quickxotica

Anyone recommend a good local shop for a new windshield, or should I just take it to a p-car $tealer?

Mine's got rock chip that includes a crack about 4" long. It hasn't grown any, but winter is a good time to get it fixed. Car is an '03 coupe.

Thanks in advance!

Eharrison

After winter is a good time to fix. I've got a crack in my DD luckily it's right near the rear view mirror so I can only see about 1/4" of the 4" crack. So depending on where it's cracked.... later than sooner IMHO.

I put some of that filler in to reduce the cracking....it's held out for about 4 months now. I figured the sooner I get it replaced the sooner I'll have a new windshield with another crack in it.

Sneaky Pete

Winter in San Fran? Whats the low there? 50F? I would go to the yellow pages and look for a autoglass shop. Dealers use these shops and you pay the mark up.

Eharrison

If it's out of the way..... I swapped out the glass on my p-car out and within two weeks I had my first chip. It now has a star chip in it that I glued in..... all happening within a year.... If it not a safety issue wait a bit. The one below was a safety issue for me....

Pac996

Man that bolt really didn't have to do that.

Like the man saying the windsceens are out sourced to glass shops I'd go there. Plenty are well priced and they know better than a mechanic on handling intall and seal since they do it all the time with the right equipment.

Eharrison

Yeah jerk bolt.

And I just went with Safelite. They do so many and know exactly what to do....

Macster

You can call around to various Porsche dealers and try to find out which glass installer is used by the dealer and then go there.

Many dealers just farm this work out. Some of course charge -- in one case when I looked into this -- around $1300 and just turn around and have the Safelite guy do it at the dealer for less than half that cost.

I tried -- and my insurance adjuster tried -- to learn where a nearby dealer to my work location (Hayward CA) sent its glass work but the dealer/service department was cagey and didn't leak the info.

My car insurance company had a business arrangement with Safelite and I decided to let Safelite do the windshield after I spoke with Safelite and was assured the installer had plenty of experience installing Porsche and other similar brand of cars' windshields.

I washed the car good the night before the windshield replacement.

Safelite guy arrived at my work location and together we checked the glass -- factory -- and were satisfied it was an exact replacement. (Had to be cause at that time noone made the glass but the company that supplied Porsche with glass for its car production line. This may have changed now.)

Left him to his work and an hour or so later he had the old glass out and was prep'ing to install the new glass. An hour or so later done.

(And based on my time with the guy he could have had it done in less time if he had put his cell phone away. He was on his cell phone nearly the whole time.)

Anyhow, glass installation done very well and I don't know how many miles (scores of thousands though I'm sure) later and the glass is still tight and leak free. A bit pitted and another tiny (for now) crack in the glass but I'm not going to replace the windshield until I need to.

(The 1st one had a small crack which spread out to where it eventually spanned the entire width of the glass and just about at eye height. Driving the car and looking out the windshield it looked like I was looking at a Picasso painting.)

Sincerely,

Macster.

Eharrison

$400 with Safelite. Included the windshield with the antenna in it.

mooty

john,

triple A glass: 650-444-0949 used by JWE and carlsen.
beeline glass: 925-689-0500 used by michael stead porsche.

i have used both. equally good. though not sure if they do SF.

2nd thought, since the crack is so big, you should just buy a new car. GT3 for 2011 GGR season ;-)

quickxotica

Thanks everyone for the advice. Love this place.

Mooty, thanks for the contacts... I will call them.

Merry Xmas!

reynwerkes

If you go to Safelite just make sure the installer is competent and has previously worked on high end cars.
My buddy took his BMW to Safelite and the guys that did his install were Bozo's.
He had to argue with them to let another guy with more experience redo it. They were whipping out the caulking gun thinking that would fix their poor work.