Windshield busted? Better call the Nygards

If you have read this column religiously you will know that I'm almost done restoring my old Ford pickup truck.

If you didn't know this, then you need to get with the program, friend, I am here to illuminate and entertain.

But back to the story, one of the last things I needed for my truck (that I cannot do myself) was to replace the windshield.

I flipped through the yellow pages, and then cruised the Internet, and learned that the cost of replacing a windshield can vary as much as $200.

Finally, after asking a friend, I got a name and a price that I liked.

When I called, I got a friendly gal voice on the line; "A-1 Auto Glass, this is Chanda."

I was so pleased with the low cost of the unusual windshield, as well as the fact that they will come to your house to remove your old windshield and install the new one that I scheduled with her right way.

It wasn't long after they arrived that I learned that they are man and wife.

It's not often that you find a husband and wife team in a service industry like windshield repair.

It can be strenuous and stressful, working with expensive pieces of heavy, curved glass that don't always want to go where they're supposed to go.

It turns out that I was fortunate to have found these two, since replacing a windshield in this particular, old beat up vehicle, is even harder than it looks.

Corey had to huff and puff and tug and shove like a steam engine while Chanda struggled to keep the poor defenseless piece of glass down on the prep rack.

But Corey was a game dude. He kept up with the easy banter; stifling curse words quite effectively all the time I was pestering him with dumb questions.

Questions like;

"Are you sure that's the right windshield?" and "What if it doesn't fit, can you shrink it or make it bigger?"

Finally, he got the rubber gasket neatly wrapped around the gorgeous new glass and Corey went for his silicone spray while Chanda used the special "windshield installation trick" that only specialists in this field understand. Rope.

"Rope?" I asked, again with the dumb questions.

"Don't you just 'pop' it in and you're done?"

Chanda looked at me the way a She-Wolf looks at a particularly annoying pup.

"Then it might just 'pop' back out, wouldn't it?' I shrugged and when Corey got back, she just said, "Watch, learn."

While Corey held the glass down, Chanda expertly tucked the cotton rope inside the gasket until it ran the entire perimeter of the glass. They picked it up and set the bottom edge onto the metal lip and while Corey leaned on the top, Chanda pulled the rope out little by little until the edge of the rubber gasket began to slip onto the frame like it had always been there. Magic!

Still, the old truck was not done putting up a fight and near the end of the rope, Corey had to get a little red in the face to force the glass into the hole. "Plop" it went and we all smiled.

As the two were cleaning up, I badgered them with my columnist gig offer and they were kind enough to tell me a little about themselves.

Corey has been installing auto glass for over twenty years.

He used to live in White Center and since I grew up there too, we did the usual name dropping to see who we knew mutually.

Not too many, since he's still young and I'm an old guy now.

So I asked him where he met his lovely bride. "She was my Schwan Truck lady for about a year...delivered my food!"

Chanda piped up and claimed, "He took me away from Schwan to work for him and we started dating." The rest, as they say is history.

I asked Chanda what she liked best about her job. 'The people we meet!' she said brightly, but I think that was just to butter me up because I'm sure she thinks I'm cute.

Corey was just as happy to tell me, 'We get to work in a different place every day."

I'm not sure if he really liked being in different places, or if he was just anxious to get away from me.

Either way, the Nygards will be way more than happy to come to your home, office or wherever to replace your broken windshield or rear window, as long as you live somewhere between Gig Harbor, Enumclaw, Renton or Federal Way.

Their business card says that they guarantee to have the lowest prices and I can attest to that in my case.

You can hear Chanda's nice voice at 1-888-830-2300.