said by tcope :

Safelite as a company has been around since 1947. While I can't say when Safelite started to repair windshields, it was _well_ before 1998.

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In 1998 the marketing of windshield repair changed dramatically when Safelite Auto Glass, the largest glass replacement retailer in the US, decided to embrace windshield repair by forming a unit specializing in repair. Safelite’s Repair Medic program was developed under the leadership of Paul Gross.

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In the very early 90’s Glass Medic was sold to its largest international customer, Belron International, the largest glass replacement retailer in the world. The North American rights were sold to Dave Schuh, a former manager of Novus. Dave operated the company until the late 1990’s when Belron purchased it back.

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By the year 2000, significant changes occurred in the repair versus replacement marketing. Although repair had been done by independent replacement dealers, and to a limited amount by some of the larger US retailers, many replacement dealers, and most large retailers did not devote a major effort towards repair. While repair was being done by leading replacement companies in Europe, such as Belron’s Carglass and Autoglass divisions, it was not done to the same extent in the U.S.

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said by tcope :

My recommendation would be to use Safelite with the new technique that they use. They actually connect a pump over the crack and creates suction and pulls the epoxy into the crack. It's more expensive (I think they charge about $65) but GEICO should pay for the repair with no deductible

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In the mid 1970’s, as Novus was establishing its "repair only" specialists, another company began by selling a "vacuum" windshield repair system within the glass replacement market. Mort Gallub in suburban Philadelphia founded Glass Medic. Gallub owned one of the largest auto reconditioning operations on the East Coast and found that replacing windshields meant his profit margins on used vehicles became very slim. He had heard of the early progress of repair, and experimented with various systems. Mort hired a research engineer to improve on the system and eventually developed a "vacuum pump" process that he used within his reconditioning business. Gallub hired, Bill Matles, a young glass replacement specialist to market the product. In the 1980’s Glass Medic became the largest selling product within the glass replacement industry.

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By the year 2000, significant changes occurred in the repair versus replacement marketing. Although repair had been done by independent replacement dealers, and to a limited amount by some of the larger US retailers, many replacement dealers, and most large retailers did not devote a major effort towards repair. While repair was being done by leading replacement companies in Europe, such as Belron’s Carglass and Autoglass divisions, it was not done to the same extent in the U.S. In 1998 the marketing of windshield repair changed dramatically when Safelite Auto Glass, the largest glass replacement retailer in the US, decided to embrace windshield repair by forming a unit specializing in repair. Safelite’s Repair Medic program was developed under the leadership of Paul Gross. The Repair Medic operation spread to major markets in the United States offering repair directly from Safelite. In early 2002 another of the large US auto glass replacement dealers, Harmon Auto Glass, founded its own repair only division under the name RepairOne to concentrate on windshield repair.

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said by haroldo :

said by Doctor Olds :

Permatex 16067 Bullseye Windshield Repair Kit
»www.amazon.com/Permatex-16067-Bu···00HBI9XW

The product got some bad reviews. I assume you liked it...are the complaints at Amazon... on target?

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List Price: $19.48
Price: $12.66
You Save: $6.82 (35%)
In Stock.
Ships from and sold by Best Price Mirror.

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