Windshield Repair Forum

let me start by telling everyone a little about myself..
i am looking into getting into ws repair..

i was looking at the delta kits.. the dingking(simular to GT)..
and whatever else i could find on ebay/google..

i went down to dingking and saw a few bullseyes getting worked on.

first off, they used a steel marble that had a rubber band through
it to do the impact. the impact was about quarter-sized or so.
there was definatly fine cracks/web cracks all over the impact point.

the demonstration used the dingking kit which is simular to the GT one.
they used the air vacum method(i guess). the job was done pretty
close to the GT glass dvd i've watched.

but the results really bothered my friend and I. the crack/bullseye was
indeed filled, but you can see the little cracks all over the impact.
you can also see where the pit filled area was(which was what i thought).

we went in there expecting a near perfect cosmetic fix but instead, we walked out of there being told it was a structural fix, not a cosmetic.
i started looking more and more at different websites and sources and they all keep saying it WILL leave a blemish. is that true?

how do customers take it? like to me, its almost like selling a 50% fix for a product.. the best it can be is that itll look ugly but it won't spread..
i personally would not of accepted that quality work as being "ok". in fact, after seeing the demo, it scared me away from starting right away.

for example: lets say mary comes to me with a classic bullseye and she says: "i need this chip fixed because it bothers me and it looks ugly"
i reply: "oh well i can make it so it won't continue to spread and i can improve the visibility, but its not 100%"
mary: "what do you mean not 100%?? how will it look?"
me: "well the windshield repair industry only pretty much gives u a 50~90% cosmetic fix at maximum. it is only to prevent cracking"
mary: "well how bad will it look?"
me: "we'll it'll be better, how much? i'm not sure, hopefully we can get it to be at least 70% clearer and 100% safer"
mary: "well i dunno if i wanna pay to get something fixed just to be 70%"

i think after asking many people, they all agree that when they think of WS repair, they think of near perfect work where you can barely see the damaged area once it's done. maybe everyone's wrong.. but what is the reality of it? so will people all think that im giving a disclaimer because i suck at what i do?

i sure hope your guys can help me out. i want to get started but i'm just scared.

mary: " I'll have a new screen instead, how much is that?"
me:" about 10 times the cost of a repair"
mary: " repair it!!!"

Even the ladies have to go to the beauty shop on a repetitive basis!

thats pretty interesting which brings up another point.
do i want to ONLY do ladies cars? i want to make a good name
for myself.. i wanna do car clubs.. car crews.. car enthusiasts
who love their car... i thought that was my market..

so what kinds of results are really expected from Windshield repair?
was the demonstration wrong? did i have too high of expectation?

i really wanna know the truth!! i wanna know what the results
of a well done glass repair is... i started asking more and more and it
seems like a lot of people expect a perfect or near perfect result..
is that unreasonable to ask for in this field of work?

thank you all for your kindness and help!
-joe

Ocassionally you will come across a person that expects 100% invisibility, but the majority of people will be happy with a 90% to 95% appearance. For those that expect invisibility tell them the only way to get that is to install a new windshield. That is why it is important to inform a customer before you begin to repair their windshield what to expect after it is repaired. You will be suprised how many people will be satisfied with a 90 to 95% appearance. Remember that you are offering a service that people want and need because you are saving them lots of money.

I explain that I am limited w/ the equipment I have. Delta has continually back-ordered what I need, I explain, which guarantees a perfect repair on all cracks and chips.
The tool I'm waiting for hasn't yet been released to us- it's a Time-Machine!

Here's what we tell all our customers:

You're dealing with a broken piece of glass that needs to be replaced. I can repair it for you, make it structurally sound so it will not crack further. In addition, they will typically look at least 80% better cosmetically.

Now, most around here know that they'll look much better than 80%, but if you set the customer's expectations BEFORE the repair, they will be excited when they can "barely see it."

Some technicians I know skip this. They just tell their customer "I can fix that for you." That's great, but you're assuming your customer is very familiar with windshield repair and knows it won't disappear. Most don't though, so if you don't set their expectations, you could do a repair that's 99% better cosmetically and you'll get the dreaded "but I can still see it."

If customers are saying that to you, to be honest, it's your fault. You didn't set their expectations ahead of time.

I've ran across this a few times that the customer expects it be perfect again. And I will gladly tell them that once it is damaged, it will always be damaged. In some cases and it depends mostly on the extent of the damage, a repair can be made invisible. It has happened to me and I'm sure others that after I scrape the pit filler off and turn around to go polish, I can not find the repair. That happens but don't expect it always.

Think of it like this if you will. When I was 12 years old, I broke my right arm just behind my wrist. It was a clean break through both bones. (The bone is someones windshield)

I went to the hospital and the doctor set my arm to heal correctly. (The doctor is the windshield repair tech and he repaired the stone chip.)

15 years later my arm is fine and it is healed. However, I can still to this day feel where I broke it. The damage has been done and it is no longer perfect but it has been fixed. (Same thing with repairing a windshield. The damage will always be there. The best thing you can do for your client is to make it right the best you can so they can live there lives.)

Under promise Over deliver

jdmeverything...are you anal retentive??...i dont think you will ever be happy with this bis