Roadrunner Repairs - Glass

Thanks to the people who have recently joined the Roadrunner Chronicles:

Merri and Steve

Olde Crow

Rene

Margie Anne

Terri

Chris

Aaron

Brooke

Marty

John and Linda

I have linked to their blog(s) so if you click on their name, you can read their stories.

One of the facts of life in the motor home (The Roadrunner) is along with the scenic views from our front row seats, comes the risk of windshield damage.  We have a big one piece windshield that has been the target of wayward rocks from cars and trucks on the highway over the two years we have been full-timing.

Similarly, our little Honda CRV has also had damage from flying rocks.  Recently while we were in Arizona, we noticed a large crack in the windshield that was slowly getting bigger.  We decided to wait until we got to Albuquerque to get it fixed.  

We have our car insurance with USAA (United Services Automobile Association).  They put us in touch with Safelite Auto Glass.  They did a fantastic job!  We can highly recommend them!  We got an appointment and went out to their facility on the north edge of Albuquerque.

Our deductible is $250 for a windshield replacement and they only charged a total of $230 so we were glad about that.

We always like to learn about these things and our technician Danny let us go back to the work area and watch the proceedings.

In fact, he set up a couple of chairs for us and we learned all about the company and about the technology.
I didn't realize that windshields are secured in place with plastic pieces that snap in the frame.

 He used his trusty DeWalt power drill and unscrewed some pieces.

 He also removed the windshield wipers.

And popped out the plastic trim.

He attached a hinge doo hickey on the side of the window.  He put a similar suction piece on the new glass that made it easy to rotate the new one into place.

Another tool he used was a wire cutter that he fitted around the edge of the glass.  The hand crank tightened the wire and it actually cut the glass from the rubber sealing on the inside.

The wire is only good for one use...
Danny and another tech lifted the old glass out.

 And put a bead of adhesive around the new windshield before they installed it.

The suction cup arm / hinge worked perfectly and they eased it into place for a perfect fit the first time.
They vacuumed the car, cleaned the window and we were good to go.  The whole thing took about 90 minutes.

The next day, I called Allied Insurance (our RV insurer) and asked to have Safelite come and fix a chip in our RV windshield.

 John arrived and went promptly to work.  He came inside and taped a small mirror onto the inside of the windshield so he could tell where the resin was going.

He filled in the hole and then cleaned off the windshield.  It was a big job but I wasn't complaining.

The $80 cost was covered by our insurance so there was no 'out of pocket' cost this time.

We are sold on Safelite and will use them the next time.  It was pretty convenient and we learned alot.

Have you all ever had windshield damage? What glass company do you use?

Thanks for joining us today on the Roadrunner Chronicles!  And we always appreciate your comments!
Until next time...