FAQ > DIY - Do It Yourself Questions Knoxville's Finest Auto Glass Installation Center • I can do the installation myself and just buy the glass from Phoenix Glass? Yes you can, but if it bonds to the vehicle we don't recommend it for many reasons, safety being the key one and the fact that  you won't have any type of warranty on the breakage of the glass.  In a bonded windshield, side lite or back glass installation  for example there are many items and steps necessary to properly install them.  It is critically important that a proper  adhesive system be used.  They must have primers used on the pinchweld and glass and even the type of glass cleaner used  is critical to the safety of the installation.  The bottom line is we highly recommend that you use a professional auto glass  technician to install your auto glass.  • Should I use butyl tape to install my own (glue in type) windshield? Absolutely Not!  Butyl Tape is a sealant, not an adhesive.  If you were to install it with butyl tape and your vehicle was  involved in a severe accident it will allow your window to literally pop out of the vehicle allowing the passengers to be ejected  from within it.  Today’s auto glass isn't just designed to keep the elements out of your vehicle, it's a major part that is  designed to be an integral part of the vehicles structure and it must be installed properly with an adhesive called Urethane.  Without it, the FMVSS specifications the vehicle manufactures engineers built the vehicle to are, pardon the pun, literally out  the window.  Actual figures, depending on whose data you use, say that Butyl Tape is reported to have a holding strength of  60 psi where as it's reported that Urethane has a holding strength of 600 psi.  Whomever figures you use it still comes out  with the same end result which is that Butyl, in no way, has anywhere near the holding strength that Urethane does.  Another  common mistake we see a lot is people buying butyl tape off the auto parts store shelf without the compatible primers  necessary to make it adhere to the intended surface.  Without the intended pinchweld and glass primers not to mention proper  compatible paint preparation on the pinchweld, butyl tape just like Urethane,  won't achieve any where near the holding  strength its manufactures intended it to.  Even the type of glass cleaner used on an auto glass installation is critical.  Auto  makers didn't make the transition to Urethane just for the fun or economics of it.  Like everything else in life they learned as  they went along and what they learned from all the data they collected over the years at the cost of serious injures and loss of  life was that the vehicles they were producing had a serious short fall in the area of glass retention.  • 10% of all accidents are vehicle roll overs which cause almost 11,000 annual fatalities. • The FMVSS 216 Standard says a roof must sustain no greater than a 5" crush when one and a half times the vehicle weight is applied to the "A" pillar. • Vehicle occupants held inside the vehicle have a 25% greater chance of escaping injury. • 75% of occupants ejected from their vehicles are fatalities. • Passenger air bags use your windshield for a backstop and can only function properly if the windshield remains in place during a crash. • Click the link to see a Consumer Reports crash test video of •  My car had a tree limb fall on it. The limb made a dent in the roof and broke my windshield.  I'm planning  on doing the auto body repair as well as paint work myself and then I plan on having Phoenix Glass  install my windshield.   Is there any special body or paint prep work I need to do prior to the installation  of the windshield?  There sure is!  In the body work phase of the operation I-Car states that if body repair was completed on the pinchweld, it is imperative that body filler not be used. Windshields should never be installed over body filler. In the paint work phase of the operation I-CAR states that if top coats are being applied, masking is to be applied over the primer to prevent topcoats from being sprayed onto the  surface of the pinchweld.  After the base coat and clear coat have been applied, the masking is removed.  The pinchweld should be cleaned after tape  removal to ensure any residual adhesive from the tape has been removed. There is a lot more to be said to answer your question. The pit falls in doing your own auto body repair and paint work are  tremendous and way beyond the scope of this website.  To help some of our customers find information on the subject we  have posted an article mostly from I-Car here in our site at the link below.  The link will take you to another article that may pertain to the subject on the I-CAR web site. •  I've purchased a small pick up truck that was wrecked in the front and rear end.  I am doing all the  engine, body and some of the glass work myself.  I was working on reinstalling the bed of the truck while  your auto glass technicians were here installing my windshield and back glass.  They noticed that I was  reusing the original bolts that hold it in place and told me that the bolts are not supposed to be reused  and referred to them as one time fasteners. Aside from being tarnished the bolts look brand new and don't appear to be bent and the threads are not damaged so why  shouldn't I reuse them?  Phoenix Glass technicians have some of the same issues arise on the many types of auto glass installations they perform on a  daily basis.  Due to the complexities of today’s vehicles and your safety we require our technicians to possess a thorough  knowledge of how all the different components of a vehicle work together in unison.  "One time use fasteners" are used in many areas of a vehicles construction.  In auto glass some of the typical types of one  time use hardware include rivets, certain nylon retainers, plastic clips, cotter pins, and even some of the washers.  More auto  body and mechanical uses go on to include fasteners such as torque to yield bolts and coated fasteners.  Hardware that is  considered one time use is generally determined by its type, coating, as well as location.  For a more detailed answer to your  question click this link and it will take you to a page on the I-CAR website.