Crack in middle of windshield.

[lordstanley13]

I had a customer call me today and she said she has a crack about the size of a dollar bill between the driver and passenger side. It is just above the wipers.

I told her I would go by there tomorrow and see if I could repair it.

I would like to know what any of your insights would be on tackling this job.

Do you drill at both ends? One end? Suggestions would be appreciated

[glassfixerCO]

I would drill both ends and fill the damage with crack resin until about 1/8 inch from each side of whatever rock chip started the crack. Then after curing the filled-in crack and mini bullseye/drill holes I would fill the rock chip with whatever resin is appropriate for it using an injector. If the rock chip is a bridge crack or small bullseye the capillary action of filling in the crack might be sufficient to fill it too without using an injector on it, but if it's a star-break I recommend the above process to avoid star-break legs being left un-filled. Also to make sure too much air isn't pulled into the injector while filling the star-break it might be necessary to put a little resin and some curing tabs over the parts of it that turned into the crack (the 1/8 inch parts left un-filled as mentioned above), before pulling a vacuum, to create a good seal.

[lordstanley13]

That is exactly how I performed it today. Thanks alot. It turned out great.

[glassfixerCO]

You're welcome. I'm glad it went well.

[toab]

I am thinking about going back to just straight drilling the ends of cracks as apposed to popping bulls as my popping has occasionally lengthened the cracks requiring another drill and pop.Just wondering how many still just drill n' fill.

[Brent Deines]

In case anyone missed it, Nomad had a great idea for a slide hammer. The challenge with popping bullseyes is selecting the right sized bur, the right size and shape of the point used to pop the bullseye, the right tool to use for a hammer, and how much force to use when you strike the blow. Mess up on any one of these things and you will have problems. Too small of a bur will result in chipping of the top surface of the glass, too small or sharp of a point will result in a tiny star break rather than a bullseye, using too heavy of a tool or striking the point with too much force will cause the crack to run or too large of a bullseye.

We played with dozens of different combinations and were having pretty good success and felt that we had the perfect combination until Nomad send me one of his slide hammers. It's absolutely amazing, and so far has produced near perfect results every time. I was so impressed that I struck up a deal with Nomad to allow Delta Kits to reproduce the tool. After months and months of testing and tooling we are finally very near to releasing the slide hammer to the general public.

Whether you buy it from Nomad or from Delta Kits I would highly recommend trying the slide hammer before giving up on popping bullseyes. I'm not an easy sell, but Nomad came up with a winner on this one.

If you want to read Nomad's original post on the subject please visit the following thread on the windshield repair forum.

windshield-repair/3312-preferred-tool-f ... ide+hammer

[maxryde]

In case anyone missed it, Nomad had a great idea for a slide hammer. The challenge with popping bullseyes is selecting the right sized bur, the right size and shape of the point used to pop the bullseye, the right tool to use for a hammer, and how much force to use when you strike the blow. Mess up on any one of these things and you will have problems. Too small of a bur will result in chipping of the top surface of the glass, too small or sharp of a point will result in a tiny star break rather than a bullseye, using too heavy of a tool or striking the point with too much force will cause the crack to run or too large of a bullseye.

We played with dozens of different combinations and were having pretty good success and felt that we had the perfect combination until Nomad send me one of his slide hammers. It's absolutely amazing, and so far has produced near perfect results every time. I was so impressed that I struck up a deal with Nomad to allow Delta Kits to reproduce the tool. After months and months of testing and tooling we are finally very near to releasing the slide hammer to the general public.

Whether you buy it from Nomad or from Delta Kits I would highly recommend trying the slide hammer before giving up on popping bullseyes. I'm not an easy sell, but Nomad came up with a winner on this one.

If you want to read Nomad's original post on the subject please visit the following thread on the windshield repair forum.

windshield-repair/3312-preferred-tool-f ... ide+hammer

Hey Brent, have you got any pictures yet? When will this tool be available? Thanks, Scott

[Brent Deines]

I don't have any photos yet, but hope to have product for sale by next week, and will get photos at that time. I had not intended on announcing this product on the windshield repair forum as I don't like to use the forum to sell products, but the timing was too good to pass up and I wanted to give Nomad public recognition for an exceptional idea. My only real contribution has been the ability to manufacture in large enough quantities to make the price a bit more attractive to windshield repair technicians, so Nomad gets all the credit.

I am still waiting for the final bill on the manufacturing before I set a retail price, but it will be affordable, especially when you consider that it replaces the probe, needle, and tapping tool that most technicians are now using. More importantly, the dang things just work unbelievably well. I passed a prototype around the office and let everyone play with it, and even those with no prior windshield repair experience popped perfect bullseyes every time.

I plan to make the slide hammer a part of every windshield repair system I sell in the very near future.

[maxryde]

Excellent!! So now can we change Nomads name to "the inventor of the slide hammer bulls eye popper"? Heh.

[toab]

Looks like Nomad should be able to retire off of the proceeds now.