Windshield Repair Forum

Hi all!

I approached what I thought could be a potential customer the other day about a break that I noticed on her windshield. She told me that she already had the break fixed once, (didn't notice the pit had been filled on first glance) and you could hardly notice it, but lately it started to show more and more. It didn't look like the break was spreading, so I told her that some of the older resins have the tendency to yellow over time.(Although this break didn't appear to be yellow.) She asked me if there was any way that I could possibly improve the appearance. I didn't really have an answer for her because I never attempted to re-repair a break. Has anyone ever attempted to do this with an old repair? What kind of success have you had?

Bullseye? yes. Drill on the outer edge of the existing bullseye, tap a small bullseye and fill. Or, do you mean resurface the existing pit? Simply use your probe or an old drill bit (will gum it up and make it useless for anything else), apply some thin resin to the pit and gently but firmly work the probe or drill bit across the old pit fill and rough it up and or remove the oxidized portion. Apply pit fill and cure, scrape and polish.. Stars.. a bit harder but if you can find an open leg you can drill the tip and back fill it.

This looked more like a batwing. I didn't get a real good look at it, but it was clearly visible from a distance. The pit didn't appear to be oxidized from what I could see, but it WAS filled. What surprised me was that the "wings" didn't appear to have any resin in them at all. I thought at first maybe it was just a bad repair job. Then she told me that the repair became more and more visible over time. I'm curious as to what brand of resin was used if this is the case.

I ran across a used vehicle at a dealer a couple of days ago which had a 3/4" batwing break. Upon closer examination the pit was already filled. Apparently, whoever repaired the break drilled and filled the pit without filling the cracks. I tried to drill out the old pit filler and pop a bullseye but couldn't. I ended up drilling the end of each leg and filling that way. A lot of work and 3 drill holes to fill. It didn't really look terrific but it was sealed (won't spread).

If I push on those batwings before I start and there is no flex movement, I usually drill 60% way down. The reason is cuz I've had some just like described that you think you're filling but apparently they're deeper below the surface. Also seems like carefully using heat safely works on those. That's one of the things that the glass shops around here just set the bridge on for 5 minutes, whatever fills fills, whatever doesn't doesn't. So back to the original post. I think usually drilling and popping probably should get it.