What a finished Repair Should look like!

[Coitster]

[font=Times New Roman]Hello Everyone,[/font]

[font=Times New Roman]I wanted to finally put another post of the forum. Specifically about what chips should look like when they have been fixed correctly. I use that term loosely because many people have different opinions about the final results of a windshield repair. In the 12 years I have been in this business I have seen literally tens of thousands of chip repairs and I almost always cringe when I hear these famous words come from a repair person

[mafsu]

Excellent Post

[repare-brise]

Excellent post, in my sales literature we state that we improve the appearence by 75-95%, and we achieve this. I will not charge a customer if I can see the chip with my knees on the front bumper(flat face trucks excluded), unless I warned the customer beforehand that it would not look too good(like a 2" combo with a 1/2" pit) but would be structural. Our goal is allways 100% but this is unfortunatly rare, what we do achieve 95% of the time is what I call the drop. A finished repair generally lloks like a dried drop of water, that is too say a spot that is not a shinny as the glass surrounding it. If I could find a pit polish that is as shinny(reflective)as glass when done I would achieve 100% more often. What we don't tolerate are black spots, reflections, rings and other internal blemishes, with the exception of the pit a repair should be optically clear. The surface of the repair should be smooth, level, and clear.

Merci

[ARG]

Right on the money Coitster.

You would be surprised at the number of people who have told me that a repair doesn't look any different after the repair is made. What gets me is most dealers here worry more about how cheap they can get a repair done, rather than how good it will look.

ARG

[GlassStarz]

They should look better and most importantly look green in you wallet
I think the 3 biggest mistakes that cause the break to look no better are failure to open the break and get resin in, Failure to cycle enough, Not leaving the injector on long enough. or a combination of all 3 SLOW DOWN! is my advice to those whose repairs dont look very good

[Sneck]

Fantastic post Coitster!

I will bet you i'm not alone when I say this... but I find bullseyes and most combo breaks to be pretty easy and straight forward to repair, and not much danger in cracking out during a repair, and they always turn out excellent because for the most part they are just one big air pocket to fill.

...However, Star breaks on the other hand have always been the evil one. There is not just one big air pocket to fill, there are several nooks and cranny's to fill and all of them are not necessarily tied to the main body of the break. I have really never been completely satisfied with my star break repairs.

Don't get me wrong, I certainly don't feel like I am doing a bad job, just that it needs to be better. For example, no matter how many legs a star break has, it seems that there is always one leg that just doesn't want to fill, so I work at it and work at it. I give it lots of time, and lots of cycles. Finally when the stubborn leg fills it never seems to fill 100%.

When I look at a repaired star break at several angles, I can tell what is filled and what is not. After hanging out on this forum, I have come to realize that my biggest problem on star breaks was probably using heat. But I also think that I am somewhat petrified of flexing too much for fear of cracking out my customers windshield. I flex with my thumb, I have flexed with the eraser-end of a pencil, but overall I think my star-breaks need to be better.

I would love to get some formal training, but just can't do it now (hopefully in the future). Can anyone share tips and experiences they have in getting the best possible star-break repair in both hot weather, cold weather. How hard do you flex? Exactly what part of the break do you flex. Do you flex from both inside and outside? etc etc etc.

I am sure there are others like me that may feel the same way about how their star-breaks turn out.

Sneck

[sunshine wr]

First off my repairs are definatly in the 80-95% range, but for customer satisfaction sake I don't think you should use words or phrases such as invisible, disappear or completely gone. Then when you're done and the customer uses these words and phases that's great! Setting the customer's exspectations will also have a lot to do with the outcome of the repair .

[mafsu]

Sneck,
I use a probe at the point closest to the pit (or injector) as you can get on the leg. You will see it open up and then as you hold it open you will see the resin flow down the leg. a stubborn leg may require 2 or three cycles of flexing. Each cycle will get resin further along the leg. How hard to flex is a matter of feel start light and slowly add pressure until the leg opens up. This takes some practice, but once you get the feel down it's like riding a bike.

[Coitster]

Mafsu I also flex the cracks or legs coming out of the side of the injector, but I flex both the inside part of the leg and the outside part of the leg about 1/8 of an inch past the end of the crack. What really works well is to flex and hold. I will maintain pressure for up to 90 seconds sometimes and WOW do they turn out nice. Great to hear that others are flexing too.
David
Coitster

[Jeremiahswindshieldrepair]

I don't ever flex ... it is a good technique it is just something I never do outside of longer cracks. I actually think I will start using it nwo that you guys have brought it to my attention. However I have almost always been able to fill a star break to where the arms are completely full. I don't leave a repair where they are not filled as it is basically not a finished repair. If an arm has air in it there is still a chance it can move. That is not the same for the impact point area or "base" of the chip. Sometimes on extreme days (90+ or 35-) I will choose to take my bridge off as soon as the arms are fixed on some sensitive chips as I don't want the arms to move. There may still be some black in the center but I figure running the risk of splitting the windshield for a small cosmetic blemish on a very hot day is just not worth it. I explain the choice to the people and almost always they agree that if the arms are filled, and the chip splits from the ends of the arms, that leaving a black spot in the middle, which is inconsequential, is better than a split windshield. I also always set their expectations to be less than realistic because they come in more than realistic and then they are surprised when it turns out better than I told them it would (hopefully that made sense LOL). They think it will be 100% better meaning no sign of it at all, I tell them that it is not a cosmetic procedure but it will look better probably 75-80% better. Then when it turns out 85-95% better they are happy with it.

But really though .... how do we judge a percentage of improvement? There is no real way to judge. I say 85-95% better only because if I did not people would think my quality was bad .... every star break I do you can still see the "shadow" of where the crack was, except the very rare star that maybe happened that day and was taken care of right away. Honestly though, if you can still see a pit and the arms of the break isn't it really only like 50% better? Didn't we only just change the color of the arms from black to clear and only clear if you look at it from the side? To me it makes absolutely no difference whether you call it 10% or 50% or 95%. I fill a chip until the arms have no air in them and my customers thank me when they leave. if you do not fill all the arms you are not doing a good service and you need to be trained to be able to view the chip form the side ... but doggonit you better call it 95% better or bygolly you won't be cool


end of rambling...