Good Deed Gone Wrong-Need Help

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youdontknowme

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Hi guys

Need some advice. My nephew and his school were hosting a charity carwash. So this morning as Iam going to work he calls me and says please stop by there isn't a lot of people stoping because they know its supposed to rain tomorrow and this is the only day the parking lot they were using will let them use it. So I thought what the heck I have to detail my car anyways for the season whats the worst they can do. So I stop by and they go at it. I got out of the car was talking to my nephew (which wasnt working on my car) and one of his friends come up to me pale face and just about to cry saying "Iam sorry uncle" (all his friends call me uncle) So I went to the car looking at it didn't notice nothing then look at him and he points at the windshield which has very light (to my eyes) swirl scratches. Iam asked him what the heck he used he pulls out a wait for it wait for it wait for it green scrub pad.(he said he was just trying to get it real clean) You know the ones for greasy pans etc. I didn't have the heart to yell or complain or nothing like that so i just donated and went on my way with my new "clean" windshield. Now of course is the question. How the heck do i fix this lol. ??? any ideals will be greatly appreciated because I see this kid often and don't want to slap him hahahah just kidding. He's a good kid just needs to learn how to wash windows I guess.
 
Sorry to hear the bad news though the good news is you can polish the window out with either glass polish and glass polishing pad or you could use a orange pad or white pad and a combo like meguiars m105 and m205 to polish out the glass to your perfection then seal it up with a sealant
 
jamesboyy said:
Sorry to hear the bad news though the good news is you can polish the window out with either glass polish and glass polishing pad or you could use a orange pad or white pad and a combo like meguiars m105 and m205 to polish out the glass to your perfection then seal it up with a sealant
Click to expand...

Thanks Jamesboyy
 
I believe it was Mike Phillips who advised when you see one of these charity things and want to help out, pay them NOT to wash your car.

Sometimes what appear to be scratches in glass are actually on the surface and can be cleaned up with regular polishes. If the glass is actually scratched, you have a lot of work ahead of you with CarPro Ceriglass etc.
 
Youll need some cerium oxide product. Ive had great success with carpro ceriglass
 
Sorry to hear of your mishap....

If you want to fix this problem, that is remove scratches from glass, you can do it but you can't do it with Meguiar's M205 or any other paint specific compound or polish.

You need to get a dedicated glass polish that contains the rare earth mineral,

Cerium Oxide


The above works, I just used everything in the pictures above on a Mustang in Argentina during a detailing class. Also just wrote this simple but detailed article for this type of work.


Glass polishing - How to remove scratches in glass


In the picture below you will see the pads, products and tools you need to remove scratches from glass.

Glass is very hard and in order to abrade it in a way to remove scratches without at the same time instilling scratches you need a polish specifically made for glass that contain

Cerium Oxide


Cerium_Oxide_Glass_Polishing_Tools.jpg




Step-by-Step How to remove scratches in glass


IMPORTANT
Never start by working on the glass in front of the driver field of view. Just in case something goes wrong you don't want to impair the view of the driver.


Step 1: Wash and dry or wipe glass clean.

Step 2: Tape-off and cover any perimeter window gaskets, wiper arm assemblies, surrounding plastic or trim. Anything you do not want to stain with polish splatter.

Step 3: Apply some CarPro Ceriglass glass polish directly onto the face of a CarPro Rayon glass polishing pad.

Step 4: Place the face of the glass polishing pad against the glass and then using a slow speed setting, turn the polisher on and spread the polish out to small area. When buffing out a car windshield, divide the windshield into quarters and work one quarter at a time.

Step 5: After you have spread the product out at a low speed setting, turn the speed up to a fast speed setting on a dual action polisher like the Porter Cable 7424XP or a low to medium speed setting on a rotary buffer.

Step 6: Make SLOW overlapping passes with firm pressure. Have a spray bottle of water on hand to re-wet the abrasives as the polish will tend to dry out as you work it. You can get more buffing time from the abrasives by re-wetting them with water.


Buff till you have removed the scratches to your expectations then repeat to a new section till the entire window is free from scratches.

Glass polishing can be very messy because the polish will tend to splatter. You can reduce the amount of splatter by using a water sprayer that does a good job of atomizing the water into a fine mist versus an generic spray bottle that squirts water.



Order List

Porter Cable 7424XP Dual Action Polisher

5" Dual-Action Hook & Loop Flexible Backing Plate

FLEX PE14-2-150 Rotary Polisher

5" Flex-Foam HD Rotary Backing Plate

3" Flex-Foam HD Rotary Backing Plate

5" CarPro Rayon Glass Polishing Pad - 2 Pack

3" CarPro Rayon Glass Polishing Pad - 2 Pack

CarPro Ceriglass Glass Polish - 150 ml

CarPro Ceriglass Glass Polish - 500 ml


My comment....
You can remove scratches out of glass using either a rotary buffer or a dual action polisher like the Porter Cable type. With the dual action polisher it will take a little longer but in my opinion the glass polishing process is easier on you when using a dual action polisher versus using a rotary buffer.


Slow process
Figure on taking 2-3 hours to machine polish and remove the scratches out of the average size windshield. Longer if you're new to this type of polishing.


:)
 
Cerium oxide is what's used for glass polishing. With a dense felt type pad and lots of polish time + heat. One good product to use by hand or with a drill and wool pad, etc is the Griots glass polish. That's what I would recommend first. The other brands of glass compounds may work well also, Diamondite, Ceriglass etc. Don't use a glass polishing pad/disc if it feels rough or plastic-like. I picked up one here just for kicks (don't recall which one it was, sorry)... and it scratched the crap out of my w/s which then took me a couple hours to fix (I have real glass polishing equipment). If it's soft or fuzzy, it's fine. lol
 
Sorry to hear about this, I feel sad to see good people with good intentions messing something out...

Hope you can fix it and please, share your method and results for us to follow and learn as well.

Recommend then next time to use the following:

- Thorough wash glass with water and car soap;

- Use detailing clay to remove stubborn contaminants (this will leave the glass cleaner as using a green sponge (yuck!)), without the scratchy mess;

- Polish (even by hand) using a cleansing polish (don't even need to have abrasives).

- Apply some sealant, wax, etc...


By the way, this would be 'charity detailing', and I'm pretty sure they would lose money if doing this for peanuts,

On the other hand, a full glass cleaning like said above would touch other's people hearts and make them donate more - glass at the end would look cleaner, slick and reflexive as ... Glass! ahahah

If it's supposed to rain the next day, everyone should go for the 'charity glass cleaning and protect' to improve visibility and easy the wipers while driving on the rain.

Just an idea, you can educate them, they can do a better job that will add comfort to every car they work on, and things like 'more security and visibility while driving on the rain' are a great appeal.

Good luck,

Kind Regards.
 
Mike, do windshields have any sort of protective coating thats going to be removed and should be replaced? I'm thinking of headlights, where most have some sort of UV coating from the factory, and after polishing them you need to seal them to keep them from rapidly deteriorating again. Do windshields also need to be sealed like this?

I know there are various water repelling agents that can be applied (RainX, while a terrible quality product, comes to mind), but I would think of those as sort of optional enhancers, rather than something necessary. I'm about to polish my windshield (some wiper scratches and micro pits to remove) and have been wondering if I need to purchase a sealer.
 
As always THANKS to everyone for your help. Ordered the carpro glass polish and some glass pads. Thanks again everyone.

Mr Fusion I will make sure the pad is "soft or fuzzy" lol thanks!
 
jdoublehcubed said:
Mike, do windshields have any sort of protective coating thats going to be removed and should be replaced?
Click to expand...

To my knowledge there are no car manufacturers that are putting any type of coating or layer of "anything" onto the outside of a vehicle's windshield.

There are coatings --> you <-- can apply after you've polished the glass to help keep them clean longer and to repel water. I use the Black Label Glass Coating on my daily driver truck and it works great but due to friction from wipers you do have to re-apply any glass coating used on windshields with time.


:)
 
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