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Your situation is unique. Every other tab I’ve ever seen was completely detached at the pad on the glass. If I had a piece of metal still attached to the glass it would be gravy to solder to it. That’s not what the Frostfighter is meant for. I have never seen anybody have just the protruding part of the tabs broken off. The PO must have either cut those off or bent them back and forth enough times that they broke at the bend. You’re comparing apples to oranges.Guys I think soldering was the easist and most effective way to fix this. If you're a bit handy, skip the $40 compounds, and $8 dollar tabs. I used ordinary electrical solder, and a butane torch for the heat. I also noted that the actual tab was also originally solder onto the defroster. Each tab took ten seconds to do, and I can't pull them off.
X3.. Score!!
Agreed. My situation was both tabs had been detached from the glass previously, and someone had already attempted (possibly more than once) to reattach them. Glad you’re back in business. Hope the repair lasts.
Info on the skid plate. What is it off of, and did you just cut it to the shape of your plastic one?
Yeah, that looks like what they must have done. But the situation actually is the same in every case, since the entire metal tab is soldered on directly to the defroster wire pad. During my effort, I pulled it entirely off being a little less accurate with the torch, and had to re-flow the solder under the tab to stick it back on. Really had I known upfront, it wouldn't require the tabs at all. As long as one end fits the connector, you could fab up any conductive piece of metal and solder it directly to the defroster wire pad, which is basically exposed copper wire.
This has been discussed for years on here. Most of the time the pad gets damaged when the tab comes off. And sometimes when people try to solder to the pad, (even if it isn’t damaged)with a torch on tempered glass it shatters. I say you got lucky. Or maybe you’re super skilled. But there’s plenty of people who have tried that and messed up their glass so that it couldn’t be repaired or shattered it. I’m pretty skilled at soldering and mine wasn’t fixable by me, I tried. My suggestion is if you don’t feel like taking a chance on an expensive item like that glass, use the stuff we mentioned and no matter your luck or skill level you will be able to fix your tabs, guaranteed 100% with zero risk. It might cost $40 but imo it’s well worth it. Glass is my trade and I know how a torch hitting tempered glass in a small area like that is definitely not a good idea so I would not suggest anybody try that. I would hate to feel responsible for their glass shattering due to my suggestion they use a torch on it.
What paint do you use? I've used duplicolor stuff in the past, but never lasted too long.
