How to use Make.com for Auto Glass Repair

You're constantly bouncing between insurance portals, part suppliers, and the customer just to verify if you can even get the right windshield.

💡 Why This Actually Matters

Quoting a windshield replacement is a massive time sink. You get a request, have to manually decode the VIN to ensure you're pricing a 2019 Honda Accord and not a 2014, and then you have to manually email your supplier to see if they even have the glass in stock. It delays the quote and kills your close rate.

Make.com completely automates the quoting preamble. The moment a customer submits their VIN, the system automatically decodes it into the exact vehicle specs and drafts a ready-to-send email to your glass supplier. You skip the tedious data entry and jump straight to pricing the job and closing the deal.

The Blueprint

🚗 Trigger: Customer submits their VIN and damage photos via your website.
🔍 Action: Pass the VIN through an API (like NHTSA) to get the exact make, model, and year.
📧 Action: Draft a pre-filled email to your local glass supplier requesting inventory for that specific vehicle.

The VIN Decoder Workflow

Architecture Map

This is the high-level structural flow of your automation. Build this sequence in Make.com:

Webhook (Receive Form) -> HTTP Request (NHTSA VIN API) -> Gmail (Create Draft with Vehicle Details)

🛠️ Actionable Toolkit: Setup Guide

Follow these exact steps to implement this blueprint in Make.com:

Add a Webhook trigger in Make.com to catch your website's quote form.

Use the HTTP module to make a GET request to the free NHTSA VIN decoder API.

When mapping the NHTSA API response into your email draft, use the complex get/map functions below to extract the exact Make, Model, and Year from the messy array.

Power Snippet

{{
  get(
    map(2.Results; "Value"; "Variable"; "Make");
    1
  )
}} | {{
  get(
    map(2.Results; "Value"; "Variable"; "Model");
    1
  )
}} | {{
  get(
    map(2.Results; "Value"; "Variable"; "Model Year");
    1
  )
}}

Connect Gmail/Outlook and use the 'Create a Draft' module, injecting the vehicle details into the email body.