Two Windshield Cracks In Three Days
Windshield crack and bad luck. Ever feel like you’ve had some bad luck? Well, one of my customers this week had some really bad luck when it came to their windshield. For the sake of his privacy, we will call this customer Joe. Here’s Joe’s story.
My Car Was Parked For Two Months And I Saw This Crack Once I Got Home
So I got a call Sunday afternoon from Joe. Joe proceeds to tell me that he has been away for the past two months and when he got back home, he noticed a rather large crack starting on the driver’s side of his windshield. He didn’t know where it came from until looking a little closer, he noticed it was coming from a previously filled rock chip (Joe is a new customer so this wasn’t a chip that I filled). I assured Joe that if the crack isn’t too long or too old, I might be able to repair it for him. Joe and I arranged his appointment and I made my way to his place later that afternoon.
When I finally got to Joe’s location, I was able to see the crack on his vehicle, almost immediately. The crack started at the bottom of his windshield and shot up about 10-12 inches towards his line of sight (not cool). After carefully inspecting the rock chip, Joe was correct. The crack had definitely started from a previously filled windshield chip. During a warm and sunny day, the windshield might have been sitting directly in the sunlight for a few hours, and the rising temperature of the glass is probably what caused the chip to spread out if there was still some air trapped inside the glass. It happens!
Time For A Windshield Crack Repair
Luckily, Joe was in good hands. I assured Joe that I could help repair the crack and prevent it from spreading out further but we had to act fast. Joe agreed as he did not want to fork out any money for a windshield replacement right now. I went to work right away. I had to fill the crack right beside the previously filled chip by drilling and popping a new bullseye chip into the crack. Then I began to fill the new chip with resin. I then took a q-tip and soaked it in resin, and wicked the q-tip all the way up the crack (just an old windshield repair trick of the trade).
Thankfully, the crack was fairly fresh and the resin began to fill into the crack immediately. Joe was watching intently and seemed to be amazed to see how quickly the resin was being sucked into the long crack. After a few pressure and vacuum cycles on the Delta Kits injector and a lot of patience wicking the crack, it was time to cure the resin.
Using The Sun To Cure The Resin
Luckily, it was pretty sunny out so I took advantage of the sunlight and started curing the long crack. After a couple of minutes, the resin was curing and it was time to scrape off the excess resin. There is quite a bit of resin required to cure a crack this long. After the resin is scraped off, it’s time to clean up the mess and show Joe. Success! Joe told me he could barely see the crack anymore. I told Joe that he will still see a scar from the initial crack, but at least 80% – 90% of the crack will disappear. Joe seemed very pleased with the results.
Joe thanked me for my hard work and squared up for the windshield repair service. We chatted a little bit more before saying our goodbyes and parting ways.
What a happy ending, right?
Think again!
Three Days Later And I Get Another Rock Chip
Joe, unfortunately, has some really bad luck. Today, so Wednesday, three days after I repaired Joe’s long windshield crack, I got another call from Joe. I panicked right away, thinking maybe something happened with the crack we repaired on Sunday afternoon. Joe proceeds to tell me that he’s got some bad luck and got hit with another rock chip, this time on the passenger side. I told Joe that sucks but at least he knows who to call. Joe then begins to tell me that the chip had spread out immediately after it struck his windshield, and it’s now a 10 inch long crack. Oh no! Talk about a bad week.
I immediately booked Joe in for an emergency windshield crack repair. I met Joe a few hours later and repeated the crack repair process all over again. Joe and I chatted while I went to work on his second windshield crack in three days. We laughed about his bad luck and I wished Joe all the best on not getting anymore rock chips on his way home.
Lesson of the story: get your windshield chips repaired as soon as possible! You just never know when you might have a string of bad luck like Joe’s.
If you ever have any questions about windshield repairs and you’re in the Edmonton area, feel free to contact me at info@dynamorepair.ca.
Take care!
Zach Rodgers
Senior Technician
