Windshield Repair Fail

Steve@Advance

Well-known Member
Tried to do a DIY windshield repair today... Didn't work.

Bought the $15 Permatex repair kit. It is the one with the double back tape on plastic fixture and a syringe to vacuum out the air and push in the sealer.

This was a very small star break, about 1/2" wide. Followed the instructions exactly, the sealer did not penetrate the cracks, did basically nothing... I saw this demonstrated on YouTube, but when I opened the kit it was not the same, the design was changed, for the worse!

Bad thing is, now just enough of the sealer is in there so that nothing is going to work now! Just hoping enough got in to stop the thing from spreading!

Anyone have tried and proven brand for next time?
 
(quoted from post at 21:13:39 06/13/15) Tried to do a DIY windshield repair today... Didn't work.

Bought the $15 Permatex repair kit. It is the one with the double back tape on plastic fixture and a syringe to vacuum out the air and push in the sealer.

This was a very small star break, about 1/2" wide. Followed the instructions exactly, the sealer did not penetrate the cracks, did basically nothing... I saw this demonstrated on YouTube, but when I opened the kit it was not the same, the design was changed, for the worse!

Bad thing is, now just enough of the sealer is in there so that nothing is going to work now! Just hoping enough got in to stop the thing from spreading!

Anyone have tried and proven brand for next time?
ife had one done by the so called windshield professionals........star went from star to full width of windshield is about half a second!
 
Insurance paid for someone to come out and fix a chip in the good pickup windshield when it was about six months old. It's a 2007. At the time I remember him saying they had to do them within X amount of days because once it got foreign material in it they couldn't guarantee it. The wife and I went to town the other day and she said it is cracking. I couldn't see it from my side but she said when the light hit it the star was about half an inch long on all sides. It's right where the defroster blows so I am sure this winter it will make some big progress. It doesn't sit out so I don't often have to use the defroster - maybe it will last longer than I think. I hope so.
 
I got one of the RainX (sp) kits, cost about $12 or so. I have "fixed" a couple of places that so far are holding OK. A crack is a crack, I have seen impossible ones do all right and really simple little bullseyes go bad. One would think after a hundred years of breaking windshields the auto makers would figure something different out.

I did some utubing on this kit and the big thing was to read and follow the directions exactly. I used a lighter on the inside to warm the crack and make it run in better.
 
I've had them repaired and did some myself and couldn't tell much difference when the job was done. Don't remember where I bought the kits.

Didn't like the stars, even after repairs, so called a couple glass places. I told them that I didn't have insurance, so they came out and replaced the windshield on the '03 Tundra for $200.

I don't let them bill my insurance as then our premium goes up and never comes back down.
 
I've had 3 or 4 windshields and a radiator replaced under the comprehensive policy
and the rates never went up.
Last year my wife's suburban's windshield got hit with rocks. It made 3 stars.
The insurance sent out an outfit to repair them. Looked good when he did it but
now their visible again.
However, He did clean the dash and vacuumed the car!

Steve A W
 
As with Steve below I have had at least 4 windshields replaced using the comprehensive portion of my insurance, one of them was broken a week after installation. Another was just hard to see out of due to 150K miles of things hitting it. Deductible does not apply, 100% coverage and no increase in rates. Check your insurance coverage.
 
I'll never have on repaired again. The one I did have done split all the way across by evening. The replacement windshield is not in quite right either but it got dinged in the same spot in less then a week. That has been years ago now and the dings have not spread since I had nothing done to them.
 

I had one put in my 13 Tundra last year and the glass man said he would eat the $50 deductible and bill my insurance $450 or he would put it in for $200 cash.

I told him that insurance is high enough already without him screwing them over like that but he said that is the price that his company and the insurance company have negotiated. Something is not right with that setup, but I needed the glass and didn't want a hassle with either the glass man or the insurance company so I paid for it to avoid the claim on my policy.
 
Many years ago, I had a small star crack and put a drop of super glue on it (not the gel) and it must have soaked right in. the cracks disappeared !
 
as much as I dislike the regulations in our state (massachusetts) - I do like that all insurance cover's glass with zero deductible.

If you have any size crack in your windshield - even just windshield wiper scrapes - you can get a free replacement.

of course, nothing's free - it's reflected in the premiums we pay - but at least it FEELS free when you have one replaced!
 
So, even after 100 years of breaking windshields, you figure that there is something better than glass for them to be made out of??? There have been many improvements in glass over the years like laminated safety glass, tempered glass, and the like. BUT......glass is still the best choice of material for the windshield - no matter how many years have passed.
 
Few years back, I had a leased Jeep Grand Cherokee that had a cracked windshield. Just before I turned it in, I called the insurance company for a replacement and they set up a guy to come out and "patch it". I objected but they said they would do this first and if it didn't work, they'd replace it. Well, it worked ok, but the Jeep dealer wouldn't accept the car back that way. They were going to ding me several hundred dollars for it even though it looked great. They went over the car with a fine tooth comb. Wanted to charge me (several hundreds of dollars) for paint damage to the front fascia. Rule is that anything under a credit card size is NOT chargeable. Well, there were 2 spots a few inches apart that EACH would be covered by a CC but they claimed it was a single long scrape with a "skip" in the middle. Left the dealer w/o turning it in. Insurance company replaced the windshield, I went to the auto parts store and got a spray can. Touched up the fascia. Waited until it was close to dark the next time I went back to turn the car in. Luckily, it was a different person. Presto, no back charges!
 

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