FLAT GLASS

If you own or manage a business that uses heavy equipment in your day to day responsibilities, sooner or later you will have a piece of glass that breaks.  At Window Welder, we can help save you money on the replacement of that glass.

If the glass is a piece we can cut and manufacture ourselves, we can usually have the glass ready for installation within 24 hours of your call.  We have many patterns on hand from the years of providing dairies and feed lots with on site heavy equipment glass replacement. 

If the glass is a piece we must order from the equipment maker or we need to get a pattern to have it made for us, then we can get the information from you and get the new piece of glass just as soon as possible.

Window Welder has a glass cutting trailer we can bring on site to your operation to cut and install your flat glass in your loader or backhoe as well.  In most cases, so long as the weather is above 50 degrees, we can come to you and cut the flat glass right on your job site. That means less down time for you since you will have no time pulling a door to bring to a shop or trying to get patterns for the glass shop.   

If you have a swather or combine with a big windshield that is coming loose, we can come to you, remove the glass, and reglue it back into place.  Then you and your equipment will be ready for the rough ride in the fields.

If you have any questions regarding what is possible, be sure to sign up on the site or give us a call.

    Windshield glass is referred to as laminated glass within the glass industry.  That is because of the way the glass is "put together."

    When putting a windshield together, it is manufactured by rolling a layer of glass, a layer of plastic, and another layer of glass together into one sheet.  Then the process continues to cut and bend that sheet into the desired shape.  If you were to cut a windshield and look at the cross section, it looks like a sandwich, with plastic sandwiched between the two layers of glass.

    This laminated glass is actually the only auto glass that is able to be repaired.  The plastic holds the resin in place while it is finding it's way into all the fissures and cracks of the break.  Since neither layer of glass is tempered, (see previous blog titled ,"Tempered"), and there is the layer of plastic between each layer of glass, the outside glass simply chips when impacted by a rock.

    The rock that hits the windshield typically only breaks the outside layer of glass.  If the rock is big enough or impacts hard enough to break both layers of glass, the windshield is not repairable and must be replaced. 

    If you have any questions about any damage to your windshield and need some free advice, please give us a call and we'll make arrangements to take a look for you.

    One of the conveniences of pickup trucks is the back glass that slides open.  The, "slider", as they are known, makes for good air movement in the cab of the pickup. They are also available in a dark tint to keep the sun from beating directly on the back of your neck while driving.

    If you are driving a pickup now without a slider, the stationary back glass can easily be replaced with a sliding back glass to make your cab more comfortable.  The cost is usually around $200 to $350, depending on the difficulty factor in changing the glass out.

    All  back glass in a pickup is of the tempered variety.  That means that you will have hundreds of 1/4 inch pieces of glass all over the place if your glass happens to break.  Unfortunately, with the new style sliders, if one pane of the glass is broken, we can no longer simply replace the broken unit and reuse the rest of the framed glass.  It is usually necessary to replace the whole slider even though only one pane may be gone.

    Sliders come in two basic varieties.  One is a nearly clear tint.  It is used mainly for a truck that will have a topper shell on the bed that the occupant will need to access from the cab of the truck.  The other variety is a dark tint.  That is usually the preferred style because of the shade it provides for the interior of the cab.  You want to be aware of how dark it will be at night to see out of the rear view mirror and take that into account when deciding which style to choose.

     If you have ever had a door glass break, you are familiar with tempered glass.  Tempered glass is a single strength piece of glass that has been cut and bent into the correct shape to fit the desired door or back opening in your car or truck. The raw glass is super heated and then cooled quickly.  This tempering process is what causes a door glass or back glass to break into hundreds of quarter inch pieces when it breaks.

    Tempered glass was designed for the safety of the occupants so that if it is broken, you will not have sharp large shards of glass pushing into the cab of the vehicle toward the driver or passengers.  Tempered glass is lighter than windshield (laminated) glass, so it adds less weight to the vehicle allowing for better gas mileage.  Tempered glass is also slightly less expensive to manufacture.

    Any glass that is parallel to the driver can only be lightly tinted.  Dark tint that would impare the driver's ability is not allowed by both federal and state laws.  However, the glass behind the driver can be very dark and is regulated on a state-by-state basis.  This is why on many truck and SUVs, there will be normally tinted glass on the driver's and passenger's front door glass, but very dark, or privacy glass, in all the glass behind the driver's seat.

    At Window Welder, we routinely replace tempered parts and have some available in stock.  Anything we do not have in inventory is usually available to us within 4-24 hours.  We offer total clean up when we replace your tempered glass, including removing the small pieces of glass from the inside of your door. 

    If there is inclement weather, we can also place a special adhesive plastic over the hole from which the glass is missing, wether it be the door or back glass.  That will allow your vehicle to still repel the rain or snow while awaiting the arrival of your glass.

The three most common problems associated with Chinese glass are as follows:

1)    The glass is out of bend.  This means that when the installer goes to put the glass where the old glass had been, the glass itself is the correct size but is not curved or bent like the old one.  When this happens, the installer has to become an artist and add glue to one side of the glass and/or take away glue from the opposite side to make the glass lay down properly in the hole.  The results are a sloppy job, more likely to leak water and air, and a piece of glass that is no longer aerodynamic with the rest of the vehicle.

2)     The glass will have distortions in it.  Unfortunately, you cannot fully see the distortions until you actually drive the vehicle down the road.  Then your view becomes as though you are looking through water wherever the distortions are in the glass.  This will most likely cause motion sickness and headaches.  If the distortions are on the passenger side, as the owner of the vehicle, you will most likely not see the problem until a passenger rides in the car with you.  If that doesn't happen often, it can be months before you realize the problem and then the shop that replaced the glass may not stand behind their product.  We have seen this specific thing happen.

3)    The pre applied moldings can come off easily.  Some auto glass arrives to the glass shop with moldings already attached.  They are actually chemically bonded onto the edges of the glass.  With glass manufactured in North America, there have been no problems.  However, we have seen these moldings fall away from the glass on numerous occasions when the glass originated in China.  If the driver is traveling down the road, the moldings can fly off and require the driver to go back to the shop and have a new windshield reinstalled with molding securely fastened to the glass to help insure the problem doesn't reoccur.  We know of one case where the molding did not come off until 3 months after the windshield was replaced and the client was in California and had to have the windshield redone while out of state.

The point in all this is, if you need a piece of glass, ask the shop you are considering to do your replacement if they are going to be using Chinese glass.  We do not recommend Chinese glass because the potential problems we have seen with it.  The problems do not necessarily show themselves immediately and often cause more headache, down time, and expense in the end.  In other words, you get what you pay for.

When, as consumers, we have any work done on our vehicle, the old adage, "You get what you pay for", certainly applies.  In other words, a low price often times reflects low quality of product or workmanship or, in many cases, both.

Today, I'll address one area of, "You get what you pay for", when it comes to the replacement of your windshield.  That concern is Chinese glass.

We've all heard and read the stories of recalls, sickness, and problems with products manufactured in China.  Windshields are no exception.  There have been recalls on auto glass made in China that ended up being installed here in the USA and later found to be dangerously faulty.  This was dangerous and inconvenient for the consumers who had to bring their vehicles back to be re-repaired (in those instances where they were told).  It was also a waste of time and money for the shops that used the glass (assuming they tell their clients of the faulty glass). 

Every year Window Welder installs over 3,000 pieces of auto glass.  We are aware of Chinese glass that we could purchase for less than $30 per piece, some pieces around $10 each.  However, that idea is not an option for Window Welder.  We certainly could afford to install windshields for less if we purchased our glass through Chinese channels, but that would compromise our 23 year history of quality materials in every windshield we replace.

Next time, we'll address the three main issues seen in client's cars who have come to Window Welder with problems in their windshield made in China and installed by other glass shops.

There are several reasons why you should have your windshield repaired as opposed to having it totally replaced.  Perhaps the main reason is that when you have a windshield repaired you save yourself money. 

Most insurance companies will WAIVE YOUR DEDUCTIBLE AND PAY WINDOW WELDER DIRECTLY if you choose to have your rock chip fixed.  This means, in most cases, calling Window Welder to have your windshield repaired will cost you nothing!

If you do not have full (comprehensive) coverage or you are with the one insurance company that will not waive your deductible for a chip repair, the repair ususally costs about 1/5 of having a whole new windshield installed - that's an 80% savings.

By choosing to have your windshield repaired, you are also saving one more windshield and the accompanying waste from going to the landfill.  As of this posting, there are no recycling options for windshield glass because of its laminated composition.  Therefore they all end up in the landfill.

So to summarize, in most cases, your rock chip repair will cost you nothing and Window Welder will come to you to do the job.  That means no cost and no hassle for you.

Contact us for more details and any questions regarding this subject.