Windshield Repair Forum

I did a repair yesterday that I had not practiced or seen before. Now I've only been repairing for less than a month, so me not seeing it doesn't mean much, but I haven't really even seen it mentioned.

Whatever hit the winshield didnt just hit it and cause an impact point, creating a star or bullseye. Whatever it was took out about a dime size chunk off the surfact, then a few real small legs ran from it. When I repaired it, the legs filled perfectly and the damage filled the surface area that was lost, but it really did not look good when it was done. Rather than just a tiny area with maybe 10-15% lost asthetics, it was definately a noticable "smudge". Looked like a dead bug, but permanent.

Did I mess the repair up? Maybe resin dried too fast due to outdoor repair (it was under covered parking and shaded)? Or with such a large surface area missing, will it not get to that 85-90% better?

After chatting with the customer we decided to have him drive it around for a day to see if it was a distraction or if sun would glare through it. I believe I'm a tougher critic than any customer could be, so I don't know if I'm over-reacting. I told him that if he's even slightly bothered or unhappy with it, the cost would be applied to the replacement and my time out there was free.

Any thoughts??

JAC

just my humble oppinion, i repaired a break about 6 months ago that is just as you described big chunk taken out. it was so bad that the base of my injector fit inside the break. i was able to fill the voids and cracks then use pit filler and a lot of thumb twiddling while i waited for all that resin to cure. remember you dont MAKE glass, your job is to bring back the structural integrity first and asthetics second. also remember your customer has been looking at that damage for some time so ANY improvement is most likely going to be a BIG improvement from where he's sitting.

second thing.. kudos bigtime for your work ethic and attention to detail.. with so many hack and whack repair "technicians" it says something very positive about you when a seemingly less then perfect repair weighs on your mind long after it's done. remember if you believe you brought back the structural safety to the shield and your customer is happy with the asthetics you've done your job.

Jac

There are a few things you can do to help when you have a large pit to fill. Fill it in steps, once it is all filled when you scrape it put one more layer of pit resin on it , but this time work it in with the plastic before curing. This last step helps to "fill" the pores of the pit resin making it clearer, the srape and plish as usual. Another alternative(but on that requires a bit of practice) is to lightly cover the pit resin with a last coat, but one so small that it requires no scraping after it's cured(this gives the clearest pit, but again is a skill to be developed).

At Your Service

This sounds quite labor intensive..I hope that you will be re-imbursed accordingly.