Repairing The Windshield In Your Late Model Vehicle

Windshield damage can occur quickly to your car or truck and is often the result of something hitting the glass from a vehicle around you. Small pebbles, road debris, or items falling from the vehicle in front of you can cause cracks in the windshield that will need fixing by a windshield repair service. 

Glass Damage

The windshield in your vehicle is made by layering two pieces of glass sandwiched around an inter-core of polyethylene plastic. The plastic sheet is thin but strong and will hold the glass together when it cracks unless the impact is high enough to tear the plastic. 

When glass damage occurs, the stability of the multiple parts works together to protect the car's occupants and keep them in the vehicle and other items out of the passenger compartment. However, once the glass breaks or cracks, the structure is weakened, and windshield repair is necessary. 

The amount of glass damage will often dictate if repair or replacement is necessary. The windshield repair service will need to inspect the glass damage to determine if the area will be strong enough after a repair, or if the glass needs to come out and be replaced with a new windshield. 

Glass Repair

If the crack in the glass is small and only on one glass layer, the windshield repair service can often fill it with clear epoxy resin to bond the glass. The resin is forced into the crack using a system that creates a vacuum on the glass surface and pulls the resin in.

Once the resin cures, the crack will no longer be visible on the glass, and the repair can last for years. The crack size will affect the repair, and large cracks are difficult to repair, but anything under a couple of inches is often repairable. The tech can tell you if the repair is possible and what the success rate is for the size crack in the glass on your vehicle. 

Large Cracks

When you notice a crack in your car's windshield, take the vehicle in or have a mobile windshield repair service check it right away. Often small cracks can turn into larger ones if not repaired right away. The stress applied to the glass from movement or vibrations of the body can cause the crack to spread or run, and once the damage gets too large, the only option is to replace the windshield. 

The sooner the crack repair is made, the more successful it will be and the more likely that it will last for a long time without reopening or spreading under the resin used in the repair. 

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