My windscreen cracked last week. Don’t recall a stone hitting it though there was a chip near the crack. I was concerned to get the replacement done by an outfit that knew Bongos (having read a few bad news stories about them being fitted at home by a large windscreen replacement outfit). 2gether explained that they as brokers don’t deal with this but gave me a number to call. This kept directing me to a large windscreen replacement outfit but eventually by perseverance I managed to speak to the insurance company (Highway, part of LV) and they agreed I could take it to a specialist. Bongo Spares confirmed they could do it. Of course they just use a local specialist but that specialist does a lot of Bongos for them plus with it being at their workshop, if any issues arise, they could hopefully be dealt with. And there were issues. First, the specialist said mine was one of the hardest he’d had to do. Second, he called me out to show me how a small rusted patch in the window surround had caused the windscreen to crack from a corner when the rust expanded. This is exactly what I had suspected might be the trigger (even if a stone did cause it to go). The windscreen and pillars were otherwise completely rust free and the cause he said was a previous windscreen replacement many years ago (probably in Japan I think) where they have exposed bare metal and not used an etch primer before fitting the new screen. The Bongo Spares guys were able to quickly grind off the surface rust and he then applied etch primer before replacing the windscreen.
Sorry for the long post about a simple matter but it highlights the value of having this ‘normal’ job done where the replacer knows Bongos and there is garage support where needed.
I can’t praise the installer and Bongo Spares highly enough from my experience yesterday. Friendly helpful people and a thoroughly hassle free experience with something that I had been apprehensive about. The installer even managed to unpeel my DAB aerial from the old windscreen and stick it on to the new one – more hassle spared!
