Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Maintenance & Servicing Chipped windscreen

Just come back from a glorious four days in surprisingly sunny Cotswolds. Great driving top down, marvellous scenery, lovely pubs and great places to visit. The only downside is that Reginald my beautiful 2013 4/4 has acquired a cracked screen. A stone has caused a small starburst just in my line of vision. I've always used Autoglass for similar problems with other cars but wonder if any of you guys have used them for a Morgan. In particular I wonder if the heating elements in the screen cause any difficulty for the repair? I had to use the heated screen today as it was raining buckets driving home but all worked fine.
I would be really grateful for any advice or comment.

Andy

If it's a small starburst it should be repairable, doesn't normally affect the heating elephants.

Andy
My advice (for what it is worth) is to avoid the large national windscreen folk at all costs , at best they will fit it badly , at worst they will damage the windscreen surround. Most of the Morgan specialist insurers prefer you to go to a Morgan dealer to get the glass replaced.
I note that Techniques advertise this service , Allon White will also do it.

Some dealers prefer you to buy a complete screen straight from MMC, but this is more expensive of course.

A few tips:
1 Make sure that the fitter keeps the small locating screws in the specific order that they came out from , otherwise it will crack the new screen.
2 One of the longer jobs is getting the mirror remounted, if you have always wanted it in a different position , tell the fitter in advance and it can be done then.
3 Make sure that the heated screen element is working before you leave , and not just connected up.

Andy

Book it in to Allon Whites for a while you wait fit. A friend had Autoglass in Leicester fit his heated screen, they could not see where the heated element wires plug into (you probably know they are trapped in place by the dash and connect to bullet connectors in the harness) so they simply cut the wires. He did not find out until months later when he switched the screen on and noticed it not working so went to a Morgan dealer, Autoglass denied any knowledge or liability.

MMC only supply screens with surrounds now and Shaun at AWSC will be able to fit it within an hour. We did mine together last year as I want to see the difference between these and earlier screens. It's a simple enough job now changing the frame is not part of it.

If it`s a repair job - Autoglass did a good job on mine - but for a new windscreen go to a dealer.

Don't use Autoglass. They made a mess of my car when I had them change the chipped screen. The guy broke one of the visor mounts, left the starter button out of alignmnet and refused to refit the mirror. By the time I had taken the dashboard off to correct things and done the mirror I could have done it myself quicker.

Mine isn't heated my the local Autoglass will order a screen for me and let me fit it myself, so consequently I now have a spare screen.

Hi Andy,

I don't know how bad the chip is, but most of the national windscreen people now do a repair service. I had it done on a tin top a few years ago and the result was very good; an invisible repair, although TBH it wasn't in my line of sight.

They injected a resin into the crack under pressure and then used a UV lamp to cure the resin. They finish it off by scraping the excess resin off the screen with a razor blade before a final polish. It took about 15-20minutes in total and lasted for the remaining 18 months or so that I had the car.

May be worth considering, depending on how bad the damage is.

If the chip is in your sight line it is usually a MOT failure and they don't repair.
I have had a repair in the top corner of the windscreen and it is fine but I would not want it in the wiper area.