How to Take Care of a New Windshield

New auto glass is an investment in your vehicle that you do not want to have to keep replacing. When your new windshield is replaced, now is not the time to start celebrating and breaking out the champagne as you joy ride across off-road terrain. Instead, you should be very cautious about that new window and consider the following dimensions of wisdom before you wind up with a bum windshield repair.

 

Hold Your Horses

Just because the shop gives you the green light, don’t think about driving off into the sunset just yet. Most shops are courteous enough to warn you about the consequences of disrupting the freshly minted seal that binds the new windshield with your vehicle. The stuff that is used to secure the windshield to your automobile is nothing more than a circumference of sticky and gummy black cord. This is the same stuff that can be found in the rain seals on your doors if you remove the interior panels. This goo seems to be set all fine and dandy when, suddenly, the pressure placed upon it causes it to separate and fail. This goo is really just sticky enough to dry and hold your windshield into place once it sets if you allow it to set properly.

Never pull right out from the auto repair shop. Always wait at least an hour after the repair is all said and done to drive your vehicle away. This is the perfect opportunity to check your vehicle for glass shards and any other debris that might be left behind from the repair. Although most installers pride themselves on being super-neat, they also have to balance this against their workload and efficiency. So, it is not uncommon to find a small glass shard or other debris left over from the repair.

 

The Two-Day Rules

There are a variety of special considerations that every vehicle owner should take for the first two days after a repair. This is the time it takes for your seal to dry and set. If you develop any leaks in a late-model vehicle, you can find yourself with unsolvable electrical gremlins that can reduce the value of the vehicle to nothing overnight. A car is really worthless if it doesn’t run and the source of the error is impossible to pinpoint. The man-hours needed to locate and resolve such issues is typically greater than the real-world value of the car.

 

Avoid Rough Roads

The vibrations that travel through your car are enough to dislodge the seal on your windshield. For this reason, you should ensure that you take it nice and slow and keep your vehicle off rough roads where the potential for damage exists.

 

Avoid Car Washes

Because the seal is still fresh, this is the worst time in the world to start interfering with the setting of your windshield. We at Premium Auto Glass suggest that you not wash your vehicle at all, or wash it by hand if you find it absolutely necessary without using any pressure washing equipment.

 

Keep Those Windows Cracked

It is important to keep the pressure equalized inside your vehicle to ensure that the air does not try to escape through the weak points in your window seal. For this reason, We at Premium Auto Glass suggest that you keep your windows down at least an inch on all sides but not greater than this. If you lower the windows too far, this can have the opposite result of drawing in too much air pressure which disrupts the sealing and curing process.

 

The Retention Tape is There for a Reason

When you have a new windshield installed, the installer will typically cover the repair with retention tape. Even though it draws attention to the fact that you had your windshield serviced or that you are having some sort of work done on your vehicle, you must refrain from removing it while the seal properly sets.