Proud of my work

[jhickman1]

Yesterday I walked about 20 feet away from a friend of mines truck. I noticed 2 chips tht were clearly visible! When I got inside I told him about them and said he should get me to fix them. He said he got "Company A" (I wont put the name but trust me, we ALL know the company) to fix it about a month ago. I said it cant be cause it was so visible. I went back out to look again and it was the worst job I had ever seen! You could stick a thumb tack down into the drill hole! It looked like the got the resin into the bullseye but not at all int the legs of the star (it was a combination break ).
He said they assured him that it wouldnt crack further and that it would always look like that and that was typical for windshield repair.

Since I am new I have done alot of practice repairs and have been purdy satisfied, but havent been able to compare my finished product to any others. But since I saw this I KNOW mine are good! I just cant believe that a company of this size and recognition would do such crappy work!

[candyman]

Sometimes techs will use an inferior resin that will not hold up. That may account for the hole. I've seen a few major companies do a bad job. Sometimes when I make a repair I see a 95 % or better improvement. Other times no matter what I do I can still see the legs on a break. If trash is blocking any part of a break that will prevent the resin from filling properly. I know they have resin in the legs but its more visible. This may be due to the windshield is tinted and the resin iam using is clear. I've talked to several about this and no one seems to have a solid reason for it. I repaired an old break recently and the center was brown. You cant clean glass once its contaminated with dirt or trash. I filled the break and sealed the WS. The surface was smooth when I finished. Normally that type of break would be almost invisible. But in this case i could see that spot of brown. The customer had just purchased the vehicle and the break happen months or years ago. I even pulled part of a BB shot out of the break while probing. There are techs that wont touch a break more than a few weeks old. Be very carefull when doing older vehicles. If you see brown around the edges of the windshield avoid them. That means the laminate is deteriorating. I try not to drill, but there are times you really need to. Such as, a break with a air pocket between the glass. This is where the experience factor plays a major role. I always try to do the best job I can and I take my time. Do your best and you will be ok. Sometimes the easy breaks are the hardest to repair. I repaired a combination 1 1/2 inch break this week and the center of it was crushed. The break was almost invisible when I finished. That saved the dumptruck owner a lot of money. He had priced a WS prior to calling me. I told him if I couldnt repair it he owed me nothing. I got 2 more jobs from him after he saw the results. Have a good week. PS I get a lot of info off this site and people like Screenman and the guys & girls at Delta kits.

[bill lambeth]

Great post candyman!

[jhickman1]

Thanks candyman

[glassdoctor]

jhickman... this won't be the last time you see horrible work. A month old repair in that bad of shape isn't the fault of poor resin, etc... it's just poor workmanship. First clue is that they didn't bother to fill the drill hole.

The dark spots in the old repairs are usually the result of drilling into the laminate, and in candyman's example... it can also be from a broken drill bit stuck in there. Sometimes, the nasty pits with a chunk of a drill bit can be cleaned up pretty decent, if you can get the old chunk of bit out. When the laminate has been drilled into, it's going to have an ugly spot no matter what. Just have to play dentist and do your best to clean out the cavity. Prime with thin resin, then pit resin. If only we had a sprayer and one of those suction thingies. lol

[screenman]

Biggest reason for a poor repair, moisture. 90% of the companies over here doing repairs do not dry out at all or at the most properly. Water has much the same refraction index as glass so is hard to see, however do a wet repair and look at it a week later when the moisture has mysteriously dried out. Try it in your practise glass.

[jimmymaguire]

You see many a times substandard work done and wonder, how difficult is it to get the job done right. Fooling our customers will only lead to a bad reputation for the company and will end up spreading bad word of mouth. We need to treat every job, however minute it may be, as important and use high quality and standard products to do it efficiently. That will lead to less 'repeat jobs' and give a company a good name that will help it in the long run. The best kind of advertising is 'word of mouth' . Tampering with the quality of service, will affect it very badly.

[screenman]

The big companies have been doing poor repairs for 20 years and they are still the big companies. Do not ever think they are going to go away, it will not happen. You must be better, more professional and never miss an opportunity to sell yourself to succeed.

[glassdoctor]

I got to work a job for a nice old guy yesterday, rare for me since I do dealer work. This guy just bought the vehicle so the dealer sent me out to fix it. In conversation he was happy to say that his insurance company will sent out someone to fix chips for free, etc. Sad thing is... I know for a fact that if the insurance company had sent someone out to do the chip I was working on, they would have no chance of actually fixing it. In fact, they probably would have looked at it and said it's not repairable. I've been told from one of the biggest chain shops in my area, that "they" only repair chips without a "crack" which means they only do bullseyes, moon, etc. Any and every star chip.... they tell the customer it's not repairable, but needs replaced. That's like 75% of chips... at least.

Anyway, this old guy's w/s had a large starburst... probably 10 or 12 legs.... and it had been previously repaired, but not well. Half the legs were fully not filled, and the rest of them opened up pretty easy as I worked on it. But I got them all filled (without drilling a bunch of hole btw) and went on down the road, thinking of how few in our trade actually have any shot at all to successfully complete that type of repair.... the first time around, let alone reworking it a second time.

[Glasseye]

Picking up on what Glassdoctor mentioned about them refusing to do star breaks. I think the reason for that is the type of equipment they use which I guess would be the Ras 123 head or the Classic. Both of them place a high suction footprint on the glass, approx. 2" diameter. If they haven't prepped the damage correctly, prior to placing the repair equipment, there will be a high risk of " break out" from the repair.