We have all had this happen to us, and if you haven’t it might just happen to you! Driving down a road or highway behind a truck, you may see a rock get kicked up and impact your windshield. Sometimes, if you’re lucky, it won’t leave any damage. Other times, you may find a star-shaped chip and crack in your windshield. While this may seem minor, there are some inherent dangers to this.

Your windshield if now designed right into support of your car’s roof. While the pillars in the corners of your car certainly provide support, the strength of the windshield is now crucial in providing support for the roof, especially in the unfortunate case of a rollover. As a whole, the windshield is strong until you get a pesky chip or crack. These ruin the integrity of your windshield and compromise its strength.

Once you get a chip, check it first. Sometimes it can just be a splattered bug that can be easily cleaned off. Other times you may not be so lucky. Check the size of your chip. Small chips are not bad but anything larger than a quarter may have crushed glass in the center, requiring complete windshield replacement.

However, all is not lost. For chips smaller than the size of a quarter, these can actually be repaired. Your local auto glass professional can inject resin directly to the source and fuse the cracks together, returning the windshield back to its structural integrity. This will then be clean and polished to make it look as if it were new again. For any small chips, get them repaired easily and save yourself money.