How to Repair a Cracked or Chipped Auto Windshield

The tiniest pebble or piece of grit flicked up off the Tyre of a car in front of you can fly at high speed into your windscreen and will most likely cause it to chip or, if you are really unlucky.... A crack!

In the winter this can spell big problems, even the tiniest chip, the car gets very cold at night, causing the glass to contract and when you start up the car and blast on the heaters it expands very quickly. This strangely is a technique used to strengthen glass but if an imperfection is present it causes it to get bigger, and very soon your chip can stretch out and become a crack and you will need a whole new windscreen.

If you have a fully comprehensive car insurance scheme then your solution for this is very simple. Autoglass offer a windscreen repair service, which is free under most fully comprehensive car insurance policies. But, you need to catch the chip before it develops into a crack. The machine used by Autoglass basically injects a clear resin into the crack and compresses it will air pressure, forming a very smooth and unnoticeable seal on your windscreen on many occasions you cant even tell that it has been done.

However, if you do not have insurance that covers this or they cannot repair it with the tool (which has a fixed nozzle and can only do certain sized holes) then you can try and repair it yourself, but it can be quite expensive, not as costly as buying a new windscreen though.

Doing a simple Internet search you can find lots of windshield repair kits and there are a vast amount on auction sites like eBay, which are often worth an in-depth look. The prices range from about 100 GBP to around 2000 GBP depending on the type and quality of glass you are dealing with and the size of the crack, another good idea would be to search how-to sites to find tips and guides on actually repairing your windscreen and if you have an unusual or especially old model its probably worth looking for a more detailed account.

A few good sites to consider are:

Rock Chip Kits: (USA)
http://www.rockchipkits.c om/.

eBay: (Worldwide)
http://www.ebay.com

Windshield Doctor (USA)
http://www.windshielddoct or.com/

Delta Kits (USA)
http://www.deltakits.com/

Screen Care (UK)
http://www.screencare.co.u k/

There is also quite a good tutorial video I found on metacafe.com which could come in handy:

http://www.metacafe.com/ watch/642354/windshield_replac ement_kits/

But I warn you know, do not try this is you have any doubts with what you are doing, not only is it a waste of money paying for the kit, but if you ruin the entire glass panel its going to be fairly costly to replace.

If you windshield has developed a decent sized crack then I would very strongly advise that you contact a specialist, cracks over 3 inches are difficult to repair even for the most experienced of windshield technicians and many will turn you away or offer you a new pane of glass.

For me and you, repairing a chip in our windscreen or a even a small crack should be fairly simple, but you will need a steady hand and a good understanding of the kit you are using to get a good clean and flat finish to ensure you do not compromise the glass, leaving patches and edges is not good, you are still leaving weaknesses in the glass.

But do not expect your windshield repair to be perfect, the chances are that you will see a slight difference in the glass but the key is to make it as un-noticeable as possible. If you can stop a crack from spreading across the windscreen and obscuring the view of the driver you have the job done.

Small marks left after the job are common, but should be about the size of a pin head if you have done a good job, the view through the glass which you have treated may have a slight distortion to it, again, this is not a problem as long as it does not hinder the vision of the driver. It's a very good idea to practice on a worthless car before hand if you can.

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Full race report: Monza Italian Grand Prix

Full Race Report:

Ferrari's Fernando Alonso leapt back into title contention after winning a thrilling battle with McLaren's Jenson Button in the Italian Grand Prix.

The Spaniard moves from fifth to third in the championship, 21 points behind Mark Webber of Red Bull, who is three ahead of McLaren's Lewis Hamilton.

Hamilton retired after a collision with Felipe Massa, who finished third.

Button stays fourth overall, ahead of Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel, with a win covering all five contenders.

Vettel finished fourth in a race that Red Bull had always viewed as damage limitation. Webber was sixth behind the Mercedes of Nico Rosberg.

The decisive moments of the race came around laps 36 and 37.

Button had led from the start after passing Alonso into the first chicane following a slow getaway from the Spaniard, who started from pole position.

Alonso tracked Button all through the first part of the race, with the Englishman's lead ebbing and flowing as the two traded fastest laps in a fascinating flat-out battle.

By lap 13, Button had eked out a lead of 1.6 seconds, but Alonso then came back at him and they were nose to tail by lap 20.

A series of fastest laps from Button stretched his lead to a second on lap 29, but again Alonso responded.

Button pitted first, on lap 36, with Alonso coming in next time around. A brilliant in-lap followed by a pit stop that was 0.8secs quicker than McLaren's meant Alonso exited the pits just ahead of Button.

He had to defend forcefully at the first chicane, but held Button off around that lap and then proceeded to pull away at a pace to which Button could not respond.

Instead, Button had to worry about Massa, who was slightly faster than him in the closing laps but was unable to get close enough to challenge.

Hamilton's hopes ended at the second chicane on the first lap as he was trying to take advantage of a battle between the two Ferrari drivers.

Alonso was delayed by his battle with Button at the first corner and Massa was able to get alongside him through the second, left-handed part of the chicane.

That gave Massa the inside line through the following Curva Grande, but Alonso was on the inside approaching the second chicane and held on to second position.

Hamilton, though, was right behind him, hoping to pass Massa on the inside, but as they turned into the corner he was not close enough.

Massa's rear wheel hit Hamilton's front and broke the suspension of the McLaren.

"I had a good start and gained a position," Hamilton said.

"In a realistic world I perhaps should've stayed there a while. I put my car up the inside and tried to get third - it was obviously a little bit too much. I'm very disappointed in myself and sorry for the team.

"I've got to try to collect my thoughts and move onto the next race. The championship is not over, but it's mistakes like I made today that lose world championships."

Vettel recovered from a brief engine glitch, which lost him a place to team-mate Webber, by making an ultra-late pit stop for a new set of tyres at the start of the last lap.

The extra time he spent out on the track leapfrogged him ahead of Webber, Williams's Nico Hulkenberg and Renault's Robert Kubica, all of whom he had been behind before they made their stops.

FULL REPORT TO FOLLOW VERY SOON!!!









Watch the Itailan Grand Prix at monza live right here! on Motorsport Zone!

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Monza Race Preview with Jarno Trulli:




Qualifying Report:

Fernando Alonso produced a stunning lap to grab Ferrari's first pole position of 2010 at the Italian Grand Prix.

The Spaniard was 0.122 seconds quicker than McLaren's Jenson Button at Monza to give himself a great chance of reviving his faltering title challenge.

Alonso's team-mate Felipe Massa was third ahead of Red Bull's Mark Webber, whose fourth was an excellent effort.

McLaren's championship leader Lewis Hamilton could manage only fifth place, with Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel sixth.

Alonso's fastest time of one minute 21.962 seconds came on the first of two runs in the top-10 qualifying shoot-out, at which point he was nearly 0.3 secs quicker than Button and 0.6 faster than Massa.

Defending world champion Button closed the gap on his second run, as Alonso was unable to improve his time, but could not find enough to snatch pole.

Alonso said: "Pole position was a nice surprise. When I stopped in parc ferme, they radioed and told me I was keeping the first position. But there were still some cars completing their laps, Jenson had gone pink [fastest of all] in the first sector and I thought, as had happened before, someone would go faster.

"It is a nice surprise and a fantastic feeling to get this first pole position for Ferrari.

"The first run was just to put a normal lap on the table and then try to risk more in the second run. But, as sometimes as happens in Monza, when you do a normal lap it is better than when you try to push because it is easy to make a mistake."

It was Ferrari's first pole position since the 2008 Brazilian Grand Prix, and Alonso's first since Hungary last year, when he was driving for Renault.

The two McLaren drivers, meanwhile, adopted different strategies with Button choosing to set up his car to achieve more grip through the corners and less speed on the straight, while Hamilton chose not to use the F-duct in order to maximise his straight-line pace.

"We came here not quite sure which approach to take," said Button, "and I think our side [of the garage] made the right choice to run the high-downforce set-up with the F-duct.

"It's very tricky here, as Fernando said, and out of Ascari I got a bit of oversteer and ran wide off the circuit.

"But it's the first time I've been on the front row so I'm happy with second and the car's performance."

Massa, who controversially handed the lead to Alonso in the German Grand Prix in July, was more than 0.3 secs slower than his team-mate.

"When I put the soft tyres on in Q2, I could not do my best lap straight away - the best was my third lap. I said 'let's risk and try to do three laps', but in Q3 it didn't work as well as I expected.

"I was able to do one timed lap on my other set but it was not enough. We have a good car for the race - we've improved it massively," he explained.

Webber's performance was deeply impressive after the Australian suffered problems in practice.

He stopped out on the track twice, on Friday afternoon and Saturday morning, and that meant he had not run on the softer of the two tyre choices - which the leading drivers used to set their grid positions - before qualifying.

To beat team-mate Vettel by more than 0.2secs in those circumstances made it one of the best laps of Webber's season.

"I would have taken that [at the start of qualifying]," said the Australian, who lies second in the drivers's standings, just three points behind Hamilton.

"We extended to a few laps on the option tyre in Q2 and we delivered, in a way, when it counted."

Renault driver Vitaly Petrov was given a five-place penalty after qualifying 15th for impeding Timo Glock's Virgin as he rejoined the circuit from the pit lane.

"I can only apologise to him if I held him up. I didn't see him coming up behind me and didn't see any blue flags as I came out of the pits," he explained.

However, Glock was given a similar penalty, relegating him to the back of the grid, after the team broke a seal on his gearbox to replace the differential, a breach of F1's technical rules.

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