Windshield First-Aide

Nope, I didn't break my windshield, but when it was delivered in the kit it had some smudges on the cockpit side that can't be cleaned away. They almost look like water stains, but if you run your fingernail across the glass it "drags" when it meets the smudges, telling me that the glass has had some abrasion or etching somewhere along the line.

I took it to a local glass place, and the technician used something called "Bio-clean" on it with no effect. That was the extent of his knowlege and ability.

OK, then.......does anyone know of a product or process that could be used on the glass to take out minor abrasions or etching? If I had something like Jeweler's Rouge (which I don't have a source for here) I could apply it with a buffing wheel on a Dremel and then final rub by hand. Thought of using McQuire's #2 burnisher, but I'm afraid that it might cloud the glass.

Any good ideas out there?????????

Thanks!

Gordon
One of the "Speedstah Guys" from Beaufort

gordon, i am an aircraft mech. in our industry we use a "kit" which is nothing more than
a lubricant and various levels of sand paper and polishes. works fine.
get rubbing. treat it like a nice paint job, use sand paper and gradually reduce the
abrasive level it'll be great. start with 1200 or so.

Thanks, guys.....

Looks like I just have to get some polishing compound and try it in a small area and go from there.

Actually, I just remembered that I have a compound here for polishing aluminum wheels that might work - I'll try it out of the straight line of vision area and see how it works. I also saw a polishing pad at Lowe's that looks like the Eastwood version, so that, in a slow-speed drill, might be just the ticket.

Thanks again!

gn

Gordon,

I must have missed something. Why did you replace your windshield and where did you get it?

Eastwood and JC Whitney have kits to polish scratches out of windshields. They use a buffer pad and what looks like jewler's rouge. Try -

www.eastwoodco.com/shopping/search/searchresultsmain.
jsp?fresh=1&searchType=advanced&iMainCat=0&iSubCat=0&att
ribute14=0&attribute15=0&attribute16=0&RS=1&keyword=glass+polish

Nope, no new windshield, just the original one.

It's had this smudging since I installed it, but it's only annoying when lights hit it at night, so I finally decided to do something about it.

I'll report back on whatever success (or failure) I have with polishing compounds - may try Lowe's for jeweler's rouge.

gn

I've tried this on pitted headlights, and it's worked:

Start with 800 grit sandpaper and then work your way up through 800, 1000, 1500, and 2000. After that's done, hit up a local body shop for some polishing compounds (take the Speedster - they might just oogle over the car and give you some). Also, pick up a few buffing wheels. If you don't have a real one (I forget whether or not you packed something like that when you moved down there) I have one that fits on the end of my cordless drill, and it works awesome for stuff like this. Use the compound to finish it up. If you're still not happy with the finish, head over to Autozone and pick up some glass restorer - Meguire's sells some that I've used before with good results.

That should take care of it, but you'll have to be patient - the sandpaper won't take off a lot at a time, but it's not supposed to.

If nothing else, you can really work on your tone and definition in your arm and chest muscles! :)

Oh yeah, and don't use your dremel - use a drill. The dremel tends to rotate TOO fast and create too much heat, which may ruin the surface you're trying to restore.

Chris

If its an adhesive residue, try oven cleaner on it. That comes from Hints From Heloise.
ed

Thanks, Chris.

I thought that the sandpaper route might be too harsh, but I guess I can give it a try in an area out of my main sight line and see what happens. Good tip on not using the Dremel , and timely, too. I was just about to fire it up!!

I first thought it might be adhesive, but NOTHING takes it off and it almost feels like it's been etched or abraided or something.

At least it gives me something to play with.

Gordon

When working with used cars for resale ....we used "Easy Off" oven cleaner to remove large graphics and pin stripes from cars ...works amazingly well and less expensive that specific body shop type removers.

Gordon,

When I worked for Donnelly Glass 15 years ago, now MAGNA Donnelly. Glass supplier for almost all the automotive industry.

The guys in the shop would use a 18" - 24" buffing wheel that was saturated with something that resembled Pinking Glaze. It spun at a slow rate and they were able to buff out most if not all the imperfections. Deep scratches went directly to the punch guy and he made quick recycling glass fragments out of them.

I'm sure you could easily locate if you don't have already - Pinking Glaze.

Best of Luck - Mel

p.s. what happened to the guy with the 550?

Had a bad experience with auto glass when I stupidly did some metal grinding on the workbench next to the family car. I found that all those tiny, bright grinding sparks are really molten metal. I ended up buffing out the door paint nicely, but later I noticed the side window glass was rough to the touch. Evidently the grinding wheel (silicon carbide - same stuff as glass - picked up and embedded tiny slivers of steel right into the glass. All my glass polishing was to no avail. After a few weeks it even started to rust! Never did get rid of all those slivers. It was an older car, it's gone now. File this under Lessons Learned.

David,

I did the same thing on a kit car that utlized a '63 Vette windshield, I did some grinding and not giving it a thought the "sparks" did a nasty job on the glass.

Well, I've never had that experience, but I'll tell you what I did on this one - remember, it all started because I had what looks like water stains on the cockpit side of the windshield, only they appear to be etched in or something.

Had a lot of suggestions from Pinking Glaze (no one's heard of it around here) to "0000" steel wool (the Paint Shop guy), to McGuire's Glass Polish (had almost no effect with the soft buffing pad I was using), to Jeweler's Rouge on a Dremel (buffs it out, but it's a little too course and leaves smudges), to 1500 and 2000 grit sandpaper (which left a slew of crazing scratches all over the place). I went the sandpaper route last, and then had to find something to reverse the effect of the sanding 8>( but it did remove the etches, somewhat.

Finally, I threw in the towel and ordered a "Windshield Polishing Kit" from Eastwood, which consists of a jar of Riordite Polishing Powder and a special, 2-1/2" hard felt buffer designed for an angle grinder head. Mixed up the polishing compound to a gravy-like consistency and went at it with the buffer at about 1000 rpm. A little compound and lots of buffing later (like a couple of hours, at least) most of the windshield looks really good - no more scratches, and a lot of the original etching is diminished but not completely gone. It's not so bad you can't drive it (in any conditions, really), it's just like you have very light wet stains on the glass, so I guess I can live with that. I'm not sure if I can EVER get everything out, so I'll live with it.

The Eastwood product really works, and their instructions (both included and on-line) tell you just how to approach it and that this is a slow process.

BTW: They also have a "Deep Scratch Remover" which is a sanding pad with 2000 grit, wet sandpaper pads attached for an air buffer or electric drill. No, I'm not trying that one.....they caution you that it can remove enough glass to distort images, and THEN you follow it up with the polishing process - Whew! THAT'S a lot of work!

Gordon

One thing to be really careful when you are polishing glass is beware of heat. If you get it too hot it will crack. I had to file that under my personnel "lessons learned...."
angela

Yeah, that's why I was running the buffer at 1000 rpm, didn't apply a lot of pressure and kept it moving all the time. Because of that, progress is very slow, the pad dries out a lot and you're forever re-gooping it with abrasive (Rhiordite) compound.

I also found that a windex bottle with 25% windex and the rest water helped a lot to mist the glass/buffer when it dried and re-energize the compound to keep going.

I would guess that, if you were just trying to remove pitting and the hazing left from the windshield wipers on an older windshield, this Eastwood kit would be terrific and it should take 2 - 3 hours of power buffing to do the entire windshield on the outside. The INSIDE is a pain to work on since the back-rake angle against the dash gets in the way of the buffer so you end up hand-buffing the bottom and the area behind the gauges.

But it does look Mah-velous!

Gordon, Looks like you got rid of your PLANES in the GLASS. TOM

Gordon, Looks like you got rid of your PLANES in the GLASS. TOM

BOTH of them! Sorry for the double post. TOM