WHAT ARE ROCKCHIPS?
REPAIRABLE
Rock chips occur when small or large objects hit your windshield at the right angle and speed. Rocks and debris that come from behind other cars or trucks are a common cause of windshield chips. They leave a pit and a air pocket upon impact. The air in that pocket will expand and contract with the weather and temperature, then cause your chip to spread into a full-on crack.
How to spot a chip on you glass.
Sometimes chips are easy to see. From the inside of your car, you can see a dark mass or line from the impact point. That dark mass tells us that the chip still has air in it and can potentially spread-out. Some chips can be little tricky to spot. Your windshield has a dark border called the "Frit". Rockchips here can be hard to see. If you take a light and shine where there is a chip in the Frit, you'll be able to see if indeed it has an air pocket behind it.
Does the repair make the chip disappear?
The purpose of a rockchip repair is to re-enforce the structural integrity of the glass and eliminate any air or moisture still stuck in the chip. The repair does significantly diminish the appearance of the original damage. But we are still dealing with broken glass, and you will still be able to see where the damage originally occurred. The important factor now that it is repaired and the chip will not have any potential to crack out.
NOT REPAIRBALE
What cannot be repaired.
Your windshield is quite resilient and can withstand a lot of punishment from the road. A lot of the time when you hear a loud impact sound you may think it definitely left a rockchip, but in actuality, only a pit or a scratch may be left from the impact. Since a pit is just surface level damage and did not leave an air pocket, it runs no risk of spreading out into a crack and repair is not necessary. There are methods of correcting this style of damage, but I at the moment do not offer that service yet.
