On Friday I come home to discover that someone had smashed the windshield of my car:
They had also smashed the windshield of my neighbor Pete's car:
Note the rock still embedded in the glass.
The damage had apparently happened the night before, according to another neighbor, who had heard crashing sounds. I don't know how I missed seeing that when I left home in the morning.
No one had actually seen who did it. There wasn't much else to do but call the cops, call the insurance company, and call Diamond Auto Glass. Pete had also called the same place, though I didn't know it at the time. This led to a funny moment when both Calvin, who was supposed to fix Pete's car, and Alex, who was supposed to fix mine, showed up at the same address at almost the same time. They had me pull up my car next to Pete's, and the work probably went faster with both of them working than if either had been alone.
Glass removal
Here's Calvin removing the glass from Pete's car:
Here's Alex scraping off the gunk:
Older cars apparently use this stuff called butyl which is really sticky and hard to get off:
My windshield was easier to remove since it wasn't stuck on with that butyl gunk:
Smashed up glass
New glass
Pete's new glass:
My new glass, which is bigger, curvier, and more expensive:
The new glass is stuck on with some glue:
Here you can see Calvin holding the giant glue gun in his left hand:
They even vacuumed up all the bits of broken glass, both outside and inside the car:
Shiny!
Pete's new windshield:
My new windshield:
All in all, the windshield replacement was far less painful than I had thought it would be. Except in my wallet. The replacement wasn't covered by the deductible, so I'm out of pocket $300+.
Alex told me that they had also fixed the glass of another car a couple blocks up the street. Someone seems to be going around the neighborhood smashing car windows. Here's hoping they don't come back.
They had also smashed the windshield of my neighbor Pete's car:
Note the rock still embedded in the glass.
The damage had apparently happened the night before, according to another neighbor, who had heard crashing sounds. I don't know how I missed seeing that when I left home in the morning.
No one had actually seen who did it. There wasn't much else to do but call the cops, call the insurance company, and call Diamond Auto Glass. Pete had also called the same place, though I didn't know it at the time. This led to a funny moment when both Calvin, who was supposed to fix Pete's car, and Alex, who was supposed to fix mine, showed up at the same address at almost the same time. They had me pull up my car next to Pete's, and the work probably went faster with both of them working than if either had been alone.
Glass removal
Here's Calvin removing the glass from Pete's car:
Here's Alex scraping off the gunk:
Older cars apparently use this stuff called butyl which is really sticky and hard to get off:
My windshield was easier to remove since it wasn't stuck on with that butyl gunk:
Smashed up glass
New glass
Pete's new glass:
My new glass, which is bigger, curvier, and more expensive:
The new glass is stuck on with some glue:
Here you can see Calvin holding the giant glue gun in his left hand:
They even vacuumed up all the bits of broken glass, both outside and inside the car:
Shiny!
Pete's new windshield:
My new windshield:
All in all, the windshield replacement was far less painful than I had thought it would be. Except in my wallet. The replacement wasn't covered by the deductible, so I'm out of pocket $300+.
Alex told me that they had also fixed the glass of another car a couple blocks up the street. Someone seems to be going around the neighborhood smashing car windows. Here's hoping they don't come back.
