Just Got a Rock Chip? Do These 4 Things Before It Spreads

You hear the crack of a rock off the glass on I-30, glance up, and there it is: a fresh chip right in your windshield. Here's the thing most drivers don't realize — what you do in the next few days has more to do with whether that chip stays repairable than almost anything else. Fresh damage is clean, dry, and small. Your job is simply to keep it that way until it's sealed. Four steps.

1. Cover it with clear tape

A chip is an open wound in the glass. Dirt, car-wash soap, and rainwater all work their way into the break, and once they're in there, even a perfect repair can't get them fully out — moisture and grime are what leave those faint scars in repaired glass. A small piece of clear packing tape over the chip keeps the break clean without blocking your view. It takes ten seconds and it's the single best thing you can do while you wait for the repair.

2. Skip the car wash and go easy on the defroster

Sudden temperature swings are what turn chips into cracks. Glass expands and contracts as it heats and cools, and a chip is the weak point where that stress lets go. Until the chip is sealed, avoid high-pressure car washes, don't blast the defroster or the AC directly at the glass, and if you can, park in the shade or a garage. An Arkansas summer parking lot can push windshield glass well past 130 degrees — walking that hot glass straight into a cold blast of AC is exactly how a quarter-sized chip becomes a foot-long crack.

3. Don't slam the doors

This one sounds like an old wives' tale, but it's real physics. Slamming a car door with the windows up sends a pressure pulse through the cabin, and the windshield flexes to absorb it. On healthy glass that's nothing; on a chipped windshield it's a tiny hammer tap on the weak spot, over and over. Close the doors gently — or crack a window — until the chip is fixed.

4. Get it sealed this week, not this month

Every day a chip sits, two things happen: contamination creeps in, and stress cycles add up. The repairs that come out strongest and cleanest are the ones done within days of the damage. Wait a month and the odds start tilting toward a spread crack — and once a crack passes about 18 inches or reaches the edge of the glass, repair is no longer an option and you're shopping for a replacement instead.

• Fresh chips repair cleaner and stronger than old ones — resin bonds best with uncontaminated glass.
• Repair takes about 30 minutes and we come to you, so there's no reason to put it off.
• With comprehensive insurance, the repair is usually $0. Without it, chips run $65–$85.
• Every repair is backed by our 3-year warranty.