With the extreme temps of summer approaching, it’s as important as ever to take care of your car’s windscreen. Read why here.
Regular checks of your windscreen can help you spot any new chips so you can get them repaired before the chip turns into a crack. Not only is a full windscreen replacement more costly, but it also takes more time, plus it produces more waste (over a chip repair).
So, with windscreen chips, it pays to be proactive!
While some auto-glaziers and vehicle repairers can repair a chip, it’s important to know you’re putting your windscreen in the right hands to ensure the best quality chip repair possible.
To help you out, let’s discuss the things you need to know when looking for a Chip Repairer.
What is a windscreen chip?
A chip in your windscreen appears when the glass is struck by debris, and a small piece chips off the main glass piece, leaving a distracting shallow indent.
Several factors can cause windscreen chips, the most common being loose gravel, stones or fragments from the surface of the road that flick up from underneath the tyres of your own or another vehicle to hit the glass.
These little chips may seem insignificant at first, but they can easily turn from a chip into a crack quite quickly, which is why it’s important to get them repaired before they do.
Let’s talk about how to find the right auto glass expert to repair your windscreen chip.
Here’s what you need to ask when choosing a Chip Repairer:
To ensure that you’re getting your money’s worth and that your windscreen gets adequately repaired, you need to do some research.
To guide you, here are five questions to ask your Chip Repairer to ensure you are selecting the best chip repair service:
1. What type of materials will be used for the repair?
First and foremost, you must ensure the quality of the materials used on your windscreen. The higher the quality of the material, the longer the repair will last.
When repairing a chip, service providers typically apply a liquid resin to fill the gaps in the area. However, not all types of resin are the same – many other resins can deteriorate over time which can cause chips to reappear, or worse, turn into cracks.
2. What tools and technology will be used?
There are several ways to repair windscreen chips: some do it by hand and others make use of DIY kits. But to make sure that micro-cracks are efficiently repaired, steady workmanship and careful accuracy are required.
That’s why, when looking for a Chip Repairer, you must also consider their process for repairing your windscreen chips.
At O'Brien®, we use our exclusive Advanced Repair Technology (ART) system that creates a vacuum around the chip to remove all dust and dirt particles. Then, we apply pressure to push our special resin into the chip to fill in every micro-crack accurately.
3. What kind of experience does the Chip Repairer have?
To get a quality chip repair, you want to look for an expert auto-glazier with extensive experience. This will ensure that your windscreen chips are handled with precision.
At O'Brien®, all of our windscreen chip repairs are completed by trained automotive technicians who undertake assessments for quality and performance every two years along with additional training for continuous improvement, which ensures a high-quality repair or replacement from start to finish.
4. Will my windscreen look almost like new after the repair?
While a chip repair is not a complete cosmetic repair, it’s still important to know how your windscreen will look after the service.
In most cases, our repair will look better than the unrepaired damage, but it will not make the chip repair entirely invisible. The repair process usually leaves a minor blemish that will not interfere with the driver’s vision.
Here’s an example of a chip before and after repair by O'Brien®.
Our technicians at O'Brien® always make sure that the damaged area is completely filled and then cleaned and polished to leave a smooth finish.
5. What warranty do I get for the service?
Since this is a professional service, you want to make sure that you are getting a guarantee over your service provider’s workmanship, so they stand behind their work on your vehicle..
At O'Brien®, we take the risk of the repair failing because if it does, or if we can see the repair is visibly distracting to the driver, we will deduct the chip repair cost from the cost of a replacement windscreen from O'Brien® that would have been required in the first place. For more details on our Guarantee, see here.
Not every Chip Repairer is the same – and the answers to these five essential questions will help you decide which service provider to choose for your windscreen chip repairs.
Just remember that your windscreen is an essential part of your vehicle – so it’s important to choose the right service provider to help you maintain it for you.
O'Brien® AutoGlass is an ideal choice for your windscreen repair needs
Using our exclusive ART (Advanced Repair Technology) system, we can inject a special resin into your windscreen chip that will fill the affected area, to prevent the chip turning into a crack.
With hundreds of locations around Australia, you can easily visit one of our local O'Brien® AutoGlass branches or one of our mobile experts can come to you – to get you back on the road in just 30 minutes.
If you’ve got a chip in your vehicle’s windscreen, leave it to the right experts.
Contact O'Brien® AutoGlass by calling 1800 059 829 to get your windscreen chip repair sorted today.
