Im getting OLD.... the 3-4 hrs I spent yesterday trying to remove the "good" windshield left me in terrible condition this morning.... shoulders are sore and stiff.. even my ribs hurt from pulling on the cutting wire in all those oddball positions.
should have rented the tool instead ( but no one has it for rent and the tool costs more than having it done professionally

)
the "theory" on how the wire cutting works is you feed a wire from the inside of the car to the outside between the windshield frame and the windshield, you then wrap the wire around the perimeter ( and under the lip) of the windshield on the outside and secure the end of the wire to a windshield wiper arm mount. Once that is done you begin to pull the wire on the inside in the opposite direction of how you wrapped the wire on the outside. ( same way the little strip on an unopened pack of ciggies works to remove the celophane wrapper) This basically cuts thru the adhesive letting the windshield become unattached. If there are no pins or clips, this goes rather quickly...... otherwise, it takes forever.
Looks like Im gonna have to spend the 400$ to get it replaced anyway...
and heres the weird thing about braketags... I got a tag last month for my van and it has even more and longer cracks in the windshield and the car didnt pass with smaller and 2 less cracks....
