Windscreen repair?
Windscreen repair?
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Discussion

Condi

Original Poster:

20,351 posts

200 months

Monday 10th June 2024
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After getting a chip in the windscreen this morning, less than a week after having 2 grand worth of bodywork repairs courtesy of the local wildlife, I'm really in no mood to spend more money than needed. How good is an Autoglass repair? Is it noticeable afterwards or will they somehow blend it in with the existing glass? Or is it simply better to suck it up and pay to have it replaced? It's very localised and should be the ideal candidate for a repair, rather than replacement.

Glassman

24,957 posts

244 months

Tuesday 11th June 2024
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Post up an image if you can, please.

A repair as good as one can be will never be 100% invisible no matter who does it. Some types of damage will however repair better than others.

dreamcracker

3,332 posts

246 months

Tuesday 11th June 2024
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You can buy repair kits and do it yourself.
Have a look on YouTube for windscreen repair to see results.

Glassman

24,957 posts

244 months

Tuesday 11th June 2024
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dreamcracker said:
You can buy repair kits and do it yourself.
Have a look on YouTube for windscreen repair to see results.
You'd think I'd be completely against this idea for obvious reasons, but I'm not. However, when you see what a good, professional repair looks like compared to the average DIY results, you might begin to understand why a percentage of enquiries I get are about re-repairing them.

Byker28i

91,598 posts

246 months

Tuesday 11th June 2024
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We had a chip in the seat, overnight the temp drop turned it into a 18" L shaped crack.

£95 for the autoglass replacement via the insurance, took about an hour. They will try to sell you new wipers, which in my case was fine as they were quite worn.

Blib

48,102 posts

226 months

Tuesday 11th June 2024
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Glassman said:
Post up an image if you can, please.

A repair as good as one can be will never be 100% invisible no matter who does it. Some types of damage will however repair better than others.
It's a pity that you're in Yorkshire, OP.

If you were based within striking distance of London then Galassman's your man for anything windscreen related.

(Though, on the downside, he's a Gooner).

Whataguy

1,134 posts

109 months

Tuesday 11th June 2024
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If you have glass cover on your insurance, they can usually come to you to fix it.

Doesn't take long, they say the repair looks like a spot of water permanently on the screen - depending on location/size.

I've had one done and it was fine. They said the windscreen is stronger at the repair, but still visible depending on the light.

c_henry

61 posts

99 months

Tuesday 11th June 2024
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+1 for Glassman!

alscar

9,792 posts

242 months

Wednesday 12th June 2024
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I’ve had Autoglass out twice on 2 very different cars but both times happened to be the same chap on both.
Did excellent jobs both times.
Both were new windscreens but on one it was borderline repair but as covered on my motor insurance ( with no penalty going forward other than paying £100 on the excess ) seemed more sensible.

Glosphil

4,882 posts

263 months

Wednesday 12th June 2024
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A few years ago Autoglas repaired a chipped screen on my wife's Clio. The chip was about a 1/3 of the way up the screen & about 20cm in on the passenger side. The repair couldn't be seen when driving the car & you needed to know where it was to find it from outside the car. About a year later we had another chip. It wasn't until the Autoglas guy looked it was noticed that the chip was partially on the previous repair - new screen fitted.

shtu

4,521 posts

175 months

Wednesday 12th June 2024
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Apologies for jumping on the OPs bandwagon, but our resident expert is already here. smile

What's the score with re-repairing a stonechip? My screen has a small chip that - according to the Autoglass bloke - had been previously repaired, and so all he was able to do was "fill" the surface crater. Which has lasted 18 months or so.

It's a tenner a go, so I'm not overly worried about redoing it again, but if there was a better repair available than their kit I'd be happy to do it.

Glassman

24,957 posts

244 months

Wednesday 12th June 2024
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shtu said:
What's the score with re-repairing a stonechip?
Broadly speaking, You cannot re-repair. However, sometimes you can get back into the break. For example, if the previous attempt looks the same after as it did before, there's a good chance of opening it back up (to fill). Where the repairer hasn't managed to fill all the cracks, you can effectively hit the area again like a stone would (there are controlled techniques for doing this) and thus start a fresh repair.