The glass in your car or truck is durable and can take a significant impact, but if you have a window or windshield that breaks, cracks, or chips, you may need a replacement. Finding the glass is not difficult, but installing it can be challenging unless you have the right tools and experience to do the work. In the majority of situations, finding a professional glass installer to deal with it for you will yield the best results. 

Windshield Replacement

Replacing the windshield in your car or truck is the most complicated glass to deal with. In older cars, a rubber seal held the glass in place, and getting the glass to sit in the rubber was sometimes very hard to do. The rubber seal could rip or tear as well, but most of the time, an installer with some experience could put the glass in within a few minutes.

Modern windshields use a urethane sealer to hold the glass in place and keep out the water. The installer needs to put the sealer in place first; then, the glass is set in place and seated in the urethane. The sealer will take a couple of hours to cure, but once it does, the glass looks excellent and will not leak. 

The lack of a rubber seal gives the front glass a sleeker look, but there is often some trim work that surrounds the glass once the installation is complete.

Side Windows

The side windows on your car or truck are made from automotive-grade safety glass, and if they are struck hard enough, the glass will shatter. The pieces of glass are tiny and typically will not break into shards, but the glass can make a big mess inside your car. A broken window can often leave enough broken glass behind that you will find some in the car for a long time after the repair is complete. 

Replacing the side glass is easier to do if you are good with hand tools and removing the interior trim from the car. Often the glass is held in with a couple of bolts inside the door or body of the vehicle, but if the glass is fixed and does not move, it may also use the same urethane sealing process as the windshield. You will need to inspect your glass to see how it is installed in your car or truck.

If the glass is fixed, you may want to have an installer put in the new glass so that the seal is correct and the glass does not leak. Contact local auto glass replacement services for more information.