XLII Windshields - On Sale

[flyu2there]

Ray,

Some years ago I was a part owner of an auto body shop and as such I became familiar with policies/deductables. As I mentioned on Peter RV's thread, a comprehensive claim is not counted as a loss...that's the law. Should you have a low deductable on windscreens, let em do it....if nothing else you get a semblance of a guarantee...

Best,
John

[Jerry Winchester]

A couple of things here. First I called my insurance and glass is covered under the standard deductable and yes it counts as a claim.

Then some clarification on the pricing. When Prevost installs the glass, you actually get it for $319 and they cap the labor at 3 hrs. The guy said sometimes it takes an hour sometimes it takes 4. Depends on what all is in the way and with mine they had to black out the top 10" of the glass to hide the shades and other gear, so that took a little longer.

The guys worked like sled dogs to get these installed. They used that foamy glass cleaner as a lubricant to get the glass fitted to the seal.

windshield.jpg

I also had a speedometer bulb changed while we had access to the back of the dash with the windshield out. It would have been a major pain to do it otherwise.

[Ray Davis]

SO, given what you observed there, and out at Kerrville, other than being larger and heavier, was there a difference in the way that the windshield was replaced? Do you think that it's possible that an owner could do it, perhaps with two people, and glass suction grabbers and a platform to stand on?

My gut feeling at this point is that the glass is much bigger, and heavier, but the technique of replacing the glass is the same as we learned on my XL in Kerrville?

Maybe Dale J, the glass master replacer could chime in with his thoughts here. I'd be willing to replace one in OKC, should we think it's do-able.

Ray

[Jerry Winchester]

Oh you could do it alright, but it will handle nothing like the XL one. You are right in that it is very large and they had the suction cups on it to handle it.

Then they also strategically positioned the cups and kicked them with their heels to move it into place. Lots of lube and prying with the blue sticks. Then they must have hammered them with their fists about a hundred times trying to butt them into place and work them into the rubber seal.

But first they had to hack them out of the seal as they were sealed in there with Silkaflex. Then before they installed the locking strip, he used an air caulk gun and ran a bead of Silkaflex between the glass and the seal.

When the locking strip was installed, he scored the sealant that had oozed out then scraped it off with a razor blade scraper. They installed three different windshields while I was there and two side (door and passanger) windows on an "H". They had to cut and break those out because they are glued in. The new "H" windshield is actually larger than the XLII so that must be a booger to deal with.