Its happened to all of us, driving along the highway minding our own business, when a chip of stone kicked up by the car in front pings against the window and chips it. Its one of the most frustrating things that can happen to your car, and considering the size of the damage, it is disproportionately expensive to put right. Many people take their car to the repair shop with a stone chip in the windshield, and then get charged for a replacement at a cost of hundreds of dollars.
However, this need not be the case. Under many circumstances, instead of replacing the whole windshield, you can use a windshield repair kit to fix small cracks and chips in the glass at a fraction of the cost.
A typical car windshield is made up of a laminate of at least two layers of glass with a polymer resin sandwiched between them This gives the glass huge strength, and in the event of an accident, the resin is designed to hold the pieces of glass together and stop them showering into the car and causing injury.
Because of the layered structure of a windshield, crack repair is possible. Usually in the event of a stone chip, only one layer of glass is damaged, with the underlying...