Gone With The Wind(shield)?

Big day today.

'Big'. 

It's all relative. This afternoon I'm tackling the small (tiny) windshield 'bruises' on my GTS.

The first one I picked up a scant 150 kms into ownership, in Germany, the other on the drive back from picking up the car in London, Ontario. One on each side, driver and passenger. Both a very similar pattern, in that there are actually three little marks to each of them. Presumably when the rock struck the window the first time it rolled and struck it a second and third times, creating smaller divots. In each case. So, six impact points. Ugh.

Fortunately I guess, neither set have resulted in anything other than some gouging out of the glass at the surface. No deeper chip, or 'bullseye' and definitely no cracks. So, lucky there, as replacing a whole windshield is not really something I want to do. I mean, come on! The car's barely a year old!

Cue the Internet, and the wonder that is YouTube, where I can ply my way through countless windshield repair videos. This has resulted in me feeling fairly confident that I can use the final step of the most common repair process for deeper chips and cracks, to effectively fill the little gouges, and with luck, diminish them significantly. 

I start with the passenger side, as my 'tester'. It's the larger of the two impacts and below an adult's eyeline for the most part. I use the resin from the Permatex kit (12$ from Amazon) and followed the instructions for the final step of a chip repair. No creation of vacuum and injection of resin needed, just the wipe with the resin to fill the indent, the curing strip and sunlight, and then the razor blade to scrape off the excess.  

A bit nervy at first, I'll admit, but I take the plunge and proceed. It's easy enough, and the resin cures quickly in the sun. Scraping off the excess (carefully!) with the razor blade turns out to be simple and then it's time for a closer look.

So what's the verdict?

In a word:

Meh. 

Visually, perhaps, it's a touch smoother to look at, a bit diminished...maybe...5 percent? Hard to tell, but not much I feel. The little scuff mark is gone, but not the 'bruises'. Certainly hasn't made them disappear. I'm underwhelmed. Tomorrow I shall have a closer look while driving and see if it has made a noticeable difference from the cockpit. In the meantime, I'll go ahead and treat the driver's side while I have some resin left and since it turns out to not be as daunting as I thought.

Ah well, they can't all work out perfectly can they?

Maybe I'll try another pass at it sometime...

~ Luke