Do it yourself chip repair – Does it work?

I'll admit I can be thrifty (not always by choice, lol). I mean, who doesn't like to save money, right? So when I picked up a another rock chip in my windshield this week, I figured I'd try one of those do-it-yourself kits and see for myself how well they work. This was a very small chip, about an 1/8th of an inch, but it was of those sneaky looking ones that could easily turn into crack.  Oooh, I hate those sneaky looking ones!!

I read a few online reviews and the Rain X version of the kit was highly ranked.  O'Rielley's didn't have that brand and I didn't feel like braving Walmart for one item, so I bought the only kit they had, a brand I'd never heard of.  It was $13 bucks.

The kit came with almost everything you need: the sticky double-sided pad, the syringe plunger and the plastic part it sticks into, a tiny tube of epoxy and a small piece of curing agent film.  It did not include a safety razor blade, which is needed later in the directions.  Naturally, I couldn't find one in my junk drawer or tool box and had to take apart my roofing knife to find a dangerously suitable blade. I digress. Back to the review...

Instructions were pretty straightforward.  I made the mistake of not reading them completely before I started. So by the time I realized I had not allowed nearly enough time for daylight to complete the project, it was kind of too late.  You see, the curing agent needs UV light (sunlight) to cure the epoxy.  If it's bright out, it needs maybe 15 minutes.  In low light / dusk / almost night time situations, it needs an hour or more.  And daylight was fading fast as I reached step 10 in the friggin' directions.

By the time I got to the last step and removed the apparatus, it was well past dark and I couldn't really see if the kit had worked or not. Upon closer inspection this morning, it did work... sort of.  It filled the chip, but now you can see a tiny, cloudy looking dot where the chip was. It's not super noticeable, and if I had read the damn directions before I started it probably would have cured better.  I think next time I'll just pay the extra bucks and take it to the glass shop. I'd give this product 3.5 outta 5 stars.

-Michael