Mike Phillips
02-28-2019, 09:25 AM
Polishing Plexiglas to be as clear as glass using Pinnacle Advanced Finishing Polish (https://www.autogeekonline.net/forum/ask-mike-phillips-your-detailing-questions-/122394-polishing-plexiglas-clear-glass-using-pinnacle-advanced-finishing-polish.html)
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.
http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/3800/1965_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
http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/3800/1965_Corvette_Backwindow_02.JPG
FLEX Swirl Finder Light on the window
http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/3800/1965_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
http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/3800/1965_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)
http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/3800/1965_Corvette_Backwindow_05.JPG
http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/3800/1965_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.
http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/3800/1965_Corvette_Backwindow_07.JPG
http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/3800/1965_Corvette_Backwindow_08.JPG
FWIW
:)
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.
http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/3800/1965_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
http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/3800/1965_Corvette_Backwindow_02.JPG
FLEX Swirl Finder Light on the window
http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/3800/1965_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
http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/3800/1965_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)
http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/3800/1965_Corvette_Backwindow_05.JPG
http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/3800/1965_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.
http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/3800/1965_Corvette_Backwindow_07.JPG
http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/3800/1965_Corvette_Backwindow_08.JPG
FWIW
:)