Windshield Repair Forum

Hi,

I'm new to this forum and have found it especially usefull and informative even with over 15 years of stone chip repair and autoglass replacement. This morning I tried a dry-out technique I discovered on this forum. It involved using compressed air blown over top of (but not into) a water filled break in order to create a low pressure area and draw the moisture up and out of the damaged area. Relying on my many years of proffesional experience I proceeded to try this out on a customers car. As I watched a leg of this combination break spread apprx. 10 inches I re-considered the value of a practice shield. Fortunately I was able to stop the growing crack and complete the repair. Perhaps someone could answer a few questions for me;
1. How much air pressure is to much?
2. In what fashion should the compressed air be delivered
3. How long of a burst is needed

BTW, I ordered a drystar today

Thanks in advance to anyones attention to this matter

70 degrees, Combination break, Moisture present in the break, Sunshine, Relativlely no humidity after yesterdays rain, Damage 2 weeks old, No hydrophobic coating detectable

I use compressed air to dry out cracks only, we did some experimenting with what you tried without too much success. To use it on a long cracks, drill and stop the end and blow from tat direction too the edge, I must say this is now my only way to dry long cracks. A 10 inch soaking wet crack will dry in a couple of minutes or less, this will also get rid of the water contained in the edge seal around a lot of screen.

Sorry, welcome to the forum.

Just curious to ask. With 15 years experience in both glass replacement and chip repairs..... what other if any drying methods were you using prior to experimenting with compressed air? Personally, I didn't find this method to have any positive effect with drying out wet chip damage but did find it useful with open crack repairs as Screenman has already pointed out.

In my area I've ran across way too many glass replacement shops with over 20-30 years experience that have never dried out a single one and it shows.

I'm glad to hear you purchased a drystar to utilize! That's all you really need.

I've always used a micro torch in combination with a mity-vac but I've never had much luck with dry outs so I would usually wait for a day or so and "hope" for the best. I worked for the big "red and black" for almost 13 years and for a smaller shop until 3 months ago. I have since opened my own shop and things are going well. Dry outs have always presented a problem for me and have never had a chance to seek proffesional advice until I stumbled upon this forum. I'd like to take this chance to say "thanks" to all the long time and newer members of this forum for their contributions. Even after 15 years I still have much to learn and I'm so happy to be able be on this path with all of you.

Welcome to the forum Stellar. Nice to meet you. I've got about that many years in also (although not full time since I do other services as well), and have learned some very valuable stuff here