Last year, while driving through Utah, a truck kicked up a rock that struck my windshield leaving a noticeable chip. I thought..."Great! I guess I'll have to take the RV back into Novus when I get home. What a pain..." I had taken the RV into Novus the year before for a chip repair and had thoughtfully grabbed a handful of those stickers to place on chips to keep them from spreading. One of those stickers came in handy on this occasion.
Having stared at that sticker on my windshield for the last few months, I felt it was time to take care of that chip. This time, however, I figured I would try to repair it myself. There had to be a way. After all, those "Free Chip Repair" folks who hang around in grocery store parking lots could do it. So I thought there must be a way for me to fix my own windshield. After a few minutes Google-ing "do it yourself chip repair", I found a relatively inexpensive Do It Yourself Windshield Repair Kit on Amazon for under $10. It was the Fix A Windshield Repair Kit and the reviews seemed favorable. I thought "How come I didn't think of this before?" I ordered two kits thinking that I could keep one with me in the RV in case I needed to use it on a trip.
The Repair
Today, I attempted my first repair. After carefully reading the directions, I cleaned the chip area, placed the tube holder over the chip, and followed the instructions to inject the resin into the crack. I had read several of the reviews for this product and picked up a couple tips from other customers. I placed a heat source on the inside of the windshield to allow the resin the spread into the crack easier. Instead of a heat gun or hair dryer, I just used a utility light. Once the crack was filled, the instructions said to expose the car to direct sunlight (or UV light) to bond the resin to the windshield. There's very little sun here this time of year, so I used a simple black light which did the trick.
Success!
I was very satisfied with the result. It was as good or better than other chip repairs I had "paid" $60 for. Using the same kit, I repeated the process for two other windshield chips on our Honda CRV tow vehicle. The result was a "barely" noticeable mark where the ugly chip had been. Each repair took about 30 minutes.
I still have the second kit I purchased, so I'll keep that one in the RV in case I get another chip while on the road. The repair process is easy enough to perform while at the RV park. Try it out for yourself if don't believe me. Once you've repaired a couple of chips on your own, you'll never pay again.
Have you tried this? Tell me how it went.
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