Dust in cracks

[belize]

Hi, I'm very new to WSR. Just on the practicing stage. I need help. I've done repairs on cracks however, the cracks still seem to show because of dust. So, what is the best way to remove dust from cracks. After the repair it seems that the crack is not repaired. Please, I need help. I want to do exellent repairs.

[GlassStarz]

cant be done run away from the old cracks the failure rate is huge

[screenman]

I assume that because you are at the practise stage that you are making these cracks yourself therefore they are unlikely to have dust in. I hope you do not mind me asking but do you know what air left in the crack looks like. Cracks account for about 20% of my work but I also will not touch one that has dirt in it which can easily be seen before you start the repair.

[belize]

Thanks for the response. I'm new to WSR. I just got the Maxim sytem form GT Glass Technology, it works great. I want to practice a lot before I start doing jobs for the public. I believe that air in cracks looks like little bubbles, right? I'm from Belize Central America, and most of the repairs will be cracks with dust in them as most of our roads are dirt road. So, if I tell the customers that long cracks with dust in them cannot be done then they will think that I'm a flake. Do you know of any equipment that could remove dust from the windshield? I will really appreciate your advice.

thanks: belize

[repare-brise]

Hello

One thing that works with moderate success is a pressure washer. For an older crack I have the customer spend 10-15 mins in the crack with a pressure washer, allways working from the same end. This will remove most of the dust, Seeing your location a few hours in the sun should be enough to dry the crack out, then repair as normal. Before I do a crack I do a test sample for the customer. To do this I put a drop of very thin resin on the crack and cover it with a curing strip. Doing this fills a 1-2 inch section of the crack, allow to cure then scrape off excess resin and show to customer for approval. Do the test in the center of the crack, so that your crack resin will bond the glass correctly on either side, also doing it in the center give the customer an average to decide on(new end of crack will be cleaner, older end may be dirtier).

Merci

[GlassStarz]

Ones afraid people will think he is a flake because he is honest with them as to what WR,s capabilitys are. He lives in a poor area and is trying to eak out a living cant blame him for trying
The other has people pumping high pressure water into the break because he thinks he can fix anything hmm whats that sound? I think my flake detector just went off
Trying to fix old cracks is bad for our buisness the environmental contamination will prevent proper bonding thus resulting in high failure rates which results in bad word of mouth on the street regarding WR. They may look good short term but the simple fact of the mater is they will invariably fail! there is too much legit work out there to try to work on the impossible its just plain bad for our buisness!
On this forum people complain about the quality of others repairs and how poor ones are bad for our buisness but tolerate someone who would sugest to a customer to pressure wash the crack? there goes my flake detector again

[CPR]

That should get the fur flying................................

[Layne]

I don't think that Yvan deserved that comment.

[Sneck]

I use to have an old glass mechanix repair manual and video from the 80's that did infact suggest cleaning a long crack with a pressure washer.

I have not actually used a pressure washer, but never the less - it was in the training.

I recently saw an infomercial on television (actually I think it was QVC) and they were selling these very small hot water/steam pressure washers that you can use in the kitchen and bathrooms. To me, it looked like it would make a big mess in the house, but who knows, it might be something that might work for cleaning long cracks in windshields.

[repare-brise]

No need to worry I am used to those types of comments from our friend in Vermont. I should mabey specify that I don't do repirs at all costs, but when the PVD layer has not been affected and there is dirt in the crack(I have done cracks that were a year old and they didn't show, while others that are 2 weeks old are black as spades) that can be removed, why not repair. As long as the underlying bond to the PVB has not degraded(shown by whitening of the pvb, or bubbles forming along the crack) we can atleast try the repair. And as far as crack failure goes, the ones that I have had failed have been moisture related, not dirt. Finally as I mentioned in the previuos post I do a test section to see the effects of the repair, and this also serves to determine the amount of dirt in the crack, and its propensity to repair.

Merci