swanicyouth
New member
- Mar 3, 2011
- 9,388
- 0
Picked up Car Pro's Ceriglass kit at Detail Fest. Don't recall what it cost, but it was very inexpensive. I bought it because there are many scratches in the wiper path on the windshield of my 01 Pathfinder and at night, vision is very blurry. Also, there are 10 years worth of water spots on the glass sunroof. When it rains, water just puddles on the sunroof. Photographing defects in glass is pretty hard, especially with an IPhone. But, here is my before.
Water spots on the sunroof glass:
Scratches on the windshield:
This is the view through my windshield (blurry). This is mainly what I was trying to improve; as this pic was taken after cleaning the glass for almost an hour using several products(the light you see is a Brinkmann Dual Xenon shining inside the vehicle):
I also picked up some LC Glass polishing pads at DF. They were too small for my regular backing plate; so I put them on the only other backing plate I have (a 3"); and on that they were too big:
... Ok, I tried the glass polishing pads with the smaller backing plate, no good, too small. I decided to use the too big one and just be careful not to hit any trim (do the edges by hand). The Ceriglass kit comes with polish, two excellent hand glass polishing pads, and a very high quality microfiber red polishing towel. So, off I was polishing. Some observations:
1. Ceriglass resembles White Out and white paint mixed.
2. Ceriglass has a very short work time. Even working over a very small area, I could only manage 2 passes with a DA before it was dried into what was like dried white out. The buffing time is easily extended with a spritz of distilled water, but I'm not sure if this is proper procedure or not
3.Ceriglass makes a huge mess everywhere! I found it was just easier too leave the mess and clean it up when done with a pressure washer.
4. Ceriglass is abrasive and is probably overkill for type 1 water spots, as I find these are easily removed with any fine finishing polish or AIO by hand.
... Working first with the DA wasn't a good experience for me. The product slung everywhere and dried to fast. When I spritzed it with water it sling all over again. Also, it left "tick marks" or DA haze in my glass that wasn't there prior. I was getting upset. As it was hard to tell if it was working on the scratches, as cleaning it off was difficult to say the least. What I did see we're these faint tick marks that were only visible with the Brinkmann. Before starting I cleaned the windshield and sunroof with a pressure washer, Simple Green, ONR, then IPA. It was clean when I started. That made me mad, but I decided to just finish. Next day, I decided to go over it again by hand with the pads that came with the kit. These pads are for hand use and I found them almost perfect ergonomic ally for polishing. So the next day it was raining, I decided to seek shelter at the local wash-o-matic, as my other car was in my one car garage, and give it ago again - only this time by hand. I spent about 2.5 hours polishing. This is what it looked like before clean up:
As, I decided to just polish as much as I could, and not inspect until complete. After I was done, there was a vast improvement looking through the glass. It was much clearer and cleaner. However, some of the DA tick marks remain. They are fine and almost impossible to see without direct lighting on them. This
may just be the price of using this polish, I'm not sure. While there was a cosmetic improvement in the glass, the real benefit of this product is how it makes looking through the glass so much clearer. I plan on searching on line for a finer glass polish, no idea if one exists or is feasible. Here are some after pics. It was raining at night, which is when everything previously looked very blurry.
This was looking through the windshield out. The line in the center is rain water from the wipers:
The sun roof glass done and beading water with Opti Coat on it:
A close up:
And some great new Good Year wiper blades from Costco (8 bucks each):
Now, just waiting to place my next AG order so I can try the Griot's glass sealant on the windshield.
Water spots on the sunroof glass:
Scratches on the windshield:
This is the view through my windshield (blurry). This is mainly what I was trying to improve; as this pic was taken after cleaning the glass for almost an hour using several products(the light you see is a Brinkmann Dual Xenon shining inside the vehicle):
I also picked up some LC Glass polishing pads at DF. They were too small for my regular backing plate; so I put them on the only other backing plate I have (a 3"); and on that they were too big:
... Ok, I tried the glass polishing pads with the smaller backing plate, no good, too small. I decided to use the too big one and just be careful not to hit any trim (do the edges by hand). The Ceriglass kit comes with polish, two excellent hand glass polishing pads, and a very high quality microfiber red polishing towel. So, off I was polishing. Some observations:
1. Ceriglass resembles White Out and white paint mixed.
2. Ceriglass has a very short work time. Even working over a very small area, I could only manage 2 passes with a DA before it was dried into what was like dried white out. The buffing time is easily extended with a spritz of distilled water, but I'm not sure if this is proper procedure or not
3.Ceriglass makes a huge mess everywhere! I found it was just easier too leave the mess and clean it up when done with a pressure washer.
4. Ceriglass is abrasive and is probably overkill for type 1 water spots, as I find these are easily removed with any fine finishing polish or AIO by hand.
... Working first with the DA wasn't a good experience for me. The product slung everywhere and dried to fast. When I spritzed it with water it sling all over again. Also, it left "tick marks" or DA haze in my glass that wasn't there prior. I was getting upset. As it was hard to tell if it was working on the scratches, as cleaning it off was difficult to say the least. What I did see we're these faint tick marks that were only visible with the Brinkmann. Before starting I cleaned the windshield and sunroof with a pressure washer, Simple Green, ONR, then IPA. It was clean when I started. That made me mad, but I decided to just finish. Next day, I decided to go over it again by hand with the pads that came with the kit. These pads are for hand use and I found them almost perfect ergonomic ally for polishing. So the next day it was raining, I decided to seek shelter at the local wash-o-matic, as my other car was in my one car garage, and give it ago again - only this time by hand. I spent about 2.5 hours polishing. This is what it looked like before clean up:
As, I decided to just polish as much as I could, and not inspect until complete. After I was done, there was a vast improvement looking through the glass. It was much clearer and cleaner. However, some of the DA tick marks remain. They are fine and almost impossible to see without direct lighting on them. This
may just be the price of using this polish, I'm not sure. While there was a cosmetic improvement in the glass, the real benefit of this product is how it makes looking through the glass so much clearer. I plan on searching on line for a finer glass polish, no idea if one exists or is feasible. Here are some after pics. It was raining at night, which is when everything previously looked very blurry.
This was looking through the windshield out. The line in the center is rain water from the wipers:
The sun roof glass done and beading water with Opti Coat on it:
A close up:
And some great new Good Year wiper blades from Costco (8 bucks each):
Now, just waiting to place my next AG order so I can try the Griot's glass sealant on the windshield.
rops: