. The truck was parked outside of a shopping centre, with lots of people watching what was happening. I had fitted many windscreens to this type of truck before, so I knew exactly how to fit it. So I rolled up in my shiny new van and proceeded to clear the cab of glass debris and prepare the frame for fitting at the same time explaining to the increasing crowd of people, what I was going to do. I felt like one of those guys you see demonstrating at an exhibition, showing how it is done the professional way. Then came the key point, where I climbed onto the truck with the new windscreen, to start fitting. Just as I began to fit the glass it dropped! and the bottom edge landed on a wiper shaft. With a mighty bang, it exploded and I was left holding a handful of glass in my left and right hand ( I was wearing PPI). There was a stunned silence from the crowd followed very quickly by reels of laughter, with me standing on the front of the truck, motionless, holding my arms in the position where the screen used to be. To add to my embarrassment I then had to do a 30 mile round trip to get another screen and complete the replacement. That was not a good day!

Re: What were big mistakes you had as a rookie?

Posted: June 18th, 2015, 11:51 pm
by benswindshieldrepair
Running out of supplies...like pinch-weld primer. Not charging my batteries (mobile work). Not understanding certain trim moldings the first time I did a certain car and causing costly mistakes by breaking stuff... Not taking into consideration a sun baked black hood when doing a set and burning the hell out of my arm while doing the set, resulting in a poorly set and leaking windshield. The list goes on. Like someone said before, you simply minimize your mistakes. In this ever-changing business, its hard to be perfect 100% of the time, regardless of what some people on the AGRR forum and on here will say, being the Saints of auto glass that they may claim to be. However, I am someone who makes it RIGHT EVERY TIME. So everyone of my mistakes is not simply walked away from. I PAY for them.

Re: What were big mistakes you had as a rookie?

Posted: June 19th, 2015, 12:50 pm
by Brent Deines
Ha, an honest technician...who knew? I'm afraid my list would be too long to post here but you certainly reminded me of a few I had been trying hard to forget. Like you Ben, I've made many, many, mistakes along the way but I took ownership of them, paid for them, and learned from them. Still learning!