You might not even be able to put your finger on when that crack or chip first appeared in your automobile’s windshield, and in the end, it doesn’t really matter … it’s there. However, making the decision to respond to the damage promptly might save you the cost of replacing the entire windshield in the end!
Many people don’t realize that most (though not all) car windshield chips and cracks can be repaired, especially if the damage is addressed early on. The process is a relatively simple one, does not take long, and is quite often covered completely by your automobile’s insurance policy, for car insurers recognize the savings in cost when they pay for a small repair now, versus an entire windshield replacement later on.
The reason it is so imperative to take care of chips and cracks when you first notice them, is that they get worse with time. The vibration of the car as it is driven on the road, combined with both hot and cold weather, will frequently cause chips to turn into cracks, and cracks to widen and lengthen, both vertically and horizontally, depending upon the season. (Cold weather lengthens cracks that are horizontal in nature while hot weather makes vertical cracks longer.)
A shop that performs auto glass repairs in Tucson, such as Max Auto Glass in Tucson, will first inspect your windshield’s chip or crack to determine if it is repairable. Most chips and almost all cracks that are under six inches in length can usually be fixed. The area needing repair will be cleaned and dried, and then carefully injected with a special resin that bonds to the glass. The filling will be leveled and then dried with an ultraviolet light, which causes the repair to harden, and completes the resin’s bond to the glass. The repair will dry clear and hard, and will restore the windshield’s strength in its entirety. The entire process takes somewhere in the neighborhood of half an hour. This is a half hour well spent, when you consider the amount of money and inconvenience it is likely saving you from enduring, somewhere further down the road!
