For those of you who have never repaired a chip in your windshield, this article is for you! I bought this repair kit for $11. I've heard some insurance companies will give you the kits, but I've never been that lucky. This is my first time doing such a repair, and it was quite easy to do!
So a few months back, I was driving on the freeway when an object was kicked up by a truck ahead of me and struck the top middle of the windshield--fortunately resulted in only a bullseye chip--an eyesore but not a stress crack!
THE UGLY
AFTER THE REPAIR
TO THE DETAILS It was irritating enough to want to fix, but not big enough to want to replace the whole windshield
So I picked up this repair kit from my local auto supply store (Kragen) for about $11.
I always wondered how difficult it was to repair glass and how good of a repair I could expect? Inside the kit there was a syringe of resin, a razor blade, a push pin, transparent film squares, an alcohol wipe, an adhesive disc, and a little funnel type of adaptor for the syringe.
The instructions are two sided, make sure you read the side on bullseye repair because they are different from repairing long cracks!
The first thing you do is wipe the glass clean with an alcohol wipe, then remove the protective backing from the foam rubber disk (make sure you pop the little center hole out first) and center this over the bullseye.
Make sure to press this down completely--check it from the inside with a flashlight too!
Viewed from inside with a flashlight, I could see that there weren't any air bubbles.
Have a towel ready--you will need this later, but keep it here.
Attach the syringe here (make sure you properly prep it before installing here--that is turn it upside down and push the air out--you've seen them in movies before they inject someone, they point the needle up and push the syringe so some squirts out!
Once attached you want to take advantage of the vacuum that's created when you pull the plunger back, it naturally wants to spring forward. Of course this will only happen if you truly attached the adhesive disk earlier without any airbubbles! So you just pull the plunger back and release it--forcing the resin into the bullseye crack. Repeat this atleast 10 times.
Then move the car into the sun for 30 minutes to an hour depending on whether you have full sunlight or its cloudy out. Don't worry, this isn't like an epoxy where the whole thing will get hard and glue to your windshield!
Now remove the syringe and cap it. Before you pull the little attachment disc off, make sure to have the towel ready because the resin will flow down all over as soon as you pull it off!
Almost can't even see it now!
From inside, I barely even see it.
Just wipe it dry, and remove the adhesive disk. Wipe it clean with Clarity and inspect the results. For me, it looks much better! Though the crack isn't completely gone, the worst of the bulleye is gone. Maybe I need another repair, but the process was easy enough and worth $11!
One more time BEFORE
AFTER
c3:Lets Motor for a Worthy Cause ::: Find a MINI Motorer near you!
Once again OctaneGuy, very timely. I removed my V1 and found a chip that I heard happen, but thought I'd escaped. My last repair cost me $49 and an hour of waiting. This time, I'm doing it the $11.00 way.
Nice! And the $11 kit can be used for other repairs! It's not a one time use kit either, although the double sided foam rubber thing might be single use. But it also comes with parts to repair cracks, and those don't get used. =)
Let me know if you have any questions.
c3:Lets Motor for a Worthy Cause ::: Find a MINI Motorer near you!
Repairing Windshield Chip
Posted - 05/31/2007 : 12:33:59 PM
