Polishing Plexiglas to be as clear as glass using Pinnacle Advanced Finishing Polish

  • Thread starter Thread starter Mike Phillips
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Mike Phillips

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Polishing Plexiglas to be as clear as glass using Pinnacle Advanced Finishing Polish


First a couple of things....


1: Plexiglas is NOT like most modern plastics. It's very SOFT. A lot of guys call everything Plexiglas because they simply don't know any better but I'm telling you straight up, the plastic T-top windows on your 2000 Corvette are NOT Plexiglas, they are LEXAN and if you Google my name and the word LEXAN you should pull up plenty of articles on this topic and how impossible it is to polish scratches out of Lexan. Plexiglas is also softer than the headlights on your car. So please don't be one of those people that calls everything plastic Plexiglas it's no longer the case.


2: What I'm showing is how I FINISHED out the Plexiglas back window on a 1965 Corvette. The Pinnacle Advanced Finishing polish is a FINE CUT polish. It's not a compound. It's not a medium cut polish. It's a fine cut polish and it is not aggressive enough to remove the swirls and scratches you'll see below on the right hand side or passenger side of the window. I did the initial correction work using other products and other pads than the Pinnacle polish and the CarPro Gloss Pad.



The problem I ran into was every polish I tried to cut with and finish out with, or any other polish I tried to follow a more aggressive product left micro-marring in the Plexiglas. I actually was going to give up on trying to remove 100% of the micro-marring because the product I thought would work simply were not working. This caught me by surprise by the way. It also stressed me out because while the back window looked HORRIBLE when the top was brought to Autogeek by the owner, it wasn't going to be okay to tell the owner,

Hey, I removed all the deep swirls and scratches and left in their place uniform micro-marring


Before leaving for the night, (the next day was Friday, the day before my big 2-day boat class and I had to get the top out of the garage before the end of day on Friday), my wife Stacy, who was my Camera Girl, held up a bottle of Pinnacle Advanced Finishing Polish and said,

What about this?


I honestly thought,

Well, none of the other products have worked, I don't see how this is going to work?


But because I believe that you don't know what you can do until you try and because I also know a few years ago they updated all the formulas, or in other words, updated all the ABRASIVE TECHNOLOGY in the Pinnacle line of compounds and polishes, I figure.... what the heck.... let's give it a try.

And it worked.

Not only did it work, it worked GREAT.

So after proving to myself it would remove all the micro-marring and leave a clear glass like results, I re-polished the inside of the window and the corrected the passenger side and the finished out the outside with the Pinnacle Advanced Finishing Polish.

I applied the Pinnacle Black Label Leather/Vinyl Coating and then stuck a fork in this project and called DONE.

Texted the owner a few pictures the next day, he came and picked up. End of story.


Pictures


Here's how the entire window looked when the owner dropped off the top.

1965_Corvette_Backwindow_01.JPG





I corrected the driver's side and then polished, changing products and changing pads and nothing I did left a clear finish. Everything was leaving micro-marring. I also tried long-stroke polishes to no avail.

SCANGRIP Sunmatch light on the window

1965_Corvette_Backwindow_02.JPG



FLEX Swirl Finder Light on the window

1965_Corvette_Backwindow_03.JPG





After using the Pinnacle Advanced Finishing Polish and the CarPro Gloss Pad on the Griot's Garage 8mm free spinning random orbital polisher

1965_Corvette_Backwindow_04.JPG



Before and after
(You can see the 24' Edgewater Center Console boat in the background, this project was leftover from my big 3-day detailing class)

1965_Corvette_Backwindow_05.JPG


1965_Corvette_Backwindow_06.JPG



Here's what I used to remove the micro-marring and finish the plastic out to look as clear as glass.

1965_Corvette_Backwindow_07.JPG


1965_Corvette_Backwindow_08.JPG




FWIW


:)
 
Took these pictures last weekend....

The flexible plastic windows on a boat are called, Isinglass. Some people spell it Eisenglas.


This same pad, product and tool will also work for light or shallow swirls and scratches on this type of plastic.


1965_Corvette_Backwindow_10.JPG


1965_Corvette_Backwindow_11.JPG


1965_Corvette_Backwindow_12.JPG





:)
 
Lots of good information here, Mike, thanks for sharing, and explaining the differences between plastic, LEXAN, and plexiglas and how to remove micro-marring.
 
Craig Parker said:
Lots of good information here, Mike, thanks for sharing, and explaining the differences between plastic, LEXAN, and plexiglas and how to remove micro-marring.
Click to expand...


Yeah... not a lot of info in the cyber world about this topic and most of what is available is usually incomplete.



:)
 
dlc95 said:
Abrasive wizardry in that polish.
Click to expand...

If it will finish out perfect on soft plastic it will finish out perfect on soft car paints. Without the micro-marring problem you get with a LOT of product.

For those reading this into the future that might not know what micro-marring is or what it looks like, I used two products on the market, (not sold at Autogeek), on black paint and then took these pictures.


Pictures of Micro-Marring - DA Haze - Tick Marks - Compounds - Polishes - AIOs - Clearcoat Paints




Polishing that soft Plexiglas was a challenge and I've polished a LOT of clear plastics in my life.


:)
 
Mike you need to put this on hull truth… I don’t think I’ve ever seen a good way to polish isinglass until this… This is a game changer…
 
You’re the man Mike! I’ve been looking for a way to clean up the plexiglass windows in my barn. I replaced all the glass with used plexiglass years ago because the cattle kept busting the windows out and I have never been able to see out of them very well. I’m gonna have to go at one and see what I can do.
 
Mike,

Do you think I could polish the windscreen on this motorcycle with the Pinnacle Advanced Finishing Polish? I also have the BLACKFIRE One Step. Perhaps I could use the finishing polish and then wax it with the Pinnacle Liquid Souveran I got in the other day?

b1be323a5c2c80dc7154003b4784861a.jpg


1ff3139e36a89c8bc1d42a093b528a7c.jpg


Sent from my SM-G975U using Autogeekonline mobile app
 
Jacob Harrod AUTOCLEAN said:
Mike,

Do you think I could polish the windscreen on this motorcycle with the Pinnacle Advanced Finishing Polish?
Click to expand...


You can try.

One thing people MISS in this article we're all reading.... it's the FIRST paragraph.

Mike Phillips said:
1: Plexiglas is NOT like most modern plastics. It's very SOFT.

A lot of guys call everything Plexiglas because they simply don't know any better but I'm telling you straight up, the plastic T-top windows on your 2000 Corvette are NOT Plexiglas, they are LEXAN and if you Google my name and the word LEXAN you should pull up plenty of articles on this topic and how impossible it is to polish scratches out of Lexan.

Plexiglas is also softer than the headlights on your car. So please don't be one of those people that calls everything plastic Plexiglas it's no longer the case.
Click to expand...


The plastic cowl you're working on is NOT Plexiglas. My guess is it's some form of polycarbonate plastic and my next guess is it's probably REALLY HARD.

So you'll need to do some testing to,

A: First see if you can in fact improve it or fix it. Fix it mean make it look perfect.

B: Second - Make sure buffing it doesn't make it worse via micro-marring.


So do some testing. If you find you can fix it - you might have to start with something more aggressive to get it right and then finish with the Pinnacle AFP


Make sense?

Pad type will be important too. I went into this IN this article in the first post. I ended up using what I have found to be THE SOFTEST pad I think there is on the market.




Jacob Harrod AUTOCLEAN said:
I also have the BLACKFIRE One Step. Perhaps I could use the finishing polish and then wax it with the Pinnacle Liquid Souveran I got in the other day?
Click to expand...

You can test the BF One Step - depending upon the plastic itself and the pad - this might work.

And yes - whatever results you end up with - you can use any non-cleaning wax or sealant to seal the surface.


:)
 
Mike Phillips said:
You can try.

One thing people MISS in this article we're all reading.... it's the FIRST paragraph.




The plastic cowl you're working on is NOT Plexiglas. My guess is it's some form of polycarbonate plastic and my next guess is it's probably REALLY HARD.

So you'll need to do some testing to,

A: First see if you can in fact improve it or fix it. Fix it mean make it look perfect.

B: Second - Make sure buffing it doesn't make it worse via micro-marring.


So do some testing. If you find you can fix it - you might have to start with something more aggressive to get it right and then finish with the Pinnacle AFP


Make sense?

Pad type will be important too. I went into this IN this article in the first post. I ended up using what I have found to be THE SOFTEST pad I think there is on the market.






You can test the BF One Step - depending upon the plastic itself and the pad - this might work.

And yes - whatever results you end up with - you can use any non-cleaning wax or sealant to seal the surface.


:)
Click to expand...
Roger that. If my friend ever replaces the wind screen he will give it to me so I can give it a go risk free.

Ha ha ha then I'll wait till he needs a new one again and sell him his old one back. JK.

I really appreciate the info, I read it all the way through.

Sent from my SM-G975U using Autogeekonline mobile app
 
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