What are you doing to prepare your car for winter? Most everyone knows the importance of tires: either replace those with little tread left, or buy winter snows and remember to throw the ice scraper back into the trunk! Some of us also take our cars in for winter maintenance service. This is all good.
But unfortunately, one important item is all too often overlooked: your windshield. If your vision is compromised or if the glass itself is damaged, you’re in danger.
Modern auto glass is constructed from two sheets of molded glass forming a sandwich with a plastic laminate. The laminate helps prevent injury from flying shards of glass resulting from a crash. Instead, the glass cracks but sticks to the laminate, thereby protecting the car’s occupants. The window also adds to structural integrity in case of a roll-over, so its strength is important to your safety.
And to ensure that safety, now is the time, before the winter, to repair that stone chip you’ve ignored all summer. Why does winter make a difference? That chip is letting air and moisture get between those two pieces of glass. Sometimes a telling sign of this is the laminate darkening around the chip. As temperatures drop, the moisture freezes. When you turn on your heat, warming up the car’s interior, you then have warm glass meeting cold glass with trapped moisture, a recipe for that chip to begin cracking. Eventually, this will result in a spider web crack, obscuring your vision and dangerously weakening the glass.
Repairing a chip is a lot more convenient than replacing the entire window, which can lead to complications, especially in older cars. The modern repair process uses technology to remove the air and moisture and then seal the chip with resin that becomes all but invisible. Integrity to the windshield is returned and you, your family and your car are safe, top to bottom.
Call Apple Auto Glass at 519-650-1500 or 1-866-44-APPLE (27753), to have those stone chips repaired at any time, but especially before the winter season is upon us! Don’t forget to ask us if your insurance will cover the cost of the repair.