Jetta

[bill lambeth]

I had the strangest thing happen to me toaday and yesterday.I was at Enterptrise rentals:Jetta w/ batwings close to the edge on the drivers side,Tues. and Wed. same exact scenerios.Tuesday I use the hammer to pop a bullseye in the wings.Well,there was a leg coming off that would not fill,so I LIGHLTY flex with a probe and that sucker run about 10 in but ofcourse I fixed it and you could hardly see it.Same exact thing happen today.I thought to myself before I flexed it,surely it want happen again but ofcourse it did.I think there was cracks already there but unseen to the eye.Thank God for the Hammer it makes bulllseyes so easy.Anybody had problems with German cars?Bill

[GlassStarz]

First the Jetta is a Mexican car Pueblo plant but to answer your question no I find Audi and VW glass to be the easiest

[doctor ding]

Back in the day when I was being schooled in the fine art of WSR I was warned to be super cautious with German glass because it was "brittle". Sure enough, shortly after being kicked out of the nest I found myself all snarled up on a crack repair on an early 80's BMW 5 series. As I went to drill the tip - 1/8" past the tip - and touched bur to glass the sucker ran about two inches. So I repeated the exercise; 1/8" past the tip, touched bur to glass, and the same thing happened. By the time I finally got it drilled and popped the crack had run another 12 - 14 inches and I had a line of embryonic bur pits stitched every two to three inches along the length of the crack. Looked like fecal matter but hey, I got 'er done! So, brittle German glass - fact or myth? All I know is that I never went wrong by giving it an extra dollop of respect.

[Frank EU]

Doctor Ding, with all respect to your trainer, and your personal experience, but we (here in the EU) do not have any problems with VW, BMW, AUDI (ie; German/ European brands) vehicle glass. I cannot think of any reason why it should be (or would have been) different at your end. Why would the glass over there be more brittle? Sure, some breaks will spread while we perform the repair but that can happen with any windshield (and when it occurs.....it is me who did do something wrong).

[screenman]

I agree with Frankeu on this one, what temperature was you working at?

[bill lambeth]

The temperature was 75 and overcast on Wed,Tuesday was sunny.

[Frank EU]

Forgive me for not looking it up myself (not enough time), Question 1: what repair system are you using?
You mentioned that the leg did not want to fill, so you started to flex (btw; there is nothing wrong with flexing). Question 2: did you flex the leg while the system was under pressure (ie; filling the damage with resin)?

[bill lambeth]

I was flexing under pressure with L/R(Resinator with mvp bridge).I have never had any problems with flexing under pressure.I use as little pressure as possible.I use patience(most important thing to me about repairing) with low pressure.I have had 3 runs in 5 years.I generally average 10 repairs a day.

[SuperGlassDave]

Bill,
I noticed that you mentioned that the damage was close to the edge. In our company we refer to the 3" border around the windshield as the "Danger Zone". I don't mean the frit band, I mean any part of the glass within 3" of the edge. That part of the windshield, since it is next to where the glass is bonded to the steel, is the least flexible part of the glass.
You can flex in the center of the w/s with your probe and even see the glass flex inward and not have a problem. The flex absorbs the energy from your probe and the stress is released through the flexing. But, at any edge of the windshield there is very little, to no flex. Therefore any stress (from a probe or tight injector) will be relieved by the separation of the glass. You will find that when the damage is in this area, drill thoroughly knowing that you will not want to probe near the edge of the w/s.
I also consider VW glass to be a bit more brittle than the typical glass. You'll find softer glass on the big trucks that can absorb much more flex and stress that the typical passenger car. Hope that helps.
David Casey - President (also trainer)
SuperGlass Windshield Repair, Inc.

[Glasseye]

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/1983983/h ... ndshields/

This may be useful to see how windscreens are made. Notice near the end of the video, when the glass is inspected using polarised light, there is higher stress near the edge of the screen. The glass used to make the windshield is made using the "float" process and ensures a high quality material.