Best pad to polish windshield?

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ejaf

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Hi all, quick question.
What type of pads do you use on your RO polishers to polish glass.
Not looking to remove scratches or pock marks; just water marks, wiper streaks, etc.
Reason I ask is I tried an orange foam pad with 3D One, and noticed, after cleaning it with glass cleaner, that it didn't do a great job. I then took the 3D One and put it on a terry cloth towel, rubbed a 2x2 area, and the results were much better.

TIA... Eric
 
Rayon pad, with ceriglass glass polish. Dont expect much improvement unless using a rotary. You basically need to grind the glass to remove defects.

Check out some of mike phillips videos on the topic.

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Orange pad with 3D One is enough for what you want to achieve.
 
opie said:
Rayon pad, with ceriglass glass polish. Dont expect much improvement unless using a rotary. You basically need to grind the glass to remove defects.

Check out some of mike phillips videos on the topic.

Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Watched them all already.
Don't need cerium oxide based polish.
I just need to get water spots off. The glass doesn't need correcting at all (I actually think some of the spots are from the plastic they cover new cars with in transit, the car is about 1 month old).
 
Microfiber or a foam cutting pad with a compound.
 
Griots glass polis my is great for this. Has Cirium oxide but not much. I use 3” rayon pads cuz I have them and 1-2 passes looks good as new.


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Try Mckee’s Glass Restoring Polish. Works better than ordinary compound. I either apply it by hand with a microfiber applicator or on a polishing pad with a polisher. Microfiber pad if the glass is extremely rough.
 
ejaf said:
Watched them all already.
Don't need cerium oxide based polish.
I just need to get water spots off. The glass doesn't need correcting at all (I actually think some of the spots are from the plastic they cover new cars with in transit, the car is about 1 month old).
Click to expand...
Gotcha, my mistake i had misread your post on what you were trying to remove.

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Thanks all for the feedback!

Can't justify buying a dedicated polish for this; I could mix a concoction with certain oxide powder I have lying around from another project, and have reason pads from that project, but I think it may be overkill.

I "may" be able to justify getting a couple of cutting pads, if you know what I mean (just a lowly weekend warrior here).

I couldn't do any damage using thwe rayon pads with something like 3D one, or even no7 rubbing compound, if I needed to be more aggressive, correct?

Not sure if these photos help, but this is what I am dealing with. Took photos right after using windshield cleaner, before it had a chance to evaporate:

View attachment 76974View attachment 76975
 
CeriGlass has it's place, but I hate using it, too messy and a pain to remove off the glass and surrounding paintwork.

Any moderate to heavy compound on a wool or foam cutting pad will be fine. I use the Lake Country SDO blue foam teamed with P&S Clarity Creme.



 
DFB said:
CeriGlass has it's place, but I hate using it, too messy and a pain to remove off the glass and surrounding paintwork.

Any moderate to heavy compound on a wool or foam cutting pad will be fine. I use the Lake Country SDO blue foam teamed with P&S Clarity Creme.



Click to expand...
I can definitely get an ok for the blue foam purchase

That's the reason I don't want to use the cerium oxide... real PITA to clean up, based on the last project I used it for. Could be different with the compound that are formulated mentioned above, though.
 
I used a $10 jar of Cerium Oxide Fine Grade Glass Polishing Powder purchased on Amazon, a white Griots 6" glass polishing pad and an interface pad.

Using a Beast, it powered the wiper scratching off a friends Corvette windshield in record time. Sorry, I forgot pictures.

A spritz of water as the polish dried in the pad rejuvenated it to full cutting strength.
 
I'd think for a foam pad, the Meguiars burgundy pad would work well. They are a pretty hard pad.
 
ejaf said:
I can definitely get an ok for the blue foam purchase

That's the reason I don't want to use the cerium oxide... real PITA to clean up, based on the last project I used it for. Could be different with the compound that are formulated mentioned above, though.
Click to expand...

The griots was easy to use and cut through faster. Not made to fix scratches but Jo must to keep windows looking great


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ejaf said:
I can definitely get an ok for the blue foam purchase

That's the reason I don't want to use the cerium oxide... real PITA to clean up, based on the last project I used it for. Could be different with the compound that are formulated mentioned above, though.
Click to expand...

I did the cerium oxide and rayon pad thing because that's what I thought I was supposed to do, but unless you are dealing with light to moderate scratches, its just not worth the hassle.





I've also tried using Perfect Finish but got nowhere. Clarity Creme on the other hand is so easy to use and requires only minimal passes to clean things up. It's very liquid so can also make a bit of a mess but is nowhere near like CeriGlass can. Teamed with any foam or wool pad, the wipe off is super easy and it doesn't dust.

 
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