DIY Windshield Chip Repair

I don’t know about you, but with every car that I’ve owned, at some point the windshield chipped.  It never fails, I’m minding my own business and then a rock kicks up and chips my windshield.  I swear a meteor fell out of the sky and hit one of my cars another time.  It seriously scared me.  A few weeks ago a truck on the highway kicked up a rock and it chipped the windshield on my Infiniti.  Since we’re approaching spring and the temperatures are rising quickly, I wanted to address this chip before it turned into a much larger crack.  In the past I’ve paid professionals to repair my windshields but this time I figured I’d do some research and see if I could do it myself for less.  The good news is that you can and it costs less than $15!  Here’s how my DIY windshield chip repair went.

How to repair a chipped windshield on your own

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Step 1. Purchase a windshield repair kit.

I bought the RainX windshield repair kit on Amazon for under $15.  This kit is made for all types of laminated windshields and uses resin to not only minimize the appearance of the chip but also claims to stop it from spreading.

Step 2. Prep the chip

Before you get started, make sure that the windshield is shaded from direct sunlight.  It was an overcast day when I did the repair so I didn’t move it into the garage.

Start by carefully removing any of the loose fragments in the center of the chip by scraping it with a razor blade.  The kit comes with a razor blade.  After the loose glass fragments are removed, clean the area with a dry towel.

This is what my windshield chip looked like.  Not terrible but I don’t want it to spread.

Step 3 – Center the ring on the chip

It’ll be easiest to do this without the resin chamber attached so remove that and align the center of the ring over the chip.  I checked it from inside the car and noticed that it was slightly off so I adjusted accordingly. The suction cups are strong and held the part in place with no issues.

Once the ring is centered, screw the resin chamber back in place until the rubber mouth is touching the glass.  Again, you can check from inside the car to see if the contact is complete or if it should be screwed in a little tighter.

Step 4 – Add the resin

The directions say to squeeze 3-6 drops of resin into the resin chamber.  I went with 6 just to be safe.

After the resin has been added, the next step is to screw the pressure driver into place to drive the resin into the crack. I waited 6 minutes and then followed the manufacturers directions before removing the apparatus.

Step 5 – Touch-up with curing strip

The last step was to touch-up the chip with a little more resin and a curing strip.  The trick here was to let it sit in direct sunlight to cure. After curing for 5-10 minutes you can remove the strip and scrape any excess resin with the razor blade. I was nervous that the large resin spot would be difficult to scrape up with the razor blade but it was extremely easy.

DIY Windshield Chip Repair After

It was very difficult to get an after photo because my camera didn’t have much to focus on.  Just above my finger you can see the tiny little mark that is now flush with the windshield. Overall I am very impressed!

Here is the before picture again to put it into perspective.

Is it perfect? no.  However, visually it’s probably just as good a a professional chip repair.  Will it stop the chip from spreading? Only time will tell.  I hope that the answer is yes and from the reviews online I have high hopes.  Overall I would give the kit a 9/10 for ease of use and a 10/10 for cost.

This entire process was pretty similar to filling stone pits in natural stone countertops which is always a fun process.

I’d love to hear from you if you’ve used the RainX windshield repair kit or anything similar.  How did it work for you in the long run?  Let me know in the comments!

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