Stone Chip

[Marvo]

I had a stone hit my windscreen today at high speed. It's left a small ding in the glass which has 2 or 3 very short cracks emanating from it. The chip is centre screen but quite low down and not in the way of my view during normal driving but I'm sure the cracks will get longer over time. I've seen several company vans driving around that supposedly fix stone-chipped windscreens and wondered if anyone had used similar contractors with any success.

I know windscreen glass is tempered which means it's stressed so I was highly dubious that it could be successfully repaired. Any thoughts are appreciated.

 

[alarm man]

people have been fixing windscreens for years,it works,so they say..

 

[Marvo]

It's fairly new here, I haven't seen windscreen repair companies up until about 2 years ago.

Do you know how they actually fix them? Is the chip still visible after the repair and what's the success rate?

 

[High Tower]

Cracks cant be repaired!!, only chips.

 

[tony mc]

I had a chip repaired years ago which worked fine you could just see a slight mark on the glass.

As mentioned once cracked I believe its a new screen !

 

[Lofty]

Yes they can only repair the chip not a crack. they use a resin which when dry has a very similar refractive index to the glass which as Tony says leaves a very slight mark and it is slight. The resin bonds in the chip to stop a crack from forming. They do say to get it repaired ASAP.

Cheers,
Lofty.

 

[Marvo]

At the moment the chip is about 1/8th" across and the cracks are minute (also about 1/8" long each). The whole damaged area is around 8mm diameter.

 

[tony mc]

Get it looked at soonest as if theres ******


I was going to say a FROST but I see where you are !!!"

 

[Marvo]

I was going to say a FROST but I see where you are !!!"

Lol, we're not expecting frost here at least until the next ice age. The heat is a major problem though.

 

[Richard Burns]

Be careful of the ones hanging round car parks offering free repairs, I took mine to one of them whilst working away and they pressed so hard they actually cracked the windscreen. Because they were not my insurance company approved repairers it took three months to get the payment sorted and I had to have a new windscreen six months later, with the associated excess.

However better companies do a good job. The usual recommendation is that if the star can be covered by a five pence piece (17mm diameter) then it is repairable with resin, if it is larger than that then it is a new windscreen, though I did have one guy who repaired a chip about ten pence size just to save me the cost of a new screen and it worked fine.

The resin is a UV stabilised resin that is forced into the cracks by pressure, cured and then sliced level with the screen, still just visible but not a distraction.

 

[nickblake]

Some one mentioned frost mm chips and frost dont mix , i have just had to have my screen replaced there was a small chip on my screen , it was misted up and cold one morning so heater was on a crack slowly appeared across my windscreen then as soon as it was in front of me it went verticle , then having a pheasant hit it as well didnt help looked like a flippin road map lol

 

[Marvo]

Well thanks for the info everyone.

I took it in this morning, I'm glad I did cause a new screen is over 500quid converting directly from my local currency. The chip repair was around 15quid.

They attached a contraption over the chip, then a few drops of resin is dripped on it. They attach a small pump and pull a vacuum which sucks any air out of the chip and when they release the vacuum the resin then gets sucked into the chip. That's basically it. The contraption is removed, a few seconds with a UV light and a scrape with a razor blade to remove the excess.

I'm just praying it worked. I don't fancy forking out for a new screen and there's a 14 day order time if I need one

 

[DurhamSparky]

sweet...! nice job marvo!!


there is a bloke called gavin who calls round in the UK filling up cracks for women drivers with his special resin...!

 

[poppypiesdad]

Windscreen Chip Repair - Glass Repair and Replacement - Autoglass® UK

all you need to know

 

[Marvo]

Windscreen Chip Repair - Glass Repair and Replacement - Autoglass® UK

all you need to know

Thanks poppypiesdad, I'm in Cape Town though.