When I'm cleanin' windas...

Nothing to do with cleaning windows at all.  Just before Christmas, I was driving to work in the Fronty (aka Sharon, our 4x4 farm snow busting, hay lugging, trailer pulling, feed collecting beasty) and I heard a loud - really loud - crack.  Assuming it was a stone hitting the windscreen I had a quick glance to see where the chip was but couldn't see anything.  Then the next day, at work once again, in Aberdeen, in the dark, just as I was getting back into the car I spotted a strange mark on the windscreen, on the right hand side, just under where the wiper wipes.  In the gloom this 'mark' looked to be about 1.5 - 2 inches long....and then it dawned on me that the loud crack I'd heard the previous day was a wallop to the screen as I'd thought, but the damage was rather worse than even I had suspected.  In the cold light of the following day I could see that the crack started from the edge of the screen and was in fact about 4 inches long.  Each day thereafter it grew a little bit more, and on the day after Boxing Day I phoned my insurance company, and then a call to Autoglass followed.  Fast forward to New Years Eve and the 'technician' as they call the little chaps who come and fix windscreens, rang for directions, and said he'd be about 20mins.  About 40mins later, we realised that he hadn't turned up, and then, lo and behold!  There he was at the top gate.  On foot.  No van.  And all puffed out.  The poor chap had walked a quarter mile from where he'd got his van stuck in some mud.  Me and my sense of humour!  I laughingly said "I've got a 4x4 I could pull you out....oh, but it needs a new windscreen...." he just scowled at me.  Hah.  So I went and got the rope and the Fronty and whisked him back to the van which Sharon shifted with no bother.

So here are a few pics from how to fit a new windscreen....in the rain....

I was going to say GBC doesn't exactly have huge hands, but I just went and measured my hand span and am shocked to find it is 8 inches from tip of little finger to tip of thumb.  So that crack was about 9 inches long by the time it came to sorting it out.

No rain yet.....

 

The 'technician' was oh so pleased to discover that they don't stick em on like they used to - he just could not get the thing slidey thing under the seal to put the wire in that he would then slide around the screen to break the whole seal.

Old one out.....rain in.....quite a lot of rain actually....

WOW!!!! GBC needs a 12v silicon gun oh YES SHE DOES!!!  Surely Cubbie could not leak after a dose of this stuff??

The shiny new screen gets wet on the inside.  That's a good idea innit.

New screen gets fixed to the gigantic sucker pads making it a one man job to lift it into place.

Just a few minor adjustments as the rain stopped.

And bam, look at that.  45mins from start to finish.  How shiny is that?  How clean is that?  Mrs BC was able to go for a drive a couple of hours later.