Windshield Repair Forum

I called a glass place today to get a 12x12 piece of laminated glass. 6 bucks. will this work to practice fixing chips on?

Laminated Glass is laminated glass as far as I know, so yes!

You can specify AS-1 if you want windshield glass, but for practice AS-2 will work just fine and is sometimes easier to create damage in. If you can, get a piece of AS-1 with the shade band so you can practice repairs in the shaded area as well, or just get a windshield from a wrecking yard. 12 x12 seems a bit small. I recommend at least 20 x 20.

Jimmy Prince wrote:I called a glass place today to get a 12x12 piece of laminated glass. 6 bucks. will this work to practice fixing chips on?

Hey Jimmy,

I called one of my future competitors here who do replacment and repairs and asked them if I could have an old windshield they just removed.
They could not believe the question, but were more than happy to give me one. It was cracked across the whole center of it, but plenty of space left on it to make bullseyes, star breaks and I even got some great flower breaks on it too.

In fact the guy being mobile was in my neighborhood and met me two blocks from my house. Plus, it cost me nothing!

How do i make the bulls eyes and star chips on the windshield?

Jimmy Prince wrote:How do i make the bulls eyes and star chips on the windshield?

There are bullseye and star maker tools that come with your kit.

We use a hook tool for bullseyes, spring loaded center punch for star breaks, hardened steel bearing with a hole through it on a rubber band for combo breaks. If you have an old file you don't need you can break it and sharpen points of different sizes and shapes to make all kinds of different breaks. None of these methods work the way you want them to 100% of the time, but since you will be repairing damage that comes in all shapes and sizes that is just fine.

I like my trainee's to do 100 repairs before going out and charging for the work, I suggest a much larger piece of laminate is needed. I never have a problem getting an old windshield as other wise the replacement companies have to pay to have them taken away.