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Window Smashed on My GTI - Questions About Alarm and Repairs

Fyodor Dostoevsky

Ready to race!
I thought I'd let everybody know my decision: I took it to a dealer.

Here is my reasoning. The dealer I took it to has a staff technician who installs glass. I figured even though he probably doesn't install as much glass as somebody working at a glass shop, the glass work that he does do is only on VW cars. So he is probably more familiar with any VW specifications for glass installation, and he is probably more familiar with glass installation on my specific model of car than somebody working at a glass shop.

One comment made on another forum is that the spoiler will need to be removed from the hatch in order to install the new window. Given this, I am much more comfortable bringing it to a dealer who will have any specific VW procedures for removing and re-installing the spoiler.

The only concern that I have is with the clean-up of glass fragments in the hatch. I noticed tiny shards of glass when I was doing my own basic clean-up. I hope the dealer technicians have the right know-how and equipment to removed all the tiny shards of glass from the carpeting on the hatch shelf and spare tire cover.
 

1ashchuckton

Autocross Champion
Good luck hope it turns out well for you. One of the worst things is cleaning up that glass, it gets everywhere.
 

Blakcard

Autocross Newbie
try duct tape or gorilla tape on the carpet after vacuuming. That may help with the smaller shards of glass embedded in the carpet the vacuum cannot suck up.
 

uglybastard

Autocross Champion
my GTI was preowned, defintiely been in a collison (nothing on the "Carfax"). there was glass in the crevices underneath the carpeting of the passenger front seat.

duct tape will work but don't be surprised if you find more later on.
 

Fyodor Dostoevsky

Ready to race!
my GTI was preowned, defintiely been in a collison (nothing on the "Carfax"). there was glass in the crevices underneath the carpeting of the passenger front seat.

duct tape will work but don't be surprised if you find more later on.

Ya, I already know the dealer didn't get all of the shards out of the carpet

I'm going to take out the parcel shelf and spare tire cover and clean them in my apartment, then wait for the weather to warm up to clean the rest of the hatchback myself. I'll need to take everything out and get right to the bottom and probably I'll need to do it in direct sunlight so that I can see the smallest pieces easier.
 

Fyodor Dostoevsky

Ready to race!
I thought I'd let everyone know the results of the hatchback window replacement on my GTI.

From what I have seen so far it looks like the new window installation is essentially perfect. The gaps with the body panels are all even on the left, right and bottom (the gap at the top is hidden by the spoiler). There is small scuff mark (~1 cm diameter) on the underside of the spoiler, but you can't see it unless you lean over and look closely.

I turned the rear defroster on, and the light in the button came on, so I assume it is working. I haven't had frost on the windows to do a real functional test yet.

The glass clean-up is a different story, as I suspected. The service advisor said the carpet was cleaned three times. But as soon as I opened the hatch to check it out, I saw a few small pieces of glass on the parcel shelf. They took it back in the shop to do some more cleaning, but when I got the car home and looked in the hatch again I could still see some small fragments. I'll just have to clean it myself. I figure that even a glass repair shop is going to be focussed on the glass installation, not clean-up, so I still think the dealer was the better choice to have the work done.
 

sunce868

New member
Heart goes out to the shattered glass. Exact same thing happened to me two weeks ago when a drunk decided to take a hammer and go down the street and smashed 20+ cars. I used a 3rd party like safelite. Many companies do this. I think the quality is great and some companies even come to you and help you fix it on the spot.

Best of luck.
 
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