West Bend, WI – Standing beside a chipped windshield at Glass Doctor, 848 S. Main Street in West Bend, Wi, technician Josh Uelmen walks through a repair that can save drivers a lot of future grief and cash.
“We recommend a repair for anything about the size of a quarter,” Uelmen said regarding the general rule of thumb for what’s repairable. From there, the process begins.
“We clean it up, inject resin in it, and then it’s a two-step process,” he said. “One gets pushed in it, and then one fills it level with the windshield so it doesn’t tear your wipers up.”
Cost and coverage are often the first questions customers ask. “Some insurances cover it. Depends on the policy and the provider,” Uelmen said. “Otherwise, we’re looking at $90 for the first one, $25 for each after that if we find more.”
The time it takes for the repair depends largely on temperature. “In the cold, when we let it warm up a little bit, we’re looking at close to an hour,” said Uelmen. “Otherwise, it’s usually about 30 to 45 minutes when it’s a little warmer outside.”
Uelmen is careful to set realistic expectations. “We do explain that it doesn’t go away visually 100 percent because it is still a break and because it is a break in the glass and you put pressure on it, there is a chance that it could crack, but we do what we can to minimize the chance of that.”
Cold weather, he said, is often the culprit behind chips turning into long cracks. “A lot of people have come in saying they have a chip in their windshield. They get in, they’re heating the car up, and when the defrost hits it on the inside and it’s cold on the outside, it just turns into a crack before they get to work.”
Setting up the equipment, Uelmen pointed to the tool mounted on the glass. “This is just a suction cup stand we’re going to put on here. The plunger resin actually goes into here that we put on top of the chip.”
The first critical step is removing air and moisture. “We’re pulling a vacuum on the chip to basically suck out any air moisture that’s in it. So when we go to push the resin in, there’s room for it to fill in there. We’re not pushing against an air pocket.
“Once that’s done, we’re going to put this chip under some pressure now and push that resin into it,” Uelmen said.
He encourages drivers to stop in early, even before committing to a repair. “We tell anybody if they want to stop in at Glass Doctor, we’ll have a look at the chip and give them a little advice on it before we do anything, we certainly can.”
Sometimes, the best advice is to wait. “We’ve had some people where it’s a very superficial and shallow nick in the glass, no hairlines coming off it,” he said “It’s not really worth doing anything with yet. Just keep an eye on it.”
But in winter, hesitation can be costly. “If you have a good-size chip, it’s still smaller than a quarter, especially if it has little hairline cracks coming off of it in this cold, they’re probably not going to last long,” Uelmen said.
That’s where the savings come in. “If we can fix the chip before it spreads, it’s a good way to keep the bill a lot smaller. You’re looking at about $95 after tax. Some of these newer windshields now with the advanced safety systems to replace them, you’re looking at a bill of around $1,000, give or take. So a little money spent up front can really help you get down the road further.”
The resin is cured quickly. “There’s UV lights that shine on that resin that’s in the crack and it cures it. So, timing wise… once the light’s off, it’s cured and you’re ready to move on.”
Glass Doctor also offers peace of mind after the repair. “If it does turn into a crack, we take the cost of the repair off of the replacement,” Uelmen said.
At the end, the goal is function first, appearance second. “You’ll still see it,” said Uelmen. “It looks more like a bug smear than anything. We just try to polish it up so it’s less visible. If you’re going to be looking at it, we try to give you the best outcome we can.”
In short, a small fix today can keep a much bigger problem from creeping across your windshield tomorrow.