A chip off the old windshield

Unleaded gasoline soared 14 percent in price over the past year in global markets. The impact on Saipan is plain to see, as gas hovers near the $5 mark per gallon now. I’m always on the lookout for ways to save money on my cars, and, though I can’t fix expensive gas, I’ve found a good kit that allowed me to mend a couple of windshields, which cost me all of $12.

What is it with windshields these days? Up until a few years ago I never had to replace one. But in the past few years I’ve had to replace two of them after they got hit with flying pebbles. In both cases, the immediate damage was just a tiny little chip in the glass. And, also in both cases, the chips wound up growing into large cracks.

So I don’t know if modern glass is getting weaker, or if modern rocks are getting stronger, but, either way, I can’t afford these problems.

Recently, a couple of our cars got nicked by soaring pebbles on the road. I guess it was mating season for pebbles or something. I wanted to see if I could repair the chips before they grew into bigger problems. I’m talking little tiny chips on the windshield, each one no bigger around than a pencil eraser.

The basic concept of the repair kits is pretty simple: The damaged area is cleaned out a bit by digging out any obvious chunks, and then a resin adhesive is injected to fill the gap. The resin has to be forced into the chip under pressure in order to ensure that it reaches all of the damaged area.

I wound up buying two kits for this. The first one, made by an established brand that any mechanic will recognize, was bought over-the-counter in a retail store. What a mistake that thing was. Not only did the kit break during use, but it broke after it had injected some resin into the crack, thus blocking any hope of success with a follow-up repair.

With my back to the wall at this point, I had no choice but to hit the Web. Amazon’s site had an abundance of insightful customer reviews for this realm. The stinker of a product I had bought got bad reviews, which at least validated my experience with it, but it still shows my stupidity for not researching things before the fact. Oh well. But by perusing the reviews I found something that seemed to work well, the “Fix-A-Windshield” kit which is made by Fix-A-Flat, a brand usually associated with tire repair products.

One feature of the Fix-A-Windshield is that it uses suction cups as feet to anchor a plastic bracket atop the windshield, thus providing a very solid base for the resin injector. On the other hand, this design meant that it took me a little while to get everything aligned correctly, since every time I moved one foot, the entire bracket would shift slightly. If I ever have to do this again, I’m going to have an assistant inside the car who can help me align everything with the chip.

I was able to mend two chips in far less than an hour. Well, I assume they are mended, only time will tell. The fixing is done in the shade so that the windshield isn’t too hot. Then the car is parked in the sunshine so that the resin will cure.

I don’t know how many chips can be repaired with a single kit. Though I milked it for two repairs, maybe more could be had, I don’t really know. My efforts did not restore the glass to its flawless and virgin state, but I am hopeful that they are good enough to keep the chips from growing into cracks. The cosmetics don’t concern me. The structural integrity does.

There are people who repair windshields professionally, but I don’t know of any on Saipan. But I once talked to a pro, a very meticulous guy who had been a machinist in the Navy, who told me that the most important thing is to repair the chip as soon as possible, ideally within one day of the damage. Otherwise, he said, road grime will start gumming up the wound, and the more of that contamination there is, the lower the odds that the resin will adhere properly.

Incidentally, two of the auto glass shops I talked to on Saipan do not suggest attempting repairs, but instead recommend replacing a damaged windshield. Though I can’t see any harm in trying to repair a small chip, I’m just a slob and an amateur, so I’m not giving advice, I’m just telling you what I did.

But I think it’s safe to say that the main way to minimize car expenses is to keep on top of maintenance and repair issues, so that little problems don’t snowball into big ones.