Windshield Repair Forum

Graham
As you do a lot more cracks and bigger ones than Most (I guess that makes you king of Crack lol) I recently trained a couple guys in Tijuana Third world customers with litle or no money for replacements I do some cracks but nothing as dirty and bad as they are coming up with. My question is when you come across a big one that appears to be pretty brittle and looks like it might take off do you do you like to do a capilary fill of the lions share to stabilize it before doing a drill and fill on the end? Im sure any technique you would like to share here would be appreciated by many

I always drill and pop the end of a long crack before I start working it. I often drill and stop the end, then drill and pop 1/2 in from that hole and place my injector there and commence my filling. My theory to this is, the end of the crack even when drilled is very tight, 1/2 in from the end is often more open, therefore by filling from my second hole the resin will flow both to the end and down the crack at a faster rate. I use capillary action or the reverse when needed, making sure I never allow the resin to get in front of the air, if that makes sense. I also use compressed air for drying long cracks, making sure that the rubber seal around the glass is also dry, as this water will run straight up the crack once you dry it other wise.

I also drill the end and then a little back from the end as does screenman. Sometimes the crack will jump through the end hole and then I will go ahead and fill as normal, but after curing drill another stop hole and pop the end just off the crack that jumped. Rarely you will have a crack that will not jump into the hole when you pop the bulls eye. Then I take the slide hammer and place the bit between the end and the hole and progressively tap lightly, then a little harder until the crack goes into the hole.

Graham, I don't have problems too much with water here, it hasn't rained since last winter sometime, but does the compressed air help clean the crack also? And do you carry a compressor with you?

I used to carry a compressor, now I only do fleet work and they always have a compressor and airlines on site. I am not sure as to if it would help remove dirt or not.

Screenman???? When you say drill 1/2 in from the end. Are you saying 1/2 inch or half way down the crack? WE DO always POP A BULLS AT THE END OF THE CRACK AS WELL?? YOU FILL FROM THE 1/2 THEN FILL THE END WITH THE BRIDGE.

NEXT ??? If I have a large star that looks like a plus sign or cross that is about 1 to 1 1/2 inches, Do I use the slide hammer to pop it in the break hole to tie the 4 together or just monut your bridge and fill it as you would a smaller one.

I have been asked this week to fill a few cracks on some big rigs that were 10 - 12 inches long. These cracks mostly ended at the base of the windshield frame and has no visible impact point ( 3 about 2inches apart 6 - 12 inches in length. straight up and down, not across): I told the driver I would get back to him this week. I fixed 4 star / combinations breaks on the drivers side, near the bottom and center divider of windshield. I normally dont do cracks over 6 inches. I saw a man repair a break over 2 ft long a few months back, and he only drilled one time. I 've only repaired a few short cracks during the past 15 months. The man that did the long crack said he has been doing this about 10 years, and doesn't use the same equipment I do. What do you recommend?

1/2 inch from my original drill and pop. I drill some stars but not all by any means. I think I am going to have to start putting pictures up as words alone cannot sometimes explain.

Thanks screenman for the information. Have a good week.

The reason I drill the end and then back away from the end as screenman suggests is that the crack can get very very tight near the end and resin just won't go in. It also can get tight if you have curves or angles. Not often but once in a while I'll be forced to drill one of these if I want resin to go in there.