That dreaded time; windshield replacement

[Techno Duck]

Incase anyone needs to replace a windshield in the near future, here are some tips from my experience.

Had a crack develop in my windshield which basically spread across the entire passenger half. It was time for a replacement!

I had the windshield on my '87 944 replaced a few years ago from Safelite and the guy did an excellent job. I decided to use them again for my '88 951. I had it done at one of the Safelite locations about 15 minutes away.

Cost installed was about $560; this is for the later style windshields with integrated antenna. Glass brand was Mount-Saint Gobain Sekurit (AKA OEM).

Now the initial install was not very good. The installer was a younger fellow though i went against my gut and figured let him take a shot at it. Well the windshield sat way to high up in the frame, about 1/8". With the hood open, the edges of the hood would touch the windshield, also the rubber trim around the windshield was not sitting flush with the roof or a-pillars due to the extra height of the glass in the frame. Other complaints were the passenger side a-pillar trim was cut into from the wire used to cut the old windshield gasket. Another complaint was it was pretty sloppy on the inside, on the passenger side there were a few parts where too much urethane was used and it was bulging around the frame, very visible. The tech took about 1-hour to complete the job. Overall, just extremely sloppy work.

Naturally i complained and told them i wanted it redone under warranty, showing all the issues i noted above. They agreed to do it almost with minimal coaxing.

Now i was originally going to have it done at the same location; mind you all of the techs here are younger guys. I did some recon on another Safelite location about the same distance from my house and noted they had two older techs working there; now its part conjecture but i figure these older guys have a little more experience under there belt. I swapped my appointments and had this other location replace the windshield again this morning.

The service manager and older tech came out and took a look. They naturally tried to shy me away from replacing the windshield, saying it was likely i would get the same result. It didnt take me much effort to get them to agree to another replacement though. The tech spent about 2.5hrs on it. He did an excellent job and the glass now sits perfectly flush in the frame, the way its supposed to. All the extra urethane that squeezed out was cleaned up aswell. Overall i am extremely happy with how it came out. Its a shame that a basically brand new $500+ windshield was probably put directly into the recycle bin though.

Now here are some takeaways if you need to have your glass replaced.

The exterior trim/seal provided with the Sekurit windshield and the universal seals they had all did not fit well. The seal provided with the windshield was too narrow and the universal strips just plain didn't look right. Both the 1st and 2nd installers suggested reusing my original OEM seal which was still in good shape. I had no problem with this and agreed. The OEM seal presses into a track on the windshield and if the glass is set properly, should fit perfectly around the window frame. So if your original seal is not in good condition, i would order the OEM seal before hand and bring it with you. Cost is about $45 from Pelican.

The Sekurit windshields have urethane around the entire perimeter of the glass, unlike most windshields which are glass only. The 2nd tech that did the job explained to me this allows for a much better seal and allows for less urethane to be used on the frame. The downside is it can be very difficult to get the glass flush in the frame. I am not sure what he did exactly, but i believe he had to trim part of the urethane that was pre-applied to the windshield to get it to sit flush.

Remove the interior a-pillar covers before having the windshield replaced. The covers sometimes are glued partially to the windshield frame and during removal, its very possible they will get damaged while removing the old glass. Same goes with the front part of the headliner / sun visors.

Consider doing some recon on the place you plan to use, i probably should have looked around more and used the 2nd Safelite location i used this morning the first time. Despite the issues above, i am quite happy with how the (2nd) install went. But like any service, it all depends who is doing the work.

[sjv]

I had a OEM windshield replaced in my 88 N/A after a glass out paint job was told the glass cost $700 I used a new gasket the installer dry fitted the glass before using the adheisive it came out great What a differance from 25 yr's of road sand

[fejjj]

TD,

Thank you for taking the time to offer your insight on this!

[mazdaverx7]

Good advice on that! I used SafeLite a few years back for a windshield on my 92 Camry. They did a great job at making it look original and they took their time to ensure that the job was done properly.

[tchudy]

Could you post a few pics of the finished job?

[Techno Duck]

Not to exciting, but as requested..