Patent ID: 6862968

Claim:
A method for removing a windshield from a vehicle wherein said windshield is attached to the vehicle through a urethane bed, comprising: providing a reciprocating air gun being operative to reciprocate a shaft and a steel blade with sufficient force to advance said blade through a urethane bed; providing the shaft having inner and outer ends and being connected at its inner end with the air gun for reciprocation thereby, wherein the shaft is rigid and elongated, the shaft being operative to space the blade from the gun sufficiently to allow the assembly to be used within the confines of a narrowing apex space between a windshield and a vehicle; providing the blade, wherein said blade is flat and thin and has a substantially constant thickness, said blade having front and rear ends, the blade rear end being connected to the shaft's outer end, the blade being substantially coplanar with the shaft, the blade having a substantially straight front edge which is beveled on one side only to provide a non-sharpened top edge and a sharpened bottom cutting edge, the blade narrowing from its front end to its rear end to about the width of the shaft wherein said front end is wider than the width of the shaft, the blade being sufficiently rigid to cut the urethane bed when reciprocated by the air gun but having sufficient lateral flexibility to conform to a curved surface of the windshield when pressed thereagainst, the blade being configured so that the non-sharpened top edge of the blade can be pressed against the glass of the windshield while the sharpened bottom cutting edge penetrates the urethane bed; placing the blade against the urethane bed such that the non-sharpened top edge is against the glass of the windshield; forcing the front edge of the blade against the curved surface of the windshield to conform to the curved surface of the windshield by applying pressure to the gun, thereby laterally bending the front edge of the blade to conform to the glass of the windshield; driving the blade through the urethane bed by triggering the air gun to reciprocate the blade longitudinally into and out of the urethane bed; moving the blade progressively around the remaining portion of the urethane bed so as to cut the entire urethane bed; and removing said windshield from said vehicle by separating said windshield from said vehicle.