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About 20 years ago, I used a DIY kit to try to repair a bullseye rock chip on my Chevy station wagon. I did the repair the day after the damage occurred, and the windshield was never wet from the time the chip happened and when I used the kit. It used a kind of syringe to create a partial vacuum in the divot and had a second syringe with the filler material. I had fairly high hopes for the repair, since the bullseye had no visible cracks radiating from it. The repair seemed to work OK for awhile, but then it cracked across the whole windshield during the Winter. So I thought the $10 or $12 I paid for the kit was a waste of money. But it was interesting to try. Since then I have had a couple of other windshields professionally repaired, using a real vacuum pump. One repair seemed to work fine and that windshield is still in the car. The other later cracked, starting at the bullseye and has since been replaced. I paid for the repairs out of pocket, since it seems like any type of insurance claim causes my rates to go up. If a windshield starts cracking, I just plan on replacing it, since I have never seen a repair that stopped the cracking. I sure hate it when the County Road Department decides to "chip seal" the roads I have to travel on. When they do that, they spray a heavy coat of liquid asphalt (which I think is heated very hot) on the road surface and then cover the liquid asphalt with gravel that is up to about 1/2". Then they leave it that way for a few days before they sweep the excess off to the shoulders. Sometimes they have run a road roller over the gravel, but usually they just let traffic roll over it. It wouldn't be too bad if people would be courteous and obey the 25 mile per hour speed limit signs they put up, but lots of people don't seem to. An approaching vehicle going 60 mph propels the gravel hard enough to break windshields and chip paint,even if your vehicle is almost stationary. One summer my family had 4 windshields broken this way. I suggested to the Road Department that they should put up signs a couple of days before they do the chip sealing, so people can plan alternate routes. I also suggested to the Sheriff's Department that they work radar in areas that had recently been chip sealed. I would guess they could write tickets as fast as they could write them if they did this, even if they wrote no tickets for less than 15 mph over. Maybe it would make some of those inconsiderate jerks recognize that 25mph speed limit signs actually mean something. Grrrr, this is a sore subject with me!
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