Tried to polish my windshield...and I'm thoroughly frustrated...

spike

spike

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Hi everyone, I have done lots of research on how to polish a windshield. I have posted a few questions about this, and got some tips, so I tried to polish it today with my new flex 3401 that I got for Christmas.

Preface: The car I inherited from my grandma who lived in California has lots of swirls and some fine scratches in the windshield that are sooo aggravating at night when the oncoming headlights hit it, or when the sun is shining "just right" through the glass. I tried my best to capture the swirls with my camera, but that was not working for me either today...I'm sure y'all have seen these cobweb swirls in the windshield, so I think you know what I'm talking about...they are VERY annoying...

So I tried my flex on the windshield with Griot's glass polish, and griot's 6 inch glass polishing pads. I first spread the product around at speed 2 on the flex, then I went to speed 5 to work it in. I worked in such a way as to not stay in one area too long, because the heat would warp the glass and mess it up. I worked the polish in until it was pretty dry with an up-and-down motion, then a side-to-side motion, then wiped it off with a microfiber towel. I inspected the glass, and the scratches were still there....so I polished it again, slowly of course, and no change. If anything, there are more swirl scratches now than there were before I started. I even tried Duragloss nu glass, but it didn't do anything either. But it doesn't say that it's for scratches, only for water spots and road grime. And, to be fair to griot's, the bottle of polish says that "glass polish may not remove all scratches or etching". But, I was hoping for at least some improvement, not to make it worse!!

So, the bottom line is, either I did something wrong, or the only way to polish glass is to use some kind of cerium oxide product. If anyone out there has polished their windshield and has had success, PLEASE tell me what I did wrong! I would hope that I could salvage this bad job, but something tells me I'm going to have to spend the $100 deductible with my ins. to get a new windshield. Oh well. I just hope in the spring that I'll get way better results with the flex when I polish the car for the first time!! (with WG products)
 
Someone with some experience will respond, chill out for a while and look at this thread tomorrow. :)
 
Well, unfortunately, I can't speak to the topic directly, since I've never tried polishing a windshield. However, I would suggest searching the AG forum for other threads relating to the topic. Similar questions have been raised in the past. (You might also want to give AG a shout directly and talk to one of the staff there.)

In addition, you can also get advice from other pros on, for example, Autopia.com. Either search or post your question & ask for related/applicable links. Another idea, assuming you don't find what you are looking for here, would be to talk to an auto glass company in your area (or search the web on the topic) and see what they suggest. I'm sure the answer is out there or at least comments on the extent to which your windshield defects can be removed & with what process.

To expedite the process, a few close-up photos of the defects might also help sort out the likelihood or method of fixing your problems.

That's just my 2 cents............I hope it helps with setting a direction to help.

See ya.
wavey.gif

Bob



spike said:
Any thoughts, anyone??!!
Click to expand...
 
Clutch34 said:
Someone with some experience will respond, chill out for a while and look at this thread tomorrow. :)
Click to expand...

Hey, sorry dude...I'm just a little too impatient I guess...:surrender:
 
I hope I can help you out on this; my 1996 Saab had some wiper induced scratches which annoyed the heck out of me when driving. I wound up buying a Lake Country glass polishing kit which has a couple very thin felt like pads, a backing plate (junk), and some polish. I found that I was overly cautious originally because of all the warnings about heat build up but found the glass was quite resilient.

The first pass didn't yield the amount of correction I had hoped for. So I went a bit heavier on pressure and made sure to keep the glass and polish moist and worked it for a while. The last few passes were made with very light pressure to restore some clarity. This did the trick, and left me with a beautiful clear windshield. So don't go crazy on pressure, but you can use a fair amount which will help you in the removal of that marring. Most importantly, try a small working area at a time since this will also help you.
 
christian900se said:
I hope I can help you out on this; my 1996 Saab had some wiper induced scratches which annoyed the heck out of me when driving. I wound up buying a Lake Country glass polishing kit which has a couple very thin felt like pads, a backing plate (junk), and some polish. I found that I was overly cautious originally because of all the warnings about heat build up but found the glass was quite resilient.

The first pass didn't yield the amount of correction I had hoped for. So I went a bit heavier on pressure and made sure to keep the glass and polish moist and worked it for a while. The last few passes were made with very light pressure to restore some clarity. This did the trick, and left me with a beautiful clear windshield. So don't go crazy on pressure, but you can use a fair amount which will help you in the removal of that marring. Most importantly, try a small working area at a time since this will also help you.
Click to expand...

Thank you so much! I woke up this am thinking about just that same thing...maybe I didn't apply enough pressure. I was letting the weight of the machine, plus a little pressure, do the work. Like you, I was afraid of warping the glass. I'll try again, and see if I can get better results. I do have those thin felt like pads from griots, and griots glass polish.
 
Try out the Diamondite Resurfacing Creme. I have found with the right amount of patience you will probably achieve the results you are looking for. Patience is definitely the key here. The scratches in glass will not go away as easy as paint or plastic.
 
Try Rhodite sold by the Eastwood Company.
I saw a demonstration on Trucks! TV Show yesterday

Polishing glass is a time consuming affair. You have to be patient and take your time.
Glass is not as forgiving as paint, while results can be good, still won't be as perfect as one may expect...
 
CieraSL said:
Sorry this isn't an Autogeek thread, but since I just joined the other day I'm afraid I'm not too good with finding threads on here yet. This thread is from Meguiar's Online, but I think it may be what you're looking for.

Glass Polishing by Machine - Defect Correction
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Dude! You just found the thread I have been looking for!! I knew I saw this somewhere...You ROCK!! :righton:

Those swirls in the pics in that thread are exactly what I'm having problems with. I know it takes a lot of patience, but also I'm seeing that it takes the right product. Griot's glass polish and 6" glass polishing pads are not the right product for this kind of defect removal. I'm sure it does great with water spots, but not for swirls. It hasn't even touched my swirls, and I think I made it worse...so to everyone that wants to polish their windshield - be very careful because the glass is easily scratched...I don't care how hard the experts say glass is, and that you can't scratch glass, and stuff like that...even a polish and a glass polishing pad will scratch glass. It must be that it is scratching some kind of coating on the glass, and leaving those annoying swirls. Maybe it's not scratching the glass itself??!! I don't know at this point. I even tried it very slow, and put pressure on the flex as I was polishing, and worked in a small area, and STILL I can't put a dent in those pesky swirls.

All I know is, I wish I had NEVER even tried to put ANY kind of polish on the 'shield. I used a foam applicator pad with Megs UC the first time, and I got lots of little swirls in the glass. So, I tried to correct it by using the griots glass polish and glass pads. This also did not work. Get this: on the bottle of the griots polish, it says "For hand application, apply a small amount to a 100% cotton cloth and buff onto glass in a circular motion. Be careful, bearing down too hard in only one direction may scratch the glass". I used the flex w/ the griots glass pads, but how can you scratch the glass by hand??!! And isn't his stuff supposed to remove the scratches, not add to them??!!

I guess they ONLY way to get a clear 'shield is to use the cerium oxide products like it shows in this link. I don't want to spend any more money on this "project", because it's almost like I need to recoup my losses and I may have to spring the $100 for a new 'shield.

So, I'm throwing in the towel on this project, and I'm licking my wounds, and I realize that I screwed up, and learned from my mistake. :cry:
 
well now you can experiment with it to see what went wrong. see if you can find something that works, etc.
good luck.
 
Dave is the man and knows what he's doing. He does some wonderful writeups, too.

Bite the bullet and spend the $100 on a new windshield.

Colin
 
I've used Duragloss Nu Glass alot on glass and its great for water spots, acid rain and grime, however I've never seen it touch scratches on glass. Weird that you added swirls, unless you picked up debris off the windshield. I usually clay the glass prior to starting to remove contamination.
 
Bradshaw said:
I've used Duragloss Nu Glass alot on glass and its great for water spots, acid rain and grime, however I've never seen it touch scratches on glass. Weird that you added swirls, unless you picked up debris off the windshield. I usually clay the glass prior to starting to remove contamination.
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I cleaned the glass with Megs NXT glass cleaner, then clayed the glass with blue clay magic, then cleaned the glass again with the NXT cleaner to remove the excess lube. Then I started polishing. I'm with you, I have NO idea how I added swirls to the windshield. I am very puzzled how someone can use a dedicated glass polish, and a dedicated glass polishing pad, and still scratch up the windshield really badly. I have so much hazing now that night driving is really frustrating. The oncoming headlights are making visibility pretty bad.

I need to find a product that works!! If anyone has used anything that worked for them to remove the swirls like the ones that are shown in the Megs forum link in previous posts above, please let me know. I would like someone to tell me exactly what they used, and how well it works from their own experiences, if you can. That would help me to buy a product that I know WILL work. Then I know that I can fix this problem with confidence. But maybe I'm up a creek, because all you guys are so experienced that you would never make such a dumb newbie mistake like trying to polish your windshield in the first place.......:doh:
 
spike said:
Griot's glass polish and 6" glass polishing pads are not the right product for this kind of defect removal. I'm sure it does great with water spots, but not for swirls. It hasn't even touched my swirls, and I think I made it worse...

I used the flex w/ the griots glass pads, but how can you scratch the glass by hand??!! And isn't his stuff supposed to remove the scratches, not add to them??!!
Click to expand...

Wow, Griot's on a Flex didn't help? Good to know as I was going to try that combo. Regards, GEWB
 
spike said:
Thank you so much! I woke up this am thinking about just that same thing...maybe I didn't apply enough pressure. I was letting the weight of the machine, plus a little pressure, do the work. Like you, I was afraid of warping the glass. I'll try again, and see if I can get better results. I do have those thin felt like pads from griots, and griots glass polish.
Click to expand...

No problem, glad to help! The key is to use a fair amount of water or QD when it starts drying out but with a bit of patience they will come out. Good luck, just remember you can add a bit of pressure in the first few passes and ease up gradually until the last pass or two is under the weight of the machine.

Edit: I think your problem is that you aren't fully breaking down the polish. My first time trying it yielded micro-marring but I realized that you really have to keep going by spritzing the polishing area with water when it dries out until it eventually starts to go clear.

For what its worth; I bought some spare headlights that have glass lenses and were serverly pitted. I figured I would see how far I could take the glass polish both in terms of maximum working time and pressure and it made a night and day difference.
 
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Here was my contribution to the Meguiar's thread

Many years ago I made my own reflecting telescope mirrors. And for the final finishing I used cerium oxide as a polishing agent. So when I needed to polish out a wiper scratch I bought a pound of cerium oxide and made a paste by mixing a very small amount of powder with distilled water. Then I put a hard felt bob in a drill motor and polished out the scratch from the wiper arm. It removed it totally. Just be aware that a flat windshield is like a lens. If you remove too much glass you will change the "prescription" of it's optical flatness and induce a distortion. Luckily for me the scratches were all on the lower part of the windshield and it wasn't apparent.

Here is where I get mine. A one pound jar should last a lifetime unless you do a lot of windows professionally.

Faceting Accessories

And I bought the optical (top) grade just in case I ever do any optical polishing again. Top Grade (99.9%) 1 lb. $23.00

But I am sure that the 90% pure grade would be fine for windows.

And here is where I got my felt bobs. Best price that I could find.

Caswell Inc. - Felt Bobs


Since this was several years ago I have upgraded my method. I now use my Makita rotary with a hard felt bob in it instead. With it the mixture of cerium oxide and water stay liquid a lot longer and the felt bob doesnt tend to "stall".
 
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