Whack! Windshield Repair

Broken windshields are not fun. Left unrepaired, chips easily, turn in to cracks, which requires windshield replacement. Windshields for older cars are becoming harder to find. Modern windshields are glued in place, requiring professional installation.

Windshield chips can often be easily repaired at glass shops. Some insurance companies will cover 100% of the repair. Insurance companies consider a windshield chip repair as a claim and may use this as a justification to increase your rates, just ask me how I know this.

Recently I tried my luck at do-it-yourself windshield repair. The results were very good. I had 7 chips in my Saab windshield and two on my Subaru. Having these fixed at a glass shop would have been expensive. I tried a $10.45 “Rain-X” windshield repair kit from Amazon.

The kit came with a surprisingly high-quality suction cup, mounted resin injection tool, very clear instructions, a bottle of repair resin and a good supply of materials to make the repairs.

The tool mounts to the glass with four suction cups, and the directions were very clear and helpful. The resin is activated with sunlight. I highly recommend doing this repair on a dry, sunny day. The repair cannot be done in direct sunlight.

The instructions recommend the actual repair be made in the shade, then placed in direct sunlight to cure. The repair only needs about ten minutes of sunlight to cure. I found doing the actual repair in the garage, then moving the vehicle in to the direct sunlight worked well. I did my repairs in the afternoon and was able to move the car to directly face the sunlight.

So, how did it work? Surprisingly well. The repairs were at least as good as professional repairs I have had done. Some of the chips virtually disappeared. It was very hard to see them after the repair. Some of the larger chip repairs were still visible, but much less noticeable.