Marine Glass

[atag]

I had a customer ask me the other day if I could fix the windshield in their boat. I did not do the job, because I didn’t know if it could be done. Anybody know if marine glass can be repaired?

[Brent Deines]

Most new boat windshields are tempered glass, so if they break they shatter. Sometimes they will chip and you can repair those, but that's just filling a large pit, not injecting resin.

Some older boats used acrylic windshields. If they are not crazed they can be buffed out like a headlight.

I used to do a lot of custom glass work companies who built high end river sleds. They would give me patterns and I would cut them AS-3 laminated glass, generally with a grey tint. They really looked nice and would repair just like a car windshield, but the only time they would get a rock chip was when they were being towed. Sometimes they would get cracked and if the damage was not too severe we would repair it.

Check the corner of the glass. There should be a "bug" that will tell you if it is laminated, tempered, or acrylic. In a car it will always be AS-1 laminated by law, but I have seen AS-1, AS-2, and AS-3 laminated in boats. By far the most popular however is tempered.