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DIY windscreen stone chip repair


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Good evening chaps,

I just need some personal input regarding DIY windscreen stone chip repairs. Living on a new residential estate/construction site and driving on B-roads has resulted in my car getting a fair amount of stone chips. I only discovered them after washing the car for the first time today and to my amazement, the bonnet was peppered with it!

Anyway, I have a couple of niggling stone chips, not in my direct field of view, and they're relatively small. One of them is a rather blunt 3mm diameter chip and there are a few others in isolated areas which are marginally smaller.

Rather than getting autoglass to come out and repair it (need to check if admiral charge excess for chip repairs, or whether it's windscreen replacement), I've elected to do the job myself.

Can anybody rate these products for me?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Windscreen-Chip-Crack-Repair-DIY-Auto-Kit-Car-Glass-/260287238286?pt=UK_Cars_Parts_Vehicles_Other_Vehicle_Parts_Accessories_ET&hash=item3c9a54108e#ht_2370wt_982

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/CAR-WINDSCREEN-REPAIR-KIT-IDEAL-FOR-CRACKS-AND-CHIPS-/260673581140?pt=UK_Car_Accessories_Car_Care_Cleaning&hash=item3cb15b3054#ht_688wt_657

http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=8&ved=0CIgBEBYwBw&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.crackattack.co.uk%2Fvideo.php&ei=cLjsT4a6A4e-0QWu96n6DA&usg=AFQjCNFkmB0Mn7MriGcyezLXSvj7ObRkDQ&sig2=oasLnRBM81yhwhc2fkt18Q

They're all resin based and similar in principle to what the pros use.

Any help will be appreciated!

Safe

Tot

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I'd be interested to find out any verdicts too on this, I did put a post up looking for any feedback about DIY glass chip repairs, but none came, I looked at the halords kit, but was deterred from getting it due to bad reviews on their site. I've got the same sort of issue as yourself with minor chips (3) and loathing the idea of getting in touch with Admiral so early on in a policy with them.

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Funny you should post up this as I tried to repair a chip with a kit very similar to the third kit on your list and to be honest it failed miserably, it just didn't inject the resin into the crack :(

Be interesting to see if any bod has had more luck with their kit than me..

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Right i'll probably have a stab and get the cheapest stuff. If I've learnt anything about fracture mechanics, particularly from 1st year characterisation of materials, you need to have a sufficiently large crack tip radius to prevent the propagation of the crack.

I'll order it and post my before and after. Also gutted that the stone chips on bonnet are pretty deep. Touch up paints are utter rubbish and I don't want to spray the whole area by priming and sanding down either!

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A few years ago I was asked by my boss to try one of these DIY kits to see what sort of result we could get and to be honest it was a waist of time and money, you will be better off contacting a windscreen repair company, they will tell you what companies they deal will directly and what excess if any you will pay, 9 out of 10 insurance companies wont charge for repairs due to the cost of a new screen and they will repair it at a time and place of your convenience.

We just had our Avensis done by a guy in Tesco’s car park took about 15 minutes and didn’t cost a penny just one signature and that was it, from what you have described with the front of the car being peppered in chips this will be caused by high speed driving i.e. motorway type driving and normally built up over a long period, you will be amazed at how much energy it takes to chip or crack a wind screen.

For the sake of a lot of messing about and cost my advice would be ring your insurance company or ring a repair company direct and see what they say. Dorris

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Yep, i did a DIY job on a previous car, lasted about 3 weeks before it fell out

Just pick up the phone and speak to your insurance company, that is what we pay them extortionate amounts of money for, you may as well get your monies worth out of them

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