Windshield Repair Forum

I prefer working with warm glass, so if the glass was 67 degrees I would would warm it to 80+ degrees before starting the repair and keep it at that temperature throughout the repair process if possible. Overheating can cause glass to expand and close cracks, but common guys, anyone who works in a warm climate is successfully repairing windshields that are 100 degrees on a regular basis. That is not to say that you should not be able to repair a break at 67 degrees, but if both the glass and resin are a little warmer the process will be faster when using the Delta Kits system.

Yes, drilling is occasionally necessary, but I rarely, rarely ever drill, and when using the Delta Kits system you should not have to either.

There is no harm in leaving your Delta Kits injector in the pressure cycle for 10-15 minutes, but you should not need to do so. In most cases 5 minutes is plenty. I've been keeping an eye on how long my technicians are taking to do repairs, and on average they take about 20 minutes start to finish. In fact, we had a semi come in for 2 tight star breaks this week and for some reason one of my sales reps did the repairs. He was done with both breaks in about 15 minutes and both breaks had filled perfectly with no drilling. The repairs were done outside and the air temperature was around 55-60 degrees. I'll have to ask if he used heat or not. We also had a 6" crack come in this week and they had that job completed in about 25 minutes. The customer had just replaced the windshield when she got the rock chip that caused the crack so she was thrilled that we were able to fill it and that it looked so good when completed.

My point is not that you should rush your repairs, or that all repairs can be done in a certain amount of time, but that you seem to be getting farther and farther off track from what you learned in training, and I think that may cause you to continue to have problems. I know you spoke with Korey the other day, but I fear there must still be some small thing that we are overlooking as you should not be having that much trouble filling star breaks, even the tight ones. When you get some time please give us a call so we can go over everything again. There should be no reason you cannot get the same results we are getting since we are using the same system.

Candyman, Korey and Brent's instructions have made this 7 yr wsr vet refocus my lazy ways of proper procedure for injector tightening. I believe my repairs are better than average, but since I have refocused my procedures(per Korey) the last two days my repair time is down and the aesthetics of my repairs are better. As you do more repairs it will be easier to identify what chips may cause problems and determine whether drilling/popping is the proper option. In my eyes drilling is not bad, it just takes away from the final aesthetics. Keep practicing and soon chips will be routine with the ocassional head scratcher to keep your ego in check. It happens to all of us, keep your head/confidence up.

OK, I've got a little egg on my face here. My sales rep that did the two repairs on the semi earlier this week did in fact drill, not one, but both breaks. Apparently one had an air pocket that was completely disconnected and the other one was just very tight, so he drilled it just to be on the safe side. I would like to say that I would not have drilled the second one, but not having seen it before it was repaired I can't make that judgment call, so all I can do now is apologize for posting misinformation. Although unintentional, I should have checked my facts first.

Brent! I went back and read the manual with the kit and my notes from class. I may have put too much pressure on the injector by over turning. I remember turning one time, setting the back legs and then turning injector one more time. Howver, when I was on top of that truck I could only use one hand and I noticed I pulled the injector off the surface of the glass, when I switched from pressure to vacuum mode. so I turned the injector another turn to reseal it prior to going back to the pressure mode, because i saw a little Mbond leak out from under the injector. This may very well have contributed to my problem by allowing air back under the injector. The Vehicle was parked next to a wall. I didn't have room for a ladder. I had to stand on the high step of the truck and sit on the fender. They were loading the truck and couldn't move it. I have 2 windshields to repair tomorrow, and I will see if they are better. If not I will call next week and talk to Jonathan, Bruce or Korey. I will also do a few more repairs on my Practice WS.

I repaired 2 WS yesterday. Both WS were above 115 degrees F. I open the truck doors and cooled down the repair area with my heat exchanger from Deltakits to about 93*F - 96*F. I got a magnifying glass also. I drilled on both breaks, same hole because the air pockets did not appear to be penetrated by the break. Both filled within seconds and the repairs were almost invisible except for the small drill blemish. Even that was very faint. Both owners were happy and the breaks appeared to be about 95% or better. I made my adjustments as shown in class when mounting the bridge. I have a question. Do many of you get request to repair small nicks on the WS glass? I used a drop Of Mbond & a drop of Pit resin and cured several on the first WS around the break area. He said he was following a truck uncovered with a load of gravel. They turned out fine and was sealed. He called me back to ask if I could do the same for his other vehicles. How much do you charge for something like that? Some were no bigger than the head of a hat pin. I showed the owner a brochure I had from NWRA stating that nicks were ok and was normal and posed no danger to the WS. He is more concerned with how The WS looks. Have a great day guys, and thanks for all the information. Still learning!

I posted an incident a few weeks ago about a man that called me reference hitting a bird, and breaking his WS. He instead hit a Turkey at 80mph on an Interstate. His windshield was knocked into the cab of the Tahoe. His transmission was also damaged. I couldn't figure out how the WS caused damage to his transmission and so did his insurance company. As it turns out, the turkey not only damaged the WS, but ripped the dash board back from the window slicing the speed odometer cable. The cable is linked to the transmission and will not change gears untill the vehicle reaches a certain speed. The insurance company approved his repairs on Friday. Live and learn! Candyman

I was also having a number of "crack outs" taking place. After several conversations with Korey and Brent, it seemed there were 2 probable causes:
1. Almost every crack out happened when using the "moisture evaporator" on a WS that was too cool (I carry a heavy duty extension cord and a hair drier and use it to SLOWLY warm up the WS before using the moisture evaporator).
2. Applying too much pressure on the injector (screwing it down too far)
I was reminded that the recommended amount to screw the injector down, was 1/2 turn after first making contact with the WS and the "back legs" only require 2 turns after they first make contact with the WS.
I found this amount of pressure nearly eliminated cracks from spreading, and if the "body plate" is equal distance from the WS (at each "point" or corner), no resin leaks from the seal.
Don't know if this answers your question, but the DK staff's advice made my repairs much less nerve wracking.
David