BANG! Dump truck throws rock, hits windshield...

[billb]

My wife called me at 7:45am today, on her way to work with the tiny tot. She said "write this down; Basham Hauling, phone number is 539 something..."

Me: "Huh? What're you talking about?"
Her: "I just got hit by a rock from that truck, and it broke the windshield."
Me: "Oh crap."

So I called my insurance guy and left him a message. It's not Geico, and they're not there around the clock. Checked in on the board archives on history with repairs/replacements. Still hadn't seen the car. Called the wife back and we decided to meet at lunch for a car swap. I saw it and thought, ugh, man, that's pretty bad.

Arranged to have the glass guy come by my workplace and take a look. He came by, saw it, and said that "line of sight" is anywhere the wipers sweep, and that they normally don't want to do repairs there. I rolled my dice, and we did the repair. Total time; 20 minutes He cleaned it out, put on the vacuum pump, put in the resin, let it set, put on the mylar for about 5 minutes with the UV lamp curing it, then pulled it all off. Scraped off the excess with the razor blade, and I was thrilled with the results.

Is it brand new? No. Is anything else on the car? No. I've got other worse spots on the windshield than this, although it was pretty nasty before.

Big push for not having it replaced? My insurance is $250 deductible on glass replacement. Repair deductibles are waived. So, I'm shopping for new insurance next week...

See attached pics. The location in the "after" pic is just above the yellow container, kinda smudgy. It really is an impressive fix. You can just barely make out a little spidering from the inside. Drove it tonight, and it is not obtrusive to me. It'll do.

Also, we had a visitor at the BMW CCA meeting tonight. Web liked it, but was afraid it was going to run him over.

[632 Regal]

im with citizens now through an indi agent, they whittled the cost in half of what AAA wanted.

Im glad it wasnt worse and hurt your wife!!!

[SharkmanBMW]

she's lucky Bill, glad she was not hurt or scared into a crash.

My brothers wife drives a Suburban and last winter an 18 wheeler had some ice blocks fly off the roof of the trailer (very common here in winter, they are mandated to clean the roof, but none care enough to do it.)
It hit the grill, hood and smashed the windshield, glass and ice everywhere inside the truck.... she was ok but nearly went off into the ditch.

I hate big trucks that don't obey the laws, here, it seems cops never stop big rigs, they drive like pricks, speeding and lane changes like they were driving a f'ing M3, tailgating... we have tons of accidents with trucks and cars.

In fact, the same type of 10 wheel dumptruck that hit me 3 years ago has run over 2 people in the last month while removing snow from the streets.... they don't look or see or care, NO criminal charges are being filed, even though they hit people on the sidewalk!

[Russell]

In many states insurance will completely pay for broken glass (may be windshield only) with no cost to the owner.

[mikell]

Is it safe with the repair? I don't know anything about how strong the repair is - but it seems if the spot is not too big, strength is probably not reduced too much - I'd see if I could find an expert. The next rock might be bigger.

A friend's son in law was killed by a flying rock that either fell off or was kicked up by a big truck about a year ago - went right through the windshield of his puckup and hit him square in the forehead. Of course, no body got any info on the offender.

Count your blessings.

[SharkmanBMW]

I no longer drive behind big trucks, nothing ever happens to them, they don't give a ****!

On Mythbusters recently they tested the strength of a car windshield by throwing baseballs at them with a compressor setup.

At 100psi they baseballs were breaking the windshield, BUT would not go through it.... it took 3 or 4 in the exact same spot before the ball went through.
seemed pretty strong, but rocks, ice and baseballs aren't quite the same!

[Incantation]

this always concerns me when riding my motorcycle

[632 Regal]

my goodness, my car has at least 10 bullets in the windshield like that!!! I thought you were talking a ROCK not a pebble. Just for this post im gonna try to take pictures of the crap thats on mine, none in drivers view though.

[billb]

my goodness, my car has at least 10 bullets in the windshield like that!!! I thought you were talking a ROCK not a pebble. Just for this post im gonna try to take pictures of the crap thats on mine, none in drivers view though.

...when I saw it I almost laughed, but decided not to in order to not pissoff the missus. Glad it was not as bad as originally thought, but it's still the worst spot on the windshield at 134k miles.

[Alexlind123]

I lucky to not have any yet, i just have minor pitting like you do. Now that i said that im going to be hit by a rock.