Windscreen smashed by tree in storm.

[aclwalker 3]

Hi all,

 

I've not posted for a while but last night I was a victim of the weather. We had a really bad storm last night in Glasgow and even though I don't commute any more with the Corrado, I walked up to the street where I park it having a feeling that the trees might have damaged it.

 

My windscreen had been hit by a big chunk of branch right in the top of the driver's corner and has totally smashed it. It's held in by the laminate but it's leaking slightly. Also my sunroof is quite dented now and there are one or two other smaller dents.

 

I have an appointment with National Windscreens tomorrow. RAC (the first company my insurer deals with) could only do it on Friday. What a sheer hassle I've had today. I read about the problems with Pilkington glass on the forum and I checked and sure enough, I've got Pilkington but all other glass is Sekurit, so I guess my windscreen has been replaced before, probably by the fandan who reassembled my wipers all wrong such that the arms were rubbing off the bonnet.

 

The schoolgirl on the phone couldn't tell me who made the glass but came back and said it was "the good stuff". I asked her to confirm it was Sekurit and she said it was, but I'm not at all convinced. She probably thought I was some sort of weirdo. The RAC woman claimed that they made their own glass. When I did a double take and asked her if I'd heard her right that she was saying that RAC actually _manufacture_ their own windscreens, she repeated the claim, as if I was the daftie for asking.

 

Why is it so hard to get someone on the phone now who knows what they're talking about? Is this progress? You can't even phone the branches of these places any more as the numbers are hidden and if you can find them they will go to central HQ if you choose the wrong option. All I wanted to know is if they had the screen in stock AT the branch.

 

This morning was spent on the phone and this afternoon was spent removing all the interior trim that I don't want them to break. I've had too many things broken by ham-fisted morons to trust any of them now. I'm a bit worried about the outer trim down the bottom where the wipers poke through, but it's dark now and it's been raining for ages so I think I'll need to just risk it.

 

The body repair place that the insurance company gave me for the dents also phoned up and the guy warned me that I'm "looking at a total loss"! WTF? I stopped him right there and said:

 

"Mate, I'm not going to scrap a perfectly good car for the sake of a few dents in the sunroof. I told the insurance company that there were dents and that if it was uneconomical to repair (as if there could be any other outcome!) then I'd just not bother. At the moment I'm picking glass out the seat and the windscreen is the priority so I'll phone you back once I've inspected the damage myself and it's not howling a gale."

 

I've just also done a new quote with Admiral (except I had to invent a name or else it refuses to give you a quote since I've already got a policy with them!) and it saves me virtually nothing if I take off the fully comp. I would have to get glass cover on top and it's almost the same price, but it looks like the old Corrado is essentially never going to be repaired by an insurer now as it's past it.

 

Do you hear guys? Our cars are old hat, and not worth repairing. What a laugh.

 

I was going to post a few weeks ago about my 200,000 milestone, but this has really taken the shine off it. My car is much better than cars I know half its age, apart from my tatty bodywork (even before the tree assault), so I'll pretty much be keeping it, I'm afraid, despite what everyone else thinks.

 

At least I'll have a new windscreen now and the fact that I've got a Pilkington already means that I can't really be more disappointed if another one gets fitted tomorrow.

 

What a stools (can't say sh it) day I've had. If you feel like cheering me up then some congratulations on the 200,000 would be appreciated. I'll pass on the message to the faithful wee VR6 tomorrow morning.

[Guest]

Bother, what a bummer.

 

Firstly though, congratulations on the 200k :)

 

I've just had a windscreen replaced and I also asked loads of questions that 0845 number staff seemed to find very trying and boring of me. However, when I did get through to the branch that I was booked into they seemed to understand a bit better. They did however think I was a little strange for wanting to stay while they did the job but I assured them I would be fine with a book and a flask of coffee.

When I turned up at 8.30 with said book and coffee and proceeded to wait while they worked (and kept peering into the workshop to check on progress) I guess they realised the car was more than just a means of transport to me. The fitter then took time out to talk about the work involved and showed me how it was coming on. He even showed me how to add and remove the mirror.

 

I was very very happy with the quailty of the work.

I guess it comes down to the experiance and skill of the fitter and hopefully you too will get someone who loves cars and doesn't just turn to each day to do 'a job'.

 

Keep asking the questions. I recon it shows you have an real interest in the car and care about the quality of the work they do.

Good luck.

[IrishG60 0]

A nightmare bro... Sorry to hear about that... Stick with it and well done on the 200 k mark!!! Any car that's still going strong at 200 desirves more respect!! 8)

[aclwalker 3]

Cheers for your thoughts guys. My bad day was nicely put into perspective by the girl in the pizza place telling me about the problems with her mother's dementia and then later being told by my other half about the 20 year old boy in her operating theatre today with a 40% chance of survival due to cancer developed from lumps he had been ignoring.

 

At the end of the day, it's just a car and I can be thankful I've not had things like the above to deal with. And I suppose I've had the day off too!

 

On a lighter note, here's a wee tip I put to use on my telethon this morning:

 

http://www.saynoto0870.co.uk

 

0845 and 0870 used to be the same as local and national rates, respectively (0845 used to be known as "lo-call" a play on the word "local"). However, almost all telecoms providers have flat rates now so there is really no such thing as national rate any more. Further, local calls are often free now, or in inclusive minutes. 0845 and 0870 numbers don't count towards these.

 

0870 is particularly insidious as the rate is often at mobile-like prices, and the companies who only give out such numbers get a significant cut of the call costs. They probably get a cut from 0845 too, but obviously a smaller amount.

 

You just enter in the name of the company or the 0845 or 0870 number you're looking for and you'll likely find a geographic equivalent which will be treated as a normal call as per your tariff.

 

The reason why this works is that 0845 and 0870 are just fronts for the real numbers. It allows them to change their number without changing the front number (a bit like a PO box) and probably allows them to load share across multiple numbers.

 

You might have noticed on credit card statements and the like they always give you a geographic equivalent to phone if you are abroad, because 0845 and 0870 numbers don't work from abroad (I think). This is mostly where these numbers come from on that website.

 

Happy cheaper calling those insurance companies and others.

 

And Butterfly, I'm digging out my flask for tomorrow. Top idea!

 

Cheers.

[easypops 8]

sorry to hear about this mate.....are you still parking up the hill near the flats?....the wind was real bad last night.....i was up a couple of times to check all was ok and ended up lifting the wheelie bins twice.....they seemed to miss the c but not by much.

200k and still going strong.....nice one :)

[TheWizardofOdds 0]

Yeah, 200 k- nice one. These cars are too easily written off, well done for resisting.

 

I'm doing the new windscreen thing at the moment myself and it's a massive pain in the arse. I've got two tiny chips in the screen and the autoglass geezer I booked in to do the job, successfully talked me out of going ahead with the repair " it might crack even worse..". You'd think it would be reasonably straight forward.

 

Anyway, hope you get everything sorted out ok.

[aclwalker 3]

sorry to hear about this mate.....are you still parking up the hill near the flats?....the wind was real bad last night.....i was up a couple of times to check all was ok and ended up lifting the wheelie bins twice.....they seemed to miss the c but not by much.

200k and still going strong.....nice one :)

 

Cheers. Yeah, I'm still parking up there. I don't often get a choice though, so under the three trees it was that night. I was just unlucky.

 

The good news is that it's all fixed now. I went to National Windscreens in Bridgeton (Admiral wouldn't pay for Autoglass to do it, even though they had the glass in stock and could have done it yesterday).

 

I was a bit wary of the place at first, but to be fair the guy was fine and did what looks to be a good job so far. I queried the thickness of the bead for the sealant and had a printout from the Bentley manual. He said that these kinds of instructions were a bit old hat now (which got me worried) but after the job he explained that it probably was indicating the thickness of the bead BEFORE pressing the glass down. I had pointed out that the old windscreen appeared to be pressed down really hard and low and was possibly a cause of my poor wiper performance. I know all Corrados have poor wipers, but I've done the Lupo mod and also re-assembled the wipers correctly after years of them being wrong with bits missing. This new windscreen must be about 5mm out from the metal of the body whereas the old one was almost touching it. I think the old screen was probably not fitted with spacers. This would make wiping poor as the screen would have been further from the wipers.

 

He could see I had an interest in it and that I knew about the car, so maybe that helped. I'm not sure if the rubber seal is different from before. I should have taken a picture. But the plastic bits were all put back correctly, although the exterior trim had the clips broken before and been glued down with the sealant, so he had to simply do the same this time.

 

The good news is that the windscreen says "Saint Gobain Sekurit" on it. At first he discounted my thoughts about Pilkingtons, saying it was one of the top manufacturers but then he backtracked and said "Actually, come to think of it we did have problems with a few vans with Pilkingtons.", so maybe there is something in it.

 

Now I just need to try to un-dent my sunroof, but there's no great rush for that.

[aclwalker 3]

I spoke too soon. The water deflector/seal/trim thing flew out while driving along at 30 mph. The gap is too big at the top of the screen so the trim has nothing to grip to. They must have let the screen slip.

 

So much for my "old hat" instructions from Bentley. Maybe if the guy had followed them then this wouldn't have happened. I don't know if he used wedges to keep it in place. Probably not.

 

I've booked it in for Saturday morning. What's the bets they'll just want to glue it in? I don't think that's good enough. I suspect it's leaking as I've seen two drips from the same area. If the gap is too big for the seal then the channel will collect water, whether it's glued in or not. Do you reckon I should insist on the screen being completely removed and refitted? I'm worried they will damage the ceramic black-out band when scraping the old bonding off. I gather this is a UV barrier to protect the bond. If they scrape that off then presumably the bond will deteriorate with time and sunlight exposure.

 

Incidentally, despite my comments above, the Bentley manual seems to be wrong. It says the gap up the top should be "42 mm (2 in.)". Firstly 42 mm is not 2 inches and secondly a gap either 42 mm or 2 inches would seem to me to be an order of magnitude too big. 4.2 mm would seem more like it to me, although why bother with 0.2 of a mm?

 

Does anyone know what the correct gap should be at the top of the screen?

 

Everyone at work is slowly beginning to see why I personally do all the work I can on my Corrado. They can scarcely believe the problems I have with mechanics (and tradesmen, and anything I buy from any shop).