Chip & crack repair
Windscreen Chip and Crack Repair
Stone chips, bullseyes, star breaks and short cracks filled and sealed where your car is parked, before the damage decides to run.
- Mobile. We come to the vehicle
- Open 24 hours, 7 days
- Quoted before the work starts
- Sydney and New South Wales
Get a quote today
Tell us the vehicle and what's damaged. We'll come to you.
Most stone chips can be repaired rather than replaced, provided they are small, away from the edge of the glass, outside the driver's direct view and reasonably fresh. A resin repair restores the strength of the laminate and stops the damage spreading. It will not make the mark disappear completely. Anyone promising that is overselling it. We repair chips and short cracks anywhere in Sydney and NSW, at your home, your work or the kerb.
Chips, stone damage and cracks. All of it starts here
People describe the same damage half a dozen ways. A stone chip. A bullseye. A star break. A crack that appeared out of nowhere. All of it is impact damage to the outer layer of a laminated windscreen, and the question is always the same: can this be filled, or has it gone too far?
This page covers the whole repair side of what we do, chip repair, stone damage, and crack repair where the crack is short enough and placed well enough to hold. It sets out the thresholds we work to, what a resin repair achieves, what it doesn't, and when the honest answer is new glass.
The short version: a chip caught in the first week or two is nearly always repairable, and the same chip left through a Sydney summer very often isn't. Almost every crack we end up replacing started as damage somebody meant to get looked at.
What can be repaired, and what can't
Five thresholds decide it. Damage that clears all five is a repair; damage that fails one is usually a conversation about replacement, and we'd rather have it before we start than halfway through.
| Threshold | Repairable | Past the line | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|---|
| Size of the break | Impact point that fits under a 20-cent coin. Single cracks up to roughly 15 cm, depending on type. | Anything wider than the coin, or a break with several long legs radiating from it. | Resin has to reach every branch. Past a certain span it can't fill the whole void, and the unfilled part stays a weak point. |
| Driver's line of sight | Passenger side, low on the screen, or high up behind the mirror shroud. | The area directly ahead of the driver, roughly the sweep of the driver's wiper at eye height. | Even a good repair leaves a faint optical distortion. In the primary viewing area that is a defect risk, so we don't repair there. |
| Distance from the edge | Comfortably inside the glass, five centimetres or more from the perimeter. | Within about 5 cm of the edge, or touching the black ceramic border. | The perimeter is the bonded zone tying the windscreen into the body shell. Damage there spreads quickly and undermines the glass structurally. |
| Depth | Outer glass layer only, with the plastic interlayer untouched. | Through to the interlayer, or damage you can feel with a fingernail from inside the cabin. | Resin is injected from outside. It cannot reach or bond a fracture in the inner layer, so the repair would be cosmetic only. |
| Age of the damage | Days or a couple of weeks old, still clear when you look into it. | Months old, darkened, or holding moisture after rain. | Dirt and water fill the void. Resin won't bond to a contaminated break, and trapped moisture clouds the cure. |
Not sure which side of the line yours sits on? Photograph it with a coin next to it for scale and send it through. We'll tell you straight whether it's a repair, and there's no charge for the answer.
One tip while you're waiting: put clear tape over the chip. It won't hold the glass together, but it keeps grit and rain out of the break, which is the difference between a clean repair and a contaminated one.
How a resin repair actually works
There's no mystery to it. The break is a void full of air; the job is to get that air out and clear resin in, then harden it so it behaves like the glass around it.
Assess and clean the break
We identify the damage type (bullseye, star, combination, half-moon) because each takes resin differently. Loose fragments are cleared from the pit and any moisture driven off first, because repairing over trapped water guarantees a poor result.
Seal an injector over the impact point
A bridge is mounted to the glass with the injector sitting directly over the pit, sealed so nothing leaks around the edges.
Draw a vacuum
This is the step that separates a proper repair from a poor one. Pulling a vacuum evacuates the air trapped in every leg of the fracture. Skip it and you're pushing resin against air that has nowhere to go, which is exactly why the legs stay dark.
Inject under pressure
The cycle reverses and resin is forced into the void, out along each branch. Different breaks need different viscosities, a tight star leg takes a thinner resin than an open bullseye, and the cycle is repeated to chase the last of the fracture.
Cure under ultraviolet light
The resin hardens under a UV lamp and bonds to the glass on every surface it has reached. Once cured it is a solid, load-bearing part of the screen rather than a filler sitting in a hole.
Fill the pit and finish flush
The surface crater is filled separately, cured, then scraped level with a blade and polished so the wiper passes over it cleanly and water doesn't sit in it.
What the repair does
- Restores the structural integrity of the outer glass layer
- Stops the damage spreading. The filled void can no longer act as a starting point for a crack
- Clears most of the visible mark, since what you see in an untreated chip is mainly light bouncing off trapped air
- Keeps the factory-bonded glass in the car, which no replacement can give back
- Leaves cameras and sensors untouched, so nothing needs recalibrating
What it doesn't do
- It doesn't make the mark vanish. Expect a faint blemish where the impact was, usually a small clear scar you have to look for, sometimes more than that on a large star break.
- It doesn't return the glass to factory-new. The fracture is bonded, not undone.
- It doesn't fix damage in the inner layer, because the resin never gets there.
- It doesn't guarantee nothing will ever happen at that spot again, though a filled break is far more stable than an open one.
We say all of this before we start, on every job. Over-promising on appearance is the commonest complaint in this trade, and the fix is telling people what a repair is for: strength and stopping the spread, with the cosmetic gain as a by-product.
Why chips spread faster in Sydney than you'd expect
A chip is a stress concentrator. Anything that flexes the glass or changes its temperature unevenly pushes energy into the tip of the fracture, and it answers by growing. Sydney gives it plenty of chances.
Summer heat on the glass itself. Ambient temperature isn't the number that matters. A car parked in the open through a February afternoon has a windscreen far hotter than the air around it, with the dark dash below it radiating heat straight up into the lower third of the screen. The outer layer expands while the inner layer lags behind, and that differential is exactly the load a chip is waiting for.
The air-conditioning mistake. Getting into that hot car and putting the demister on full cold, aimed at the base of the windscreen, is the single most reliable way we know of turning a chip into a crack. Cool the cabin first with the vents pointed away from the glass.
Overnight temperature swings. Western Sydney runs a much wider daily range than the coast. Every cycle works the fracture a little further, which is why a chip that looked stable for weeks can be 20 centimetres long on a Tuesday morning.
Motorway impacts and road surface. The M4, M5, M7 and the Hume carry heavy truck traffic, and roadworks with loose aggregate are close to permanent somewhere on the network. A stone strike at highway speed carries real energy. The same roads then finish the job: expansion joints, patched surfaces and speed humps put constant vibration through the body shell, and the windscreen is a stressed part of that shell.
- Tape over the chip until it's repaired
- Park in shade where you can through summer
- Don't blast cold air at a hot screen
- Ease off over speed humps and rough patches
- Leave room behind trucks on the motorway
DIY repair kits: the honest comparison
The kits on the shelf at the hardware store are not a scam, and we're not going to pretend they are. They have a narrow window where they work, and a wider one where they cause an expensive problem. Here's the difference, stage by stage.
| Stage of the job | Hardware-store kit | Professional repair |
|---|---|---|
| Removing trapped air | Most kits have no true vacuum stage. A suction cup and a plunger is not the same thing. | A proper vacuum cycle evacuates every leg before any resin goes in. |
| Resin choice | One resin, one viscosity, for every type of break. | Resin matched to the break, thinner for tight star legs, heavier for open bullseyes. |
| Moisture | No way to dry the void first. Any water in the break stays in it. | The break is dried before injection, and repairs are timed around the weather. |
| Curing | Cured in sunlight, which is uneven and weather-dependent. | Controlled UV lamp, consistent cure regardless of the day. |
| The surface pit | Often left proud or slightly hollow, so the wiper catches on it. | Filled, cured, scraped flush and polished. |
| If it doesn't work | Cured resin now blocks the void. A professional repair usually can't be done afterwards. | Assessed before we start; if it isn't repairable we tell you rather than trying. |
| Insurance | Your own time and money. Nothing to claim. | Often covered with no excess, because insurers prefer a repair. |
The part worth understanding: the real cost of a DIY attempt isn't the kit. Cured resin in the fracture can't be removed, so a failed attempt takes a repairable chip off the table permanently. A small job on Saturday morning becomes new glass by Saturday afternoon.
Where a kit genuinely can work: a small, fresh bullseye with no legs, on a warm dry day. Outside those conditions the odds drop off quickly.
How insurers treat a chip repair
This is the part most people don't realise, and it changes the decision entirely: many comprehensive policies in NSW cover a windscreen chip repair with no excess at all.
The reason is commercial. A repair costs an insurer a fraction of a replacement, and it prevents the replacement claim that would otherwise arrive months later. Waiving the excess is how they encourage you to ring early, and some policies also treat glass repairs as not affecting your no-claim discount.
Three things worth confirming on your own policy before you decide:
- Whether repairs are excess-free, and whether that differs from the glass excess on a replacement
- Whether a glass claim of any kind touches your no-claim discount
- Whether there's a limit on how many repairs are covered in a policy period
We're happy to deal with your insurer directly where that's the route, or to quote you for the repair outright if you'd rather keep it off the policy. If you're weighing that up against new glass, our guide to what a replacement costs sets out the excess arithmetic in full.
General information only: cover varies between insurers and policies, so check your product disclosure statement or ask your insurer.
When a repair isn't the right call
There is a point where filling the damage is the wrong answer, and we'd rather say so than take the smaller job and leave you with a screen that cracks anyway.
It sits in your line of sight. A repair there leaves slight distortion exactly where your eyes spend the drive. In NSW, damage that obstructs the driver's view can attract a defect notice and is routinely picked up at inspection.
It's near the edge, or a crack has already started to run. Once a fracture reaches the bonded perimeter, the glass has lost part of its structural contribution to the body shell. Resin doesn't restore that.
There are several chips clustered together. Multiple repairs close to one another leave a patchwork, and the glass between them is compromised.
The damage is old and contaminated. If dirt and moisture have been sitting in the break for months, the resin won't bond properly and the repair will look poor and hold poorly.
It's over the camera or sensor window. Damage in the bracket area behind the mirror can interfere with what a driver-assist camera sees, and that isn't a resin problem.
Where any of those apply, the answer is a full windscreen replacement. We'll quote it before anything starts, arrange calibration if your vehicle needs it, and fit glass that meets Australian Design Rules for automotive safety glass. Our work .
Questions
Common questions
Can I repair a windscreen chip myself?
You can try, and on a small fresh bullseye on a warm dry day a hardware-store kit sometimes works. Most kits have no genuine vacuum stage, one resin for every type of break, and sunlight instead of a controlled UV cure. The bigger risk is what happens if it fails: cured resin in the fracture can't be removed, so a professional repair is no longer possible and you're looking at new glass.
Will the chip still be visible after the repair?
Usually yes, faintly. Most of what makes an untreated chip stand out is trapped air reflecting light, so filling the void improves it dramatically. What remains is a small clear scar at the impact point that you can find if you look for it, and on a large star break the legs may still be traceable. A repair is done for strength and to stop the spread. Anyone telling you the mark will disappear completely is overselling it.
How long does a windscreen chip repair take?
It's the shortest job we do, considerably quicker than a replacement, and usually done while you get on with something else. The useful difference is what happens afterwards: the resin cures under UV light on the spot, so there's no adhesive cure time to wait out. Once we've finished and polished the pit, the car is ready to go.
Will my insurer cover a chip repair?
Often, and frequently with no excess, because a repair costs an insurer far less than the replacement it prevents. Some policies also treat glass repairs as not affecting your no-claim discount. It varies between insurers and between policies with the same insurer, so check your policy schedule or ring and ask. Asking is not the same as lodging a claim. This is general information rather than advice on your policy.
How long can I leave a chip before it becomes a problem?
Less time than you'd like, particularly through a Sydney summer. Two things work against you: dirt and moisture filling the break so resin can no longer bond, and thermal and vibration stress driving the fracture outwards. A chip repaired within a week or two is nearly always straightforward; the same chip left for months is often a replacement. If you can't get to it immediately, tape over it.
Can a crack be repaired, or only a chip?
Short cracks can often be repaired, depending on where they sit and what type they are. The practical limit is roughly 15 centimetres, and the crack needs to be clear of the edge of the glass and outside the driver's direct view. Beyond that, or where the crack has already reached the perimeter, resin can't restore what the glass has lost and replacement is the correct answer. Send us a photo with something for scale and we'll tell you which one you've got.
Is a repaired windscreen safe, and will it pass inspection?
A properly executed repair bonds the fracture and restores the strength of the outer layer, so the windscreen keeps doing its structural job. Repairs cause trouble at inspection when the damage was in the driver's line of sight to begin with, because the residual distortion sits in the primary viewing area. That's why we don't repair there.
Get moving again
Caught a stone this week? Get it filled before it runs.
Send a photo of the chip with something next to it for scale. We'll tell you honestly whether it's a repair or a replacement, and come to you anywhere in Sydney and NSW.