[Super_Dave]

Well... today didn't go well.

Glass guy showed up. I asked him how long he's been do glass. "12 years." He proceeds to put my Precision seal on the pinch weld.

I told him it would be "bigger" than the opening and he would need to compress it to fit so it would account for shrinking over time.

He ends up with a 6+ high spot at the base of the pinch weld and tries to force it down. I tell him "that's not going to work. Do you have some glass cleaner you can spray in the seal channel so it will slide along the pinch weld. He grabs the glass cleaner and, after some work, manages to get the seal onto the pinch weld. . . but really big gaps in the corners.

"Don't you think you should now compress the seal into the corners so the glass will go in easier?" He says "no, the locking strip will take care of that."

45 minutes later, he can't get the seal to come around the top two corners. So, he gives up and says "I want to do a top down install" and removes the windshield. With the glass out I say again "I really think you need to compress the seal into the corners as much as possible, so the front edge of the seal can come out over the glass easier..."

Nope. Gonna prove me wrong. So he gets the glass 3/4 installed and has the passenger side lower corner to set as well as 2/3 of the bottom... just past the antenna connector. As he's working the bottom from the drivers side toward the middle, he's pulling on the seal with his ball end tool and slapping the windshield with his left hand.

I see small shards of glass popping off the leading edge of the glass as he pulls and pry's with the hook tool and figure that's a bunch of weak spots being created that will eventually crack when I hit a good bump. He keeps slapping with his hand... then it happens: "boom, shattered windshield!"

He tries to blame the Precision Seal and I tell him "it's not the seal. You didn't compress the seal into the corners enough to stretch out the channel!"

All the pounding in the world isn't going to force the glass behind the leading edge of the seal. PERIOD. He asked where the old gasket was and I tell him "it was cut out." He asks "why?" I tell him "because it was old and cracked. It's not the seal... it's the installer." I don't usually tell a person how to do their job, but some people just need to try and prove you wrong.

He get's on the phone to his manager to ask what to do. They decide to come out tomorrow with a couple helpers to get a second windshield installed. Hope they bring two or three. . . it appears they will need them.