A mile and a half, seven minutes, and most people wait for it. A chip fill is 30 minutes and $60 to $130, often nothing out of pocket with comprehensive cover, and a fitted windshield is $250 to $450, about an hour plus safe drive-away time. Newbold sits just north-east of the shop at 2640 Snyder Avenue. Call 215-608-1108 with the year, make and model.
4.1★ on Google — 137+ reviews
Newbold is a narrow strip of rowhouse blocks between Broad Street and 18th, and the cars here do very little. Plenty of households keep one, use it at the weekend and leave it at the kerb from Sunday night to Friday. Nobody has a driveway. That produces a specific pattern: damage gets found rather than witnessed, it has usually been there a while by the time anyone looks at it properly, and the decision to deal with it competes with the fear of losing the parking space.
It is worth losing the space. A chip smaller than a quarter and out of your sightline is a 30-minute resin fill at $60 to $130, and with comprehensive cover it frequently costs nothing at all. Once it has run, and a car left outside through a Philadelphia January will run, it is new glass at $250 to $450 fitted. Seven minutes each way. If the car is at the kerb with a window out and you would rather not drive it anywhere, the van comes to the block instead; tell us which side of the street the space is on when you call, because that decides whether we work from the pavement or stand in traffic.
Broad Street runs down the eastern edge with buses pulling in every couple of blocks and the subway underneath, so the traffic on it is stop, start, stop. Washington Avenue closes the top of the neighbourhood, and that road is the reason so many Newbold cars pick up chips: it is lined with building-supply yards, lumber, stone, tile and aggregate, and heavy trucks turn in and out of them across the lanes all day. The blocks between 15th and 18th are one-way, parked solid on both sides, with alleys behind rather than garages. Tasker and Mifflin cross the strip east to west, and Snyder Avenue runs along the bottom and takes you straight out to us.
“They were able to install a new drivers side rear window for me the same day I called, when all the other shops were saying it could take a few days. They did a wonderful job and even cleaned up all the glass that was in my car (even folded a blanket I had in there that got glass on it) from my window being busted in.”
One: Washington Avenue. Loaded trucks serving the supply yards leave sand and stone on the road, and the vehicle behind picks it up off the tyre in front. A good share of Newbold windshield damage starts within four blocks of home. Two: standing still. A car parked at the same kerb for five days at a stretch is a car that gets broken into at three in the morning with nobody about, and a car whose existing chip gets a full freeze-thaw cycle every night in January. Three: Broad Street. Stop-start behind buses, a dozen sets of lights and constant low-frequency vibration will not break glass on its own, but it is very good at moving a crack along. Four: scraping. No garage means frost every morning from December, and a scraper plus a hot defroster on a chipped screen is the last step before replacement.
Snyder Avenue runs along the bottom of Newbold and it goes all the way west. Get onto it and stay on it past 20th and 25th; we are between 26th and 27th on the north side. From the top of the neighbourhood, come south on 15th, 16th or 18th until you meet Snyder, six or seven blocks, and turn right. Avoid Washington Avenue unless you are already on it, because the turning trucks make it slower than the grid. Seven minutes. If you are dropping the car off, Snyder station on the Broad Street Line is a straight walk or a short ride east on the 79 bus.
Russell's Auto Repair works across South Philadelphia and the surrounding towns — pick your neighborhood:
Yes, and a car that sits is exactly the case where waiting hurts. A chip does not need to be driven on to spread; it needs cold nights, hot defroster mornings and time, and a car parked at the kerb all week gets all three. Half an hour and $60 to $130 now, against $250 to $450 for a windshield in February. With comprehensive cover the repair is very often free to you.
Probably, and here is the rule of thumb we use: chips smaller than a quarter and out of the driver's direct line of sight are usually fillable, cracks that reach the edge of the glass or sit in your sightline are not. The edge matters because that is where the windshield carries load. Send or show us what you have when you call 215-608-1108 and we will tell you which one it is before you commit to anything.
Not for the whole job, but we need access to the inside of the vehicle and somewhere to leave the keys, so most people meet us at the start and go back in. Tell us the block, the side of the street and roughly where the car is parked. Dry weather matters more than anything else; adhesive will not cure properly in rain, and we would rather move a booking than fit a windshield badly.
Tell us the vehicle and the glass that's damaged — you'll see your price instantly, and we'll hold it for you.
Odd job the widget can't price? Send us the details and a human will quote it fast.
The instant quote is the fastest way to a price. For unusual jobs, fleet work, or anything that needs a human, use the form — we answer fast during shop hours.
| Monday – Friday | 08:30 – 17:30 |
| Saturday | 08:30 – 16:00 |