Plate Glass Repair

[Brent Deines]

How many of you are doing plate glass repair? I didn't do a lot of it myself, but when I did I made pretty decent money. It was just a little slower paced than windshield repair, so I never really promoted it much.

We have a few customers that specialize in plate glass repair, but I've always thought that it was a market that was pretty much untapped. I would be very interested in any plate glass experiences that any of you can share.

Does it make sense for the average windshield repair technician or is should plate glass repair be an industry all in it's own? The customer base is different, although windshield repair technicians that service fleet customers may see some overlap that would be helpful.

It's a simple process and the only additional product that most windshield repair technicians will have to purchase is plate glass resin, so adding a plate glass repair service to an existing windshield repair business does not require much in the way of expense.

[Mr Bill]

How does the repair process differ from windhield repair?

[Brent Deines]

Plate glass repair is actually much simpler than windshield repair, although often a more time consuming process. First I suppose I should explain that most plate glass repairs are for damage caused by bb guns, with a small bb sized hole in the outside of the glass, and a larger quarter or half dollar sized hole on the inside. The break resembles a bullseye, but the glass is actually missing.

Sometimes the plug that was knocked out can be bonded back into place, but typically the void is filled by covering the holes on both sides of the glass, filling the void with plate glass resin, curing, scraping and polishing. In most instances an injector is not used as the void is easily filled with a syringe or dropper.

Obviously there are some tricks to keeping the air bubbles out, but the procedure really is that simple in most instances. Most of the time involved is in the curing process which takes longer due to the volume of resin that is being cured.

Although more noticeable than an average windshield repair, the result is actually quite amazing. The main concern for most of the plate glass repair customers that I spoke with was that the hole be sealed to keep the weather out, and to keep people from sticking their fingers in it. I know it sounds silly, but I'm told that children and adults alike simply cannot resist sticking their finger in what appears to be a bullet hole in the glass. That goal is easily achieved, with the side benefit of strengthening the glass and improving the cosmetics significantly.

I did quite a few in restaurants, motorcycle and automobile dealerships, and other locations with large expensive plate glass windows.

[CV Windshield Repair]

What is the difference between windshield resin and plate glass resin?

[StarQuest]

I've provided a few of these plate glass BB shots repairs in the past for party store and gas station owners. Unfortunately, I never had much luck getting what I thought was a fair charge for these repairs. (most I could get was $45 for first and $15 for additionals) but hey...this is Detroit! I don't provide them anymore because of that. Business owners around here will just shoot some silcone in break and live with it to save money.

It's not that they were difficult but they do take more time than a normal windshield repair and will require much more resin (the amount of resin used on plate glass BB repairs is 10-20 times that of a WSR). Is there money in it? I suppose there is if you can charge and get more in your area for the service then I've been able to.

Resin? Brent can correct me if I'm wrong but it's the same resin used in windshield repair but much thicker in viscosity.

Procedure I used? Curing tape on both sides to seal and utilzed a syringe to fill.

Cracked plate glass repairs? Won't do them because of the liabilty concerns.

Of course everything I just wrote is JMHO!

[Brent Deines]

Plate glass resin is similar to windshield repair resin, but a much higher viscosity even than pit resin, and Delta Kits plate glass resin is formulated to be harder than our windshield repair resin as flexibility is not as important.

I typically got about 5 repairs per bottle, and charged $50 and up for each repair with no discount for multiples, but that was a number of years ago so I had hoped the going rate had gone up. The more expensive the window the more the service is worth to the customer, so I was generally working on windows that would cost hundreds of dollars to replace.

I did a few plate glass repairs that had cracks, but I would recommend sticking with the nice clean ones, mainly because I don't have enough experience or verifiable data from other plate glass repair techs to be able to say with any authority how well a cracked plate glass repair holds up long term.

The reason I started this thread was to see how others handled plate glass repairs. Someone out there must have some expertise they can share with us.

[maxryde]

Hey Brent, yeah I've done a few Plate glass repairs. The process was simple enough. I recieved a kit via Glass Mechanix that has a set up and resin for the repairs. I ended up doing it my own way as I couldn't get a good fill useing the equipment as designed. My technique is to tab from the outside with a strip of mylar coated with regular pit resin, then cure that. Now with another tab on the inside, (unless the shot came from the inside) Make a notch at the centre of the tab as it alligns with the break. Then useing a syrenge inject the break while holding the tab to the glass, at the very last moment it fills to the top, hold for a few seconds to be certain of no air then proceed to over fill slightly. What I mean here is to hold the tab slighty away, not enough to leak severely but enough to allow for all the air to rise above your entry point. Finish your fill while slideing your tab up slightly, then cure. The cure is like 15 mins with a high quality lamp. Ac is reccommended here. Dc fades to quickly on the long term cures, especially when you have a few back to back. The battery thing is just a problem, I think, if you have an ac lamp it's the way to go. Not that DC won't work you just have to have a strong power source if you go that route.

Now for the $ thought, we get 10 to 15 % of the value of replacement, given the fact that a replacement will exceed $1000. more often than not a mere $100. dollars is just change. We charge per payne not per chip. So a store front that has SINGLE payne plate is fair game. That is old style as the new stuff is all double payne. Now if you can come up with a repair for that, the market is going to improve. Otherwise it's a soon to be gone market anyway. I have only done a few, in my experience the damage was spread over the whole store front, not just one payne. If there was only one I would lean toward the 15% mark. JMO. thx, Scott

[Brent Deines]

It sounds like our techniques are similar, although I prefer to use tape on the inside and the outside which eliminates the need for curing that outside first, and helps keep a flatter surface on the inside, or at least it does for me.

Great point about the lights. The more power the better, and whenever possible I cure from both sides at the same time to minimize cure time.

Your also right about that most new glass either being insulated or double pane, although I believe safety glass is now required within so many feet of the ground, so a lot of newer construction will have laminated glass on the lower level. That should create some opportunities for the type of repair that windshield repair technicians are more familiar with.

[toab]

I felt that I could not do a lasting job so I turned 1 down at a store front uptown.I was worried that useing w/r resin might fall out with no supporting glass behind it.It was a biggy.I figured that if the w/r resin shrank at all it would fall out of the void.Also the owner squirmed a little when I told him it would probably cost about $75. due 2 the extreme volume of resin required.

How does your plate glass resin price out compared 2 w/r resin.??
I just turned the repair down about 2 weeks ago so it is a reletively fresh break.

[maxryde]

Hey Toab, You passing on the repair was a good choice due to not having the correct resin. It is not any cheaper than regular resins hence the difference in cost per repair. Tell your prospect he or she should consider replacement due to the reduced structural integrety of the glass and the liability issues theat come with it. When it fails, (the glass) and it will, if there are injurys, the folks who are injured can assign blame to the shop owner that failed to protect them from the damaged glass. I usually use this as a pitch on the naysayers with mixed results. Your bid of $75. is probably lower than 10% of the replacement cost BTW so I think there is room for raising your price to cover for the additional resin consumed.

I like the film idea Brent, I think I'll give that a go om my next repair to see how it works. Thanks, Scott