So I took my car to a local shop that recently did some good paint work for me, and I discussed what I wanted. They looked up the part and found it to be readily available, and told me how they subcontract the windshield out to a mobile glass guy. Since pretty much ALL the shops do this, I figured I'd be in good hands with their choice of glass guy, since they must do lots of windshield replacements, and have a reputation to keep. I dropped off my car last Friday, and Heidi picked it up when it was done, since I was at work.
I drove the car on Sunday, and knew immediately that something was very wrong. At first I thought one of my windows was down, from the whooshing noise of air coming in the car. But also, I could hear the engine compartment, as if the engine were sitting in the passenger seat. Something was messed up. When I got to my destination, I got out, popped the hood, and took a look. What I saw horrified me. On the passenger half of the car, the bottom of the windshield was bowed outward, creating a nearly one-inch wide gap at the bottom of the windshield, that the installer had seen fit to fill in with thick, black, urethane caulking sealant. GOBS of it. From inside the car, if I reached my hand over the dashboard to where it meets the windshield, I could feel a solid half-inch or more of sealant gooped up to fill in the gap. It was horrific. Worse, the sealant was glueing the windshield directly to the plastic cowling in the engine bay -a part that is supposed to be removable! This was awful! Pics of the butcher-job:
The far passenger side; this area is about an inch thickness of sealant.
It tapered to a point at the driver-side wiper stop.
On Monday morning I took my car to a *different* body shop (we'll call this one "expensive shop" that does really good work.) I had a guy from expensive-shop look at my windshield and give me his informal opinion on the quality of the install and workmanship. Then I took my car to my Pontiac dealer's body shop, and asked their body shop guy his opinion of the quality of the install and workmanship. Both places had the same reaction: Neither had ever seen an install done so badly, that something was probably wrong with the windshield to begin with, and that it should never be done like that. Furthermore, the brand name of the window glass company was "YBBG" and none of us had ever heard of that before. (Turns out it is the Foshan Apex Auto Glass Co. Ltd. in China.) They all recommended that I ask for a PPG windshield when I get it re-done.
Finally I took it to the shop where I had it installed. I asked the owner to take a look at it, and even HE said it was unacceptable, and that the windshield looked deformed, unsafe, and neither did he recognize the YBBG brand. So we were all in agreement, my windshield job got BUTCHERED. He called his glass guy. I sat and listened while he told the glass guy how unacceptable this was. The glass guy clearly said something in reply, and at that point he gave the phone to me. Window guy tells me that my car must have been wrecked before because he couldn't get his windshield to fit my car properly, so he sealed it in with a bead of sealant. (Understatement of the year.) He insisted this was completely safe and okay. I told him how not okay it was, and how I had wind and engine noise howling through my car. He said "Oh that just means there's still a gap somewhere, I can seal it with more sealant and seal it right up." I told him not to come near my car with any more sealant. As it happens, he's right, my car had been damaged on that side of the car, twice. Both times it was repaired by my insurance company (Farmers) at one of their direct-repair member shops (expensive-shop mentioned previously, actually) and therefore carry a lifetime warranty on the work. But if window-guy was correct and my window opening wasn't squared up, -then how come the previous windshields fit in there just fine without a buttload of sealant? I told him I'll look into his claim that the windshield opening was out of square.
I called my insurance company, and they immediately agreed to meet me this morning at expensive-shop, their authorized direct-repair shop. The insurance guy authorized having the body shop laser-dimension the car to see if it was out of square at all, the shop agreed to correct any defects if there were any, and then we'd have their auto glass contractor put a PPG windshield in it, and remove all the black goop. I'd also need another new chrome reveal molding, since glass-guy glued it in place.
Around 4:00pm I got a call. My car didn't need any straightening, their glass contractor removed the old windshield and all of the sealant, put in a PPG windsheild, and installed it perfectly, no problem. Their diagnosis: "That YBBG windshield was garbage." Later I talked to the lady that owns their glass company and she informed me the YBBG windshield is Chinese-made, and that the Chinese windshields have very poor quality.
I had one final surprise when I picked up my car this evening. I was picking up my car after-hours, so I had them leave my car in their lot with the keys locked in the car under the floormat. When I got to it, there was a plastic bag tied to my sideview mirror. I checked it out and found THIS:
That's the massive strip of sealant the window-guy had used. It weighs 10.7 ounces! Tomorrow I am going to go back to the shop where window-guy put in that windshield, show them the correctly installed new windshield and the rope of sealant their window-guy had used, and ask them for a refund.
I'm just glad my car is all back to normal, that was a harrowing couple of days!
