a very long crack

[suzuki]

how can i repair a crack that runing down from the top of the w/s.the crack is to long and i told my friend that is unreparable but what he want me to do is put resin in the very last 2 inches of the crack and then put a film on top of the w/s so he can sell the car like that.the crack has no impact point in any direction and i know that i has to drill the end of the crack but to put resin on it is the problem.is that posible?i told him that he has to put a new w/s but he ask me to tried to repair it.any advise will be apreciated.

[bjebberger]

Sounds like a stress crack to me. If it is than it will crack out again.

[Bois]

Occassionally I'm ask to stop a long crack from spreading further. This is usually on a w/s that should be replaced or the crack is too old/dirty to fully repair. I will drill a small hole into the crack about half inch from the end of the crack and insert resin. I'll allow the resin to seep into the crack as far as it will go and then cure. Then I go back and pop a small bullseye at the very end of the crack as usual and fill. A forum friend shared his experience with this method. I don't warrant the repair and charge half my normal fee.

Dale...

[GlasWeldTech]

Bois,
That is a good tip and I have never tried it that way. Do you have ay data that lets you know if any of these repaired continued later after you did this?

[screenman]

I have been working for some of my customers 18 years and have always done long crack repair. Yes if done properly they will hold and I always charge the top price. Long cracks are not hard it just takes a bit of practise.
I always train the techs that come to me on cracks of at least 10 inches.

A good clean crack is as easy if not easier to fill than some batswings that a lot of people have problems with.

Just get a practise glass and practise.

I might have been the one that hinted at drilling a hole close to the edge of the screen I have certainly mentioned it before on here, it is what we call a cleat hole.

I always drill and pop the end of any crack over 3 inches and after this I do another 1/2 inch from the end of the crack so a total of 3 drill holes.

The middle of these 3 holes, the one 1/2 inch from the end is the one I fill from.
The reason I do not fill from the end one is that it is the tightest area of the crack and will be slow to allow resin to feed to the rest of the crack. by filling from the fill hole the resin will flow both ways slowly to the end and fast down the rest of the crack. I will then chase the resin down or up or whatever normaly with a hand held injector or just the tip of the resin bottl,being careful not to get in front of the flow.

Now this is the way I do it it may not be your way nor am I telling anyone to copy me it just works for me and my customers.

You may well do it different and if it works that is great.

You must charge more for long cracks so that the customer does not get into the habit of ignoring small chips because he knows you will only charge him or her a small amount for doing the large crack.

Punish them for leaving it and letting it get bigger, but do not give it away to the replacement guys.

[glassdoctor]

Interesting, screenman... what is the purpose of the 3rd hole at the edge of the screen? I don't recall hearing that one before.

If I follow you it looks like this correct?

-o------------------------------------o---o

[Sneck]

I'm intrigued. I have never done it that way but I could certainly see how it works. And I'm with Glassdoctor... what's the 3rd hole near the screen edge for?

Myself,... I have always repaired long cracks starting from the tip where I pop a mini and fill from there and chase it down the lenghth of the crack. It is slow at first because you are right - the tip is the tightest, but once the resin starts flowing, the rest is a piece of cake.

[Bois]

GlasWeldTech,
I know of only 1 customer who called 4 months later to say it cracked further (one of my earlier repairs). This was after a cold snap. I don't have available data on how many cracks that I just stopped without filling completely.

Dale...

[repare-brise]

For re-cracking our stats show 6% (on average we do 100 or so cracks a week of variuos lengths). The ones that fail can generaly be traced to technician error. The errors include, improper moisture removal, failure to detect contaminants(rain x, WS washing fluids containing teflon, silicone ect), and improper curing(not long enough). We repair cracks of any length, and length has no bearing on the durability of crack repair.

At Your Service

[screenman]

Glassdoctor.

The reason for the third hole is mainly one of strenght, due to the fact that on a lot of cracks you cannot get resin or cure to the end of the crack under the trim or seal. This hole stops the crack from spreading from the edge of the screen. I think my failure rate is less than Repare-brise.

Also when drying a wet crack moisture will be dragged in from around the seal I find this hole helps to stop that happening.

Thanks to all those who read and remark on my postings it makes the effort worth while.