Pitted Glass

kimtyson

kimtyson

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My 2002 Celica has what I would call pits in the windshield glass. It appears to be very small marks from rocks and debris from the road. There is ALOT of it. Mostly noticable in bright sunlight, otherwise not as bad. Is there anything I can do to minimize this issue? I assume glass is too hard for compounds to do anything for it. I have a PC DA if that would help. Can I simply clay and polish it? Or is it a lost cause? Thanks for your help.
 
Replace the windshield, it will probably be around 200 dollars. You should always clay glass. You can use compound and polish with a DA and foam pads, but that only removes water spots and some very minor scratches. Glass is really hard and you need a much more powerful machine to polish it. Pits can't be removed
 
there are glass polishing kits with harder pads and such but never used them and haven't really seen any 50/50's like we typically see with paint.

I have seen a few mess ups though where fine scratches are left behind b/c polishes weren't worked long enough. Make sure you practice on some scrap glass first!
 
To properly polish out an entire windshield of little rock pits could take you 10 to 20 hours.

It would be much cheaper to just replace the windshield. And check with your insurance, they may cover it.

The only way it might be worth the time, materials, and effort, is if it was an antique car with no replacement glass available. And I don't think a recent Toyota qualifies.
 
Unfortunately, replacing the windshield is the best option. I have had to do this on all of my Japanese made cars and yet my beat up 10 year old GMC pickup does not have that problem (there does seem to be a difference in hardness between windshields). Glass polishing kits are primarily used to remove water etchings and minor swirls. Pits are indents in the glass and next to impossible to polish away without distortion
 
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