Repair of flat windshields

[Mike Walters]

I work on School buses and I am having a hard time repairing the rock chips. The resin won't fill in the cracks completely before the pedastal gives out and squirts the resin out the sides.

[Delta Kits]

Mike,

Welcome to the forum!

I would highly suggest calling your manufacturer for support, as that would get your problems solved much quicker.

I know for our system, vertical repairs require a couple different steps, and i'm sure that's the case with most manufacturers!

[GlassStarz]

I have several school bus companys that I do and often will do 50 breaks in a day at their site. I find the drill is my best freind your right sometimes the weight of the injector and its base is pulling it off the glass. First I always spray the suction cup giving a better contact,second on most breaks I will drill (hardly ever drill with auto or truck breaks) the reason for drilling is time with your chance of losing contact you want to get it in quick, third I use a thin resin for busses same reason goes into the crack quicker just make sure to top it with a good pit filler. I generaly use 2 or 3 injectors and have a couple busses going at a time I have my 15 yr old son doing the drilling and finishing the pit filler. I also have had super success with insurance jobs on the drivers vehicles while im there the week before I go there I walk the parking lot and put a flyer on every employee vehicle saying the day I will be there and I will fix it for free. I do all cars not just the ones with breaks because they may have one in the spouses or moms car and they will drive it in that day. I also post a flyer on the flyer board in the break room. I only do these guys twice a year but have made up to $1000 the day I go because of the employee cars.

[Repair1]

Welcome Mike,

I agree with GlassStarz bus accounts are great we have a couple ourselves that I only see a couple times a year but when I do it

[CPR]

Good post, I am having the same problem myself but I am still in the learning stage. I have an opportunity to service a large truck fleet, have a full time job and will be doing the fleet on weekends. I got a lot of good advice from Jeff and Matt at the MTE show a few weeks ago.

I'm still not satisfied with my repairs yet and want to be able to do excellent work before I start. I am using a center punch making star breaks and am having the same problem with legs not filling ect. Would be really interesting to see what input all the great people here have to offer.

All I can say is you came to the right place for help, on this site there is the best people in the business, willing to share their expertise with the rest of us. I hope this topic explodes, would be a great how to post for all of us green wsr techs. Please everyone share your ideas here, cant wait to get out and start doing quality repairs.

[GlassStarz]

'm still not satisfied with my repairs yet and want to be able to do excellent work before I start. I am using a center punch making star breaks and am having the same problem with legs not filling ect.


You could do it the way I did I talked a local wrecking yard into letting me spend some time practicing on the wrecks. The problem with the practice windshield and the punched break is you dont always get the wide variety of breaks that really help you fine tune the art of repair. In the junk yard you will find everything you can imagine those old dirty star breaks to funky bubbles I really found it to be a huge learning experience. If you learn to recognise different things about a break it tells you how to go about it. Practice works wonders

[glassdoctor]

Glassstarz is right on about junk yard practice... that's what I did too when I started. You will see "real world" stuff... all types of breaks.

Additional tip...
Try some of the old dirty and big nasty looking breaks and you will learn a lot about wsr. The results on these won't be pretty sometimes, but it's valuable experience. It's a lot different than a fresh made practice break.

If you mean you are having trouble with the stars you are making for practice, it may be because the breaks you make with a center punch can be pretty nasty. I often get more severe stars with a center punch than what you normally see out in the field. The legs can be longer than "normal" and the impact area is crushed worse than "normal". You may be seeing disconnected legs, which need to be "snapped" to connect to the rest of the break. So, even practice repairs can be difficult.

[desertstars]

Mike.

In response to your original question.

Flat windshields or whatever.

Flat windshields in particular in this answer, though.

The question resolves itself into adhesion.

A NON-worn or NON-chewed-up suction cup to maintain adhesion between your equipment bridge and the windshield and the ability to adjust the rear legs on your bridge in order to tip forward while maintaining pressure and suction is the key with flat windshields.

Maintain both the tips and suctions cups and replace both or either when they aren't doing the job.

We spray the suction cups with a 50/50 combination of alcohol and water for adhesion and that is the same solution we use to gradually cool windshields as well as cleaning same afterwards.

Use baby oil if you need to slide a crack.

In any case, the condition of your suction cups and the tip will be the determining factors without my going into a bunch of other crap and possibilities in the process.

Purchasing equipment is one thing; maintaining it is another.

[desertstars]

Oh, I forgot, Mike.

We have worked on many flat windshields.

Other than my previous post, make sure you COMPLETELY clean the windshield in the area that you attach the suction cup(s).

In almost all cases that the equipment dropped other than defective suction cups, it was a matter of application to a dirty and bug-specked windshield.

[optic-kleer]

Good morning Desertstars.

I tend not to repair flat glass screens, mainly because of inexperience in that speciality. I feel my repairs are far more satisfactory on tinted car screens than vertical truck ones.

I am interested in doing more truck screen repairs, but need some advice.

1. How much do you need to tilt that injector by?

2. How good are the repairs on vertical glass?

3. Do truck companies expect the same standards as private car owners?

4. Do you use Delta kit?

5. Do you cure vertical glass repairs under pressure?

I think that sums up my queries. Thanks in advance for your reply. By the way, I think your posts are excellent, very informative and your technical knowledge is second to none. You should take up windscreen repair for a living!

Eric Howe
Optic-Kleer Ltd