[Mark2Mac]

The glass in my 1970 Chevelle is all original. The windshield is in great shape--no cracks, chips, or deglazing--but has the light scratches and very minor pits you'd expect from 44 years of light dirt, gravel, etc., bouncing off the windshield.

I'm contemplating have the glass polished to remove these light blemishes to try and get the windshield to look as close to new as possible. (Don't want to lose points in AACA judging.) Is this a good idea or bad idea? Polish the windshield or leave it alone?

Thanks! I look forward to your recommendations.

 

[DN]

Windshield can be polished with a "slurry" of cerium oxide and water using a very dense wool pad made for this. Results vary greatly. Any scratches you can feel with your fingernail will not come out. Wiper hazing, etc will come out. Have to be somewhat careful so no distortion occurs.
Chuck the wool pad into air or electric tool and go to town, using the same basic technique as buffing paint, not staying in one place too long.

 

[Alan F]

Dave it sounds as if you have experience with this. I hope someone can address my follow up question. I have a side glass that was etched through the missing door handle hole when it was blasted. Would it be possible to polish that out? I thought at one point I had seen someone somewhere use progressively finer and finer sandpaper to remove some aggressive scratching.

I was going to try it just to see. It can't be any worse. I'll just replace the glass.

 

[Pete 67]

Dave it sounds as if you have experience with this. I hope someone can address my follow up question. I have a side glass that was etched through the missing door handle hole when it was blasted. Would it be possible to polish that out? I thought at one point I had seen someone somewhere use progressively finer and finer sandpaper to remove some aggressive scratching.

I was going to try it just to see. It can't be any worse. I'll just replace the glass.

Alan,

Side glass is tempered where windshields are not. Tempered glass is very hard & almost impossible to polish scratches out of it. When I have gotten scratches out of it, I've left noticeable distortions every time.

I learned very quickly that trying to polish glass was basically an excercise in futility.

 

[Caseys69]

Glad I saw this post, looks like I might be stuck buying new side glass

 

[DN]

Alan, sure can't hurt to try it. I would probably start with Trizac sanding disc first. The cerium oxide is too fine to work in your situation.

 

[Alan F]

Thanks for the feedback, certainly gives me something to think about.

 

[roc_sci]

Some thing to think about with aftermarket glass, I noticed when my car is out in the sun the glass I bought looks spotty or blotchy. Where my original glass doesn't do that.

When I asked the company I got it from, they said it was do to the way the manufacturing processes are now

 

[Mark2Mac]

Thanks, Dave! There are no scratches or windshield wiper hazing/scratches on the windshield, just light pings/dots/grazing (I don't know how else to describe it--it just doesn't look new). I guess I can give it a try and hope I don't dork it up. I'm assuming this is easier to do (and will prevent accidental damage to the paint) if with the windshield out of the car.

 

[von]

I've tried it on a WS without good results. It didn't do much but sling the residue everywhere and make a mess. I'd guess it would be useless on harder tempered glass.

 

[69355]

Is this something you can do by hand or do you need a buffer? What brand do you guys use?
Thanks

 

[cromedss]

I did it on my back glass with good results minus the deep scratches. If you have hazing with very light scratches it works really well but takes time. Plan on spending a few hours at it and keep the rotary buffer moving to avoid too much heat and distortion.

 

[Big White]

Side glass is tempered where windshields are not. Tempered glass is very hard & almost impossible to polish scratches out of it. When I have gotten scratches out of it, I've left noticeable distortions every time.

I learned very quickly that trying to polish glass was basically an excercise in futility.


Pete is spot on. I built display cases for a major museum in the Chicago area for many years and all of the glass was tempered for obvious safety reasons. The museum had large groups of school children coming through every week and scratching the glass seemed to be a challenge to them. My attempt to polishing scratches and blemishes out was an exercise in futility.

There are glass polishing kits available (Google) that you might want to try on your windshield but the process is very messy.

 

[Terry454]

I guess when I polished deep scratches out of the side glass on my 1970 Corvette I was doing the impossible. I doubt Corvette side glass is any different then Chevelle side glass, but WDIK. I found the speed of the buffer was critical. Follow directions. It is a lot easier to do with the window out of the car.

It is time consuming. I probably spent 20 hours per window in two or four hour increments. Distortion is minimal, but just like body work there is some learning curve to it. Patience and persistence are your friends.
Terry

 

[Mark2Mac]

Thanks, guys--I appreciate the info!