With more than 80 years in the business, we know a thing or two about consistently providing quality service to ensure safety in your daily drives. We use the best glass for your vehicle, as well as the appropriate adhesive, in a controlled environment, to ensure that your new glass will not leak or crack upon replacement. Read on to learn more about our processes.
Safety
Driver and passenger safety is a priority for us in every glass installation. Read on to learn why:
- Glass is a structural component in today's automobiles. Your car relies on its glass to resist crushing on impact, and to keep you inside the vehicle in an accident. Windshields must be installed properly and stay in place for passenger side airbags to function properly in a crash.
- As a federal safety standard, windshields are supposed to keep passengers inside the car during an accident. Nonetheless, it is vital that drivers and passengers use their seatbelts at all times to help keep them from being ejected from a car in a crash.
- Passenger-side airbags rely on windshields to function properly. These airbags use the windshield as a "backstop" in deployment. The windshield needs to stand up against the force of the airbag, and remain in place. Proper glass installation is imperative for this to happen.
- Auto glass must be installed properly to help the passenger compartment resist crushing in rollover accidents.
- Auto glass is supposed to meet federal safety standards. The U.S. Department of Transportation's Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards describe the required performance of windshields in these kinds of accidents. Standard 212 is for occupant retention, 216 for rollover and 218 for passenger airbags.
- It is illegal to use adhesives such as silicone to install automotive windshields. Only Automotive Grade Urethane should be used.
Quality
Gene Burk Auto Glass only uses quality glass and adhesives. We never shortcut your installation by leaving out primers, or any other critical components to your windshield installation.
- Your windshield is more than just a piece of glass to look through, and all glass is NOT the same. When windshields are manufactured, they only have to meet DOT (Department of Transportation) FMVSS requirements. Glass manufacturers can say it fits your car and it might, BUT if it is not a precise match to the body of your vehicle, then you may have water or air leaks from the gaps where the bends in the glass do not match the bends in the vehicle body. In some cases, this can lead to the glass stress cracking and then you have to buy another windshield.
- Even if you have your windshield installed and water checked, you could have hidden problems. Some installers skip the costly steps of priming the glass and the body, which can lead to the adhesive turning loose after your drive the car. In addition, not using primers on the body can cause your car to rust several months or years after you had the windshield installed.