Anyone hear or have any experiece with this stuff? A lot of us have been complaining about the softness of the MINIs windshield and how it gets easily chipped and pitted by the little rocks on the road that gets kicked up. If this stuff really is what they claim it is it's got my attention...

There are videos in each of the link that talk a little bit more about the product.

http://www.diamon-fusionusa.com/main.html

 

how about stop tailgating? then it's free.

 

looks pretty sweet, lower coefficient of friction, should go faster too, better aerodynamics. Wonder how much it costs. Videos don't seem to be working.

 

I'm not too concerned about the "Not being able to see in the rain, better reaction time" mumble jumble but I am intersted in the 10X harder... makign the windshield stonger and less prone to cracks and pits all over my windshield... I'm on my third one already due to rocks hitting and and cracking it.

 

 

You didnt look at the link huh? there were videos

http://www.diamon-fusionusa.com/performance.WMV


Found right here... under the performance part.

http://www.diamon-fusionusa.com/performance.html

 

just keep a good distance from the car ahead of you. (3seconds).

i use to live in socal so i know what you're talking about...debris
everywhere. my car at the time had very little knicks
(like 2 or 3). just 3 sec or more distance from the car ahead,
that's all it took.

 

Generally Kenchan, what you post (and in 6th gear, you've posted a lot!) is fairly well thought out, but on this one--I don't know. When you're behind a sand/construction site/cement truck on the freeway doing 65-ish, there's just no way you can avoid getting that fine sandblasting of the windshield, and the occasional rock from the truck's many tires, no matter how far back you are (3 seconds, 30 meters, 300 meters...) Most of the dings in my windshield are from such trucks I meet every day on my freeway journey to my daughter's pre-school. No matter how well I drive, it's bad news for my car!
I'd say there are more factors at play here than simply the distance behind the car/vehicle in front...

cheers,
phil

 

um, you can always change lanes... it's not like there's no such trucks
in chicago too.

thanks for your general grading system on my posts. that means
a lot.

but yeh, if you think it's a good idea, try it and let us know how it goes.

 

I'm going to side with kenchan on this one. I've driven three different MINIs and never had an issue with cracked windshields... not even chipped ones in fact. It can't be totally attributed to following distance but I think its a huge part of it. Increase following distance. Reduce the risk. Come out unscathed.

 

When I picked up my used 03 MCS it already had 5 dings in it. Looked like the windshield was real dirty too, but it turned out to be hundreds (or thousands) of tiny little sand dings. That really is a soft windshield. I stupidly decided to let those guys in the mall parking lot fix it for free (yes I am stupid) as I saw how easy it was for the pros to do it, and I found out that the guy drilling into my windshield was a first day employee right before he slipped and the drill grinded a beautiful scatch bigger than the ding itself. I thought, well the windshield is already trashed and I should have known better than coming here so I decided to say nothing. Then he did it again and I about peed myself. End of story they are paying my deductable for my insurance to have the windshield replaced, so I guess it worked out in the end. But yes, they must be very soft windshields.

 

I agree, the pitting seems inevitable. I once got a rock ding in my windshield....my one and only...from a stone kicked up by a car in opposing traffic!!! If careful driving is working out for some of y'all, great, but I think you're just really lucky. No one can out manuever all the debris out there forever.

As for the product in question, I have no experience w/ it. It just galls me, though, that we're driven to be so prissy w/ our MINIs. I'd love to just drive it and forget about it, but it seems one must always be extra careful/paranoid at all times and about all things. I even lament having to get a clear bra, but I'm glad I have it. The windshield protection sure seems over-the-top at first thought, but then again, in the wrong light my windshield does look distinctly un-pristine.

 

Trucks....blast past em=no chips,no pits, no cracks. That's why we got MINI's. I guess I've been lucky too. As far as pitting, I don't live in a sandy enviornment. I have a friend who lives in Nevada. It doesn't matter what type of ride he gets, Jeeps, Mitsu's whatever, it doesn't take long and you can barely see out of his windshield, ...err, windscreen, especially driving into the sun. In life, lead, or follow(at least 3 secs.)

 

About a month ago several small rocks (somewhere between 5 or 10) came flying into my windshield & scared the crapola out of me. A dump truck was way in front of me (& I mean way) & in the other lane. That's the only place the rocks could have come from. I wasn't tailgaiting him. I wasn't near him. Hec I wasn't even in the same lane as him. It takes more than safe driving to avoid rocks. The only way to avoid rocks is to leave your Mini parked, stationary, garaged

That said my windshield is now cracked & I have a gazillion dings. I plan on replacing it with PPG glass. I have read & heard that it performs much better than the OEM glass.

 

Its impossible on the 710 freeway in Los Angeles. its a major route for trucks taking stuff back and forth to the long beach port. You can stay however far you want from the car ahead of you but dump trucks 4 lanes and like 40 cars ahead of me still leave junk all over the place. I can hear the rocks and debries before I can see the truck and once I pass the truck the rocks and debries noises stop.

I'm serious not kidding one bit. That freeway is BAD...

For those that never had a problem with your windshild then obviously you drive on better roads... I'm positive MINI / BMW windshields are softer than other brands.

 

I can say that I agree, I've had 2 MINIs and no problems. But as soon as I got divorsed.....well you gotta ask her what she did.

 

Actually MiniMaxx raises an issue I was thinking about yesterday, before I butted in on this thread. The US desert southwest is in a long term drought and New Mexico has very litte if any snow so far this year. The wind is up, and there's dust and debris everywhere. I wash my car and the next drive the rear window is covered in dust and dry thingys, then a day later the entire car has a film of dust over it. The windshield is a sparkling mess driving into the sun. I think that the dry climate and windy dust contributes significantly to the deterioration of the glass.
And I agree with others that this is just part of owning a MINI--I just don't look forward to replacing the wiper sensing glass, or waiting for PPG to come out with a direct replacement for my sensing windshield.
Till, then it's kinda pretty at sunset, if not a little dangerous...

 

I commute between OC & Torrance on the 405 every day in my MC, and I have noticed over the past few years a huge increase in the s@&t scattered all over the fwy. And it is true that in So. Cal commute, if you try to keep 3 sec distance between you and the car in front of you (no matter the speed traffic is moving) someone will immediately pass you and slot in ahead, 1/2 sec. lenght if you're lucky - there is no recognition of lane etiquette, common sense or human decency - it's like "The Road Warrior" every day. Stuff that fell from trucks, sheared off of tires, etc. gets kicked back at you at warp speed all the time. Kenchan is right in that one of the best things you can do is try to stay in a different lane or significantly behind the obvious hazards, but on our fwys., 3 secs is an impossibility. Perhaps just knock the sucker out of the frame when it gets f'd up enough, and enjoy that "bugs in the teeth" cabrio feeling w/o the addt'l weight and expense

 

I HATE those stupid little rocks... I have problems with those too... I drive slow-er than most and far, far away from trucks.. (even on side streets) and I still hear the sound of rocks... So far no damage but I hate the sound...

 

I kept trying this today and cars just changed lanes right into my space.

 

True, I've seen gravel and such fly up from the opposite lane as well as other cars/trucks and motorcycles passing on either side, and also kicked up and around from traffic way ahead - tailgating is not nec the cause at all.

I have the windsheild guard film around the periphery of the glass to help prevent the stress fractures the windsheild is prone to by design. With hope it will help prevent the slight impact from instigating a stress fracture on the edge where it is prone to. I am happy with the PPG glass so far, have not noticed any pitting.

As I recall RainX, or something like that, had a warning not to use on cars with rain sensors so I think it would be advisable to check on using this product with the rain sensing wipers beforehand, it might interfere with the operation of the sensor.

 

　yeh, it takes a little getting use to if you're use to just zipping down
the expressway. but you can tell how fast you're usually going and how
close you're tailing the car ahead when you drive carefully, huh? that's
why you get so much crap hitting the front of your car.

also, i mentioned this before (i know you're in tx), but i use to live in torrance
so i know socal expressways. i came out with very little damage to the front
end from normal use (this is without clear bra)... so perhaps i was a more
patient driver than most of you here.

so, get the front protector to meet your driving needs. 2percooper has
no clearbra and has absolutely ZERO knicks on his IB/Blk cooper. that
basically means, no damage anywhere on the front.

 

Has anyone noticed there are no prices?

I think I saw this at a dealer. NOT cheap ... maybe $800?

Is it worth that?

 

dohhh!

 

I did a google search and saw around $300 in couple forums for the windshield, one dealer doing it for free. I think someone posted on MINI2 that they were coming out with a spray on version.

http://www.dfinanotechnology.com/

click on the new developments link under products and services.

You really don't realize how great a clean smooth windshield is until you have POS one that is constantly dirty and everything sticks too, and your wiper reservior leaks so you don't ever have washer fluid.