Windshield Repair Forum

Hey everybody. I do not really post on here very often, but I am an avid reader. As with some other things I am involved in, I found that a good message board like this is irreplaceable. Recently, I have started doing a few more repairs, and was gaining confidence and upgraded to a Delta injector/ Bridge and was starting to feel like I could actually make it and make a living at this. being unemployed since March, I am starting to get to where I need to make some money.. anyways, the point of my story...

Before I went to visit family, I did a repair on an old neighbors car... well, he had a nasty little star break, and a small chip on the top of his windshield with like an 1/8 inch leg off either side of it. I started with the star break, which I made sure I worked on when I met up with Wade and Korey in Vegas to insure I knew what I was doing. I could not make the star break satisfactory to me, let alone to a man who holds the key to a good account with a local cement company who fields 10-15 calls a week from angry drivers needing a cheap fix... Anyways, I was getting extremely frustrated, and had talked to him in detail before about the possibility of a crack out even though it had been there for 3 months and not budged. well, I had no issues with a crack out, just couldn't get the legs to fill, even though I had been using thorough pressure and vacuum cycles. I finally got it close to decent, and called it good and moved onto the little gravy chip at the top of the windshield. It is a 2006 Acura TL on a mild dry morning in southern California. The car has factory glass. As soon as it touched the chip with pressure, it cracked out! I found him a good deal from a local guy I used as a vendor when I was a service writer on a replacement, and he was happy with that. But I feel like it is something I did wrong, and could have prevented. Any advice? Any thing else I need to give details about to help with advice? Thank you all in advance.

Always be very careful with the repairs at the edges...they are more prone to crack out.

This one was about 3 or 4 inches from the top and dead center.. Not near enough that I would consider it an "edge".

To us; you were working on the edge, anything within 3'' or 4'' is ''the edge''.

ok.. With that in mind... Any advice to go along with doing a repair that close to the edge. Or do I just stay away from them all together?

There are a couple ways to get the end of the stars to fill sometimes you wil seea little resin at the crack this means pressure is being released there thus it isnt pushing the resin to the end put a cure tab on it
if this is not the case try putting the injector in vac or no pressure mode run a match under the legs from the inside (if you use a match you will leave some soot on the inside you will have to clean but before you can get the glass too hot you wil cook your finger once you have done a few and have an idea how much heat to use swithch to a different heat source) once you remove the heat put your injector back into pressure mode as the glass cools it creates a vacume and pulls the resin into the tips it might take doing this a few times to get them all filled
the other option is to flex them with your thumb or an awl working the leg open to let in the resin

As far as avoiding a crack out on the basics are dont push down on the injector to get the suction cup connected this will flex the glass put it on the glass while you hold up the edge of the cup with a finger the other is be very slow tightening down the injector and just tighten enough for a seal we tend to just screw it down and get sloppy resulting in the spread

We find a common problem is guys not turning th feet and the injector body back in, before they place it over another chip. This we find is the most likely cause of crack outs before you start the filling process.

Mild dry morning, any chance at all of any dampness about earlier, maybe some dew or fog to make the damage wet inside? Did you use a UV shield?

If you come back with the answers we can get into more detail for you.

screenman wrote:We find a common problem is guys not turning th feet and the injector body back in, before they place it over another chip. This we find is the most likely cause of crack outs before you start the filling process.

Mild dry morning, any chance at all of any dampness about earlier, maybe some dew or fog to make the damage wet inside? Did you use a UV shield?

If you come back with the answers we can get into more detail for you.

Thank you all very much. I knew you would have questions to point me in the right direction. It had rained the day before, however the car was garaged, and if anybody lives in southern california, it was like a ten minute rain storm, then sunny and perfect the rest of the day. They pulled the car out of the garage the next morning for me to do the repair. I tried flexing the legs a little bit to make sure there was new dampness in it, and didn't appear to be any. I could have just plain old missed it. One of my tools to order is the dry out tool this week. I did not use a UV shield. Also, another thing I am ordering this week. I am torn between just a basic shield, and the bubble. the bubble would be nice if it were to rain, but like I said. That does not happen in southern california very often.

Get the bubble if you can afford it. Its kinda bulky, but nice and convenient to work with . I made a carry bag for mine out of an old, colored bedsheet, so it doesnt get scratched up while sitting on the front seat of my truck.

I wouldnt take a free bubble just to bulky and hard to get under to work on I like the orange plastic sheet myself or a big thick terry towel