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Posted by Glass Doctors
Use this page to ask us any questions about windscreen repair, some may be placed into an FAQ on this page.
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August 9th, 2008 at 7:55 pm
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December 15th, 2008 at 11:07 pm
I over took a gritter the other day and grit went on my windscreen and left a lot of tiny little chips….is it possible to get rid of them ?
December 18th, 2008 at 6:36 pm
The passenger side only of my windscreen got a pattern of small scratches from a small sheet of metal blowing in the wind - can it be repaired ?
January 14th, 2009 at 11:33 am
when metal strikes glass it can leave metallic deposits on the surface which can be polished off acceptably, however if it has caused deep abrasions it may not be so easy to polish out
January 14th, 2009 at 11:57 am
In response to Jonathan’s GRITTER DAMAGE
If there are just a few pits it may be possible to fill them. The diameter of the drill used to prepare the pits is about 1mm so it it not really practical to repair damage below this limit as it will be made worse by the drill bit. However over about 20 pits and it becomes less cost effective due to the time needed. You need to ensure that the damage you are now noticing is really caused by the gritter and not just normal pitting that occurs in the course of driving that you have just noticed for the first time, as most pople look THROUGH the windscreen and never actually look AT it until an object strikes it.
February 4th, 2009 at 11:44 pm
Hi,
I have a wiper scratch running nearly the full wiper sweep of the window. Can this be repaired so it will pass the MOT ?
February 23rd, 2009 at 3:36 pm
Hi there,
I own a 2005 Clio 182 which has a heat reflective windscreen. I recently picked up a wiper scratch and wondered whether this type of screen could be repaired?
Many thanks,
Matt
March 5th, 2009 at 11:35 am
Hi…
Are you able to repair the very, very fine scratches that you get on car windscreens, created by the normal action of the wipers? Mine is badly affected across the whole of the swept area, particularly after this winter. A couple of times I had frozen washer jets, so the wipers spent 10 seconds grinding the dry salt into my windscreen. The result is that visibility is severely compromised whenever the sun is against it - I get horrible “flare”. Are you able to re-polish the whole windscreen to reduce this problem?
March 11th, 2009 at 11:10 am
Hi there, I am from India.
I had a strange experience the other day and would like to know from you what might have caused it.
I own a Hyundai i10 for the last 15 months, and the other day I drove that to a near by hospital to get my son’s medical report. As I drove to the open parking lot, I got a call on my cell phone from one of my friends. After switching off the engine, I talked to him for 15 minutes. Since it was a hot humid day, the inside (all my windows were locked up) became so warm, I decided to start the car and switch on the A/C. After 10 sec, I could hear a “tip” sound and could see a web crack in the front wind screen. Exactly similar to the one photo on your website - “How Does it Work? Can a Windscreen really be repaired?” in the “Windscreen Repair” tab.
Could this be a manufacturing defect? Since I was sitting inside the car and looking over the front windscreen, I could see Nothing falling on to the windscreen. Can this be due to change in cabin temperature?
Can this be repaired? Do you have your representatives here in India?
Thanks,
Sreeraj.
March 23rd, 2009 at 10:46 pm
Sorry but we dont have anyone in India doing windscreen repair only scratch removal at the moment. You are quite correct that it was the difference in temperature that caused the crack. Take a close look at the actual crack and you might see the small surface mark that was the starting point of the crack, this is normally characterised by a white dot with crushed glass in it where the stone has hit it. if it is around the edge then this will more than likely cause the screen to crack. If you cant see it then it may be cause by the edge of the screen being damaged before it was fitted and then being hidden under the rubber. 80% of cracked screens are caused by damege to the outer 2″ of the screen which is why some replacement companies refuse to repair such damage as it would remove a valuable source of income
March 23rd, 2009 at 10:52 pm
In reply to David Williams, the general wear and tear scratching is not normally a good candidate for scratch polishing as other damage like pitting also present on the screen can attract the polish into it making the screen look like it has measles. The area of damage also is typically the whole of the of the wiper sweep rather than a small easily treated area.
March 23rd, 2009 at 11:09 pm
In response to the two WIPER SCRATCH damage queries:
Some wiper arc damage can be done but it will depend on the depth of the arc which will in turn be dependant on how long the wiper has been scratching over the screen. If you look carefully at the arc you will normally see a series of tiny parallel scratches like the tracks of a record (or CD if you dont know what a record is) each of these tiny arcs will be of varying depths and some may polish out but the deeper ones will most likely remain. Some improvement can be obtained by just polishing over the arc but depending on the length of the arc, that can be a lengthy job which is not always cost effective for the customer as a polish will normally be from £60 to £120. The result can be that the wiper arc is dulled from an obviuos “chalk mark” type of look which is obvious from some distance to something which is still evident on the screen but is not such an obvious distraction. A single stone caught under the wiper and then quickly flicked out is often the most effective type of damage to restore and we have had some excellent results on these types of damage, (mostly on BMWs for some reason) Normally if a wiper arc is bad enough to catch the eye of the MOT tester it is going to be REALLY bad as this is one of the few areas of the MOT test that is down to the judgement of the tester. Multiple arcs from the same blade also denote severe scratching which is not normally treatable as each arc would have to be polished separately and therefore be too time consuming.
April 2nd, 2009 at 4:17 pm
i own a Renault Clio 1.2 and there is fine scratches on the offside of the windscreen that look as if they were done by a scouring pad just surface and approx 8”x 3”any idea how much to repair
April 4th, 2009 at 5:19 pm
provided they are relatively shallow about £80 plus VAT however if they are directly in the drivers vision area great care must be taken not to remove too much glass which could disort the glass. Check to see if the depth of the scratches is even or whether there are any that are deep and crusty looking as these ones will be deeper and unlikely to be removed without risk of distortion.
April 7th, 2009 at 7:05 pm
Ihave just received my car back after an accident repair and the windows are heavily scratched. Is there any way these can be removed by polishing them out.
April 9th, 2009 at 9:09 am
presumably this was done by the bodyshop? If there are a small number of light glass scratches then it may be possible to polish them out however most bodyshop damage is caused around the adge of the glass where the abrasive slips and damages the glass which is not normally possible to rectify due to its depth and position
April 20th, 2009 at 1:31 pm
i have recently had another glass repairer out to look at a chip in my windscreen and they have made it bigger causing a crack is there anything you could do to prevent me from having this crack made bigger or even a new windscreen?
May 7th, 2009 at 8:42 pm
It may be possible to redo another bad windscreen chip repair depending on how bad they have made it…
May 26th, 2009 at 5:42 pm
Hello, just a quick question to settle a debate, but can tinfoil scratch your windscreen?
June 2nd, 2009 at 9:29 pm
I have a chip caused by a stone thrown up on a motorway last Sunday. It is at the top of the sweep of the windscreen wiper in front of the driver’s side. The chip has slightly chipped the windscreen and caused a cross shaped crack just marginally bigger than a pound coin. I consulted the MOT station who said it will fail the MOT. Do you think it is repairable. It doesn’t obstruct the drivers view but it is 5 inches from the windscreen edge.
June 9th, 2009 at 12:52 pm
yes Bob tin foil can leave a mark on glass but it is more likely to be the metal friction welded to the glass surface. It will normally polish out OK
June 9th, 2009 at 12:55 pm
Duncan, it sounds repairable just, however it will depend on any contamination as you do not say how long it has been there. A good quality repair is essential in that position though and it must be “barely visible” to pass the MOT.