At Windshield Surgeons Auto Glass, our commitment to safety and quality is the cornerstone of every installation we perform. Your windshield does far more than provide visibility — it plays a critical role in the structural integrity of your vehicle, ensuring the safety of you and your passengers. Proper installation, combined with the best adhesives and preparation products, helps keep you protected in a collision, supports airbag deployment, and helps maintain the vehicle’s roof strength during a rollover.
A windshield is not just a piece of glass—it is an essential part of your vehicle’s structural integrity and modern safety features.
In a front-end collision, your windshield accounts for up to 45% of your vehicle’s structural strength. In a rollover, this increases to up to 60%. An improperly installed windshield can pop out during an accident, leading to roof collapse or failed airbag deployment.
Many passenger-side airbags rely on the windshield to act as a backstop. If the windshield isn’t bonded correctly, the airbag can push it out of place, rendering it ineffective and leaving occupants vulnerable.
Improperly primed pinch welds are vulnerable to rust, which can weaken the bond between glass and frame over time. At Windshield Surgeons, we ensure every installation includes meticulous cleaning, priming, and sealing.
With these factors in mind, we follow rigorous procedures and use only the best materials to ensure your windshield does its job when it matters most.
Modern vehicles are equipped with many amazing safety features. The hardware to support these are often mounted to your glass because it’s the one part of your vehicle that usually stays clean in all weather conditions. Replacing these windshields requires these features to be recalibrated to ensure your safety features, many of which can be life-saving, work correctly after you leave.
With decades of experience in the auto glass industry, we’ve seen firsthand the consequences of poor workmanship. Many customers have come to us after trusting the wrong provider, only to find their vehicle compromised by substandard installation practices. Unfortunately, some methods widely accepted in the industry are outright unacceptable and pose serious safety risks. Below, we outline some of the worst practices we’ve encountered.
To be absolutely clear—Windshield Surgeons Auto Glass firmly disavows and condemns all of the following practices. We are committed to ensuring that none of these shortcuts or safety violations ever occur in our shops or on vehicles under our care. Your safety is our highest priority, and we hold ourselves to the highest standards in every installation we perform.
In an effort to save a little money, some installers cut costs by trimming the old adhesive very close to the glass and applying new adhesive over it rather than fully removing the old urethane.
This can lead to:
At Windshield Surgeons, we always perform full-cut installations, ensuring old urethane is properly removed and replaced with a full and healthy amount of new adhesive.
The metal that your windshield sits on is called a pinchweld. This metal is regularly covered by mouldings or other trims and rarely gets cleaned properly in car washes. This means it’s one of the first areas to start rusting on many vehicles.
Our process includes:
Every install should include this step for the good of the vehicle and customer.
Automotive adhesives do not naturally bond well to glass or metal without preparation. Skipping primer or activator results in dangerously weak adhesion. We’ve encountered improperly installed windshields that could be pushed out by hand due to skipped preparation steps. This is beyond unsafe and should never be allowed.
Not all adhesives are created equal. High-quality & reputable polyurethane has undergone rigorous crash testing to ensure proper performance. Our premium adhesive has a 30-minute safe-drive-away time, while many lower-quality adhesives may take 24+ hours to cure or if very cheap unregulated adhesive is used by a company, it may never fully reach a safe strength.
Decades ago, butyl adhesive was used for windshield installations. It is easy to apply and comes in rolls, but it is vastly inferior to polyurethane (also just known as “urethane”) in every way. Butyl cannot properly secure a windshield, especially in the event of an airbag deployment. Windshield Surgeons never uses butyl for windshield replacements meant to be installed with urethane. It is unsafe and completely unacceptable.
Primer must be compatible with the urethane adhesive used in installation. Some shops cut costs by using cheap or incompatible primers, which compromises the integrity of the bond. Windshield Surgeons only uses high-quality primer and polyurethane from the same manufacturer to ensure the safest possible bond.
Some installers try to save money by using less than the required amount of adhesive, leading to:
We always apply the correct amount of adhesive to ensure a secure and durable bond.
Even if primer and activator are applied, failure to clean the glass properly can leave behind oils or contaminants that prevent adhesion. This can result in the same dangers as using insufficient adhesive—leaks, wind noise, electrical damage, and an unsafe windshield in an accident. We clean every windshield before installation to ensure a flawless bond.
Modern vehicles rely on Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) to enhance safety. Features like keeping the vehicle from driving out of the lane if the driver falls asleep, automatically engaging the brakes to prevent an accident, and much more.
When these systems are mounted to the glass, these systems must be recalibrated to function correctly. Some “oldschool” installers skip this step entirely, dismissing it as unnecessary. This is dangerously incorrect and can result in these systems malfunctioning. No vehicle that requires ADAS calibration should have the calibration step skipped
Unfortunately there are even more incorrect practices that exist. We can’t list them all on this page. However, Windshield Surgeons and all of our staff members are committed to the best practices, modern advancements, and most importantly your safety.
Every technician at Windshield Surgeons is trained to follow a rigorous installation process that meets and exceeds industry standards. From proper glass preparation to post-installation safety checks, we make sure no corner is cut. We also stand by our work with one of the best warranties in the industry — because your safety deserves nothing less.
Safety starts with knowledge. Check out our educational resources to learn more about how your windshield contributes to your safety and what to ask when choosing an auto glass provider.
With over 2 million vehicles serviced since 1989, Windshield Surgeons Auto Glass combines experience, cutting-edge technology, and a relentless commitment to your safety. Get a quote today and see why Alberta drivers trust us.
Give us a call at 1-800-909-9923 today or request a quote online now!