Rock Chip and Crack Repair
Resin repair for stone chips and short cracks. Roughly 30 minutes, done in your driveway, and it stops the crack running before it turns into a replacement.
A stone chip is a small job that turns into a large one if you leave it. The repair takes about half an hour, costs less than most deductibles, and keeps the factory glass in the car.
What can be repaired and what cannot
The trade rule of thumb, and we will confirm it by looking rather than over the phone.
Usually repairable. A bullseye, star or combination break smaller than about a quarter. A crack under roughly six inches. Damage sitting outside the driver’s critical viewing area. Damage that has not reached the edge of the glass.
Usually not. Anything sitting in the driver’s critical area, because even a good repair leaves a faint distortion and that is the one place you do not want one. Cracks that run to the edge, because the edge is where the glass carries load. Anything longer than about six inches. Damage that has been contaminated with dirt and water for months, which stops resin bonding properly.
The critical area is the part of the glass swept by the driver’s side wiper. That is the zone Oklahoma inspection convention treats as the strict one, and it is the zone we will not put a repair into.
The Oklahoma law question
People ask whether a cracked windshield is illegal here. The honest answer is that it depends, and the statute is less specific than most people expect.
The controlling law is 47 O.S. 12-404, “Windshields and windows, Obstruction, obscuring, or impairing of driver’s view.” It prohibits driving with anything on the windshield or front side windows that “materially obstructs, obscures, or impairs the driver’s clear view of the highway ahead or to either side.”
That is an obstruction test. There is no crack length in the statute. No chip diameter. Nothing that says six inches or three inches or anything else.
You will find sites listing hard thresholds, usually some version of a three inch star break in the critical area, or two hairline cracks totalling twelve inches. Those numbers come from inspection convention rather than from the text of 12-404, so treat them as a guide to what tends to draw attention, not as the letter of the law.
Practically: damage in the wiper sweep on the driver’s side is what gets you stopped. Damage low on the passenger side generally does not.
Why chips happen so much around here
The Broken Arrow Expressway and the Creek Turnpike both carry steady aggregate and gravel traffic, and a stone coming off a truck bed at highway speed is what puts most of the chips in most of the windshields in this town. It is not weather and it is not bad luck. It is the commute.
Hail is the other one, and it arrives on a schedule. Oklahoma ranks third nationally for hail-related auto claim frequency, and Tulsa’s peak months are April and May. A hail chip is often one of many, and if you have a dozen pits across the glass, that is a replacement conversation rather than a repair one.
What the repair actually involves
We clean the break out, pull the air out of it under vacuum, push a clear resin into the cavity under pressure, cure it with ultraviolet light, then scrape and polish the surface flat.
Total time is about thirty minutes. You can drive immediately afterwards, unlike a replacement, because nothing structural has been disturbed.
What it does is restore most of the strength and stop the break spreading. What it does not do is make the damage vanish. Expect a faint mark where an obvious white star used to be. Anyone telling you it will be invisible has not done many of them.
Do not bother filing a claim for this
A chip repair runs about $75 to $175. Nearly every comprehensive deductible in Oklahoma is higher than that.
Filing a claim for a $90 repair means paying the whole thing yourself anyway and putting a comprehensive claim on your record for nothing. If your carrier sold you a full-glass endorsement, that is different and worth using. Otherwise just pay for it.
We will tell you this before you call your insurer, not after.
When we will tell you to replace instead
If there are more than three chips. At some point repairs stop being economical and start being a patchwork.
If it is in the critical area. A faint distortion directly in the driver’s sightline is worse than the chip was.
If it has already run past six inches. The resin will not hold a long crack under flex.
If the glass is delaminating, meaning the inner and outer layers are separating and it looks cloudy or milky around the damage. Resin cannot fix that.
We would rather do the small job. If the small job is not the right one, we will say so and tell you why.
What matters for this in Broken Arrow
- Oklahoma's windshield law, 47 O.S. 12-404, is an obstruction test rather than a size test. It prohibits anything that materially obstructs, obscures or impairs the driver's clear view, and sets no specific crack length or chip diameter anywhere in the statute.
- The critical area is the part of the glass cleaned by the normal sweep of the driver's side wiper, and damage inside it is the damage most likely to force a replacement rather than a repair.
- Trade convention is that a chip smaller than roughly a quarter, or a crack shorter than roughly six inches, sitting outside the driver's critical area, can usually be resin repaired, and that repairs take about 30 minutes.
- Oklahoma ranks third among US states for hail-related automotive claim frequency at 18.4 across 2008 to 2014, and Tulsa's hail peaks in April at a 64 percent monthly chance and May at 57 percent measured over 1950 to 1997.
Common questions
Is it worth repairing a chip, or should I just replace the windshield?
If it can be repaired, repair it. A resin repair runs about $75 to $175 and takes half an hour. A replacement on a modern car with a camera can run $450 to $900 once recalibration is counted. The repair also keeps your original factory glass and factory seal, which is worth something on a newer vehicle. We will tell you honestly which one you are looking at.
Will the chip still be visible after the repair?
Usually yes, faintly. Resin repair restores the strength and stops the crack spreading. It does not make the damage invisible. Expect it to go from an obvious white star to a faint mark you have to look for. Anyone promising it will disappear completely is overselling it.
How long can I leave a chip before it turns into a crack?
There is no safe number. Chips run when the glass flexes or when the temperature swings, and Oklahoma gives you plenty of both. A cold morning with the defroster on full is a classic way to turn a small chip into a long crack in about ten seconds. If you have a chip, treat it as a this-week job rather than a someday job.
Is it illegal to drive with a cracked windshield in Oklahoma?
It can be. Oklahoma's statute is an obstruction test, not a size test. 47 O.S. 12-404 prohibits anything that materially obstructs, obscures or impairs the driver's clear view of the road. There is no specific crack length written into the law, which means an officer's judgment decides it. Damage sitting in the wiper sweep on the driver's side is the damage most likely to get you stopped.
Ready for a number?
- Mobile service, we come to your house or your work
- ADAS camera recalibration done with the glass, not sent out
- We bill your comprehensive claim directly if you have one
- Most windshields done in about 90 minutes