Optimum Glass Coat over pitted windshield?

[4regt4]

My "road warrior" - the car I use for multi-thousand mile trips - has micro pits all over the windshield from pebbles and general road grime thrown on it. Seems the general advice I get is to replace, but I hate throwing $3k into a new windshield only to have it look like this again in a couple of years.

I'm hoping the Optimum coating will make it look at least a little better, and protect from more road grit.

Has anybody tried this product on a pitted windshield, especially one covered in tiny micro pits?

Thanks,
Hans.

[58LesPaul]

$3K for a windshield? What are you driving?

[4regt4]

Maserati. Only supplier is OEM.

Oddly enough, the paint seems much tougher than the windshield. Some road rash on the nose, but not real bad....

Hans.

[FUNX650]

•IMO:
-Replacing the pitted all-to-hell
windshield is the best advice.
{Then you can Glass Coat it
to your heart’s desire.}

•Here’s a thought:
-My auto insurance policy’s comprehensive
coverage, covers the majority of the cost for
a windshield replacement. Doesn’t yours?


Bob

[4regt4]

My insurance will only cover if cracked anywhere, or some reasonably serious damage is in line-of-sight. And I'm sure the adjuster would be quite strict once he looks up the price for a replacement.

But again, it's likely to get pitted again in a fairly rapid fashion.

I had a possible opportunity to get it replaced. I had a serious chip, which I had repaired. If I left it alone, the tiny cracks could have spread. Thought about that after the repair.....

I would think that someone by now would have developed a glass clear coat that would fill out minor surface imperfections, wiper blade abrasion, etc. I'm not talking about trying to fix big craters. I'm sort of thinking of maybe a thick ceramic coat developed just for this purpose.

What interested me in the Optimum is it calls itself a "resin", leading me to think it just might fill the surface imperfections.

Or I could be all wrong.....

Hans.

[FUNX650]

My insurance will only cover if cracked anywhere, or some reasonably serious damage is in line-of-sight. And I'm sure the adjuster would be quite strict once he looks up the price for a replacement.

But again, it's likely to get pitted again in a fairly rapid fashion.

I had a possible opportunity to get it replaced. I had a serious chip, which I had repaired. If I left it alone, the tiny cracks could have spread. Thought about that after the repair.....

I would think that someone by now would have developed a glass clear coat that would fill out minor surface imperfections, wiper blade abrasion, etc. I'm not talking about trying to fix big craters. I'm sort of thinking of maybe a thick ceramic coat developed just for this purpose.

What interested me in the Optimum is it calls itself a "resin", leading me to think it just might fill the surface imperfections.

Or I could be all wrong.....

Hans.
Too bad about the insurance policy;
needs an apropos auto glass rider
clause, IMO.

{:idea: You don’t have to go to Mas’
stealerships for certified/warranted
OEM windshield replacement}.


Then again...
What’s that old saying:
“sometimes you gotta pay to play”


Bob

[4regt4]

Before having that bad chip repaired, I checked into a replacement. Most dealers actually farm out the work to an auto glass company. But the glass companies have to get the glass from the dealer. No other source. Same with the oil filter, LOL, no aftermarket part is made.

I'm hoping someone has used the Optimum product on a less than stellar windshield and can comment. If not, I guess I'll have to try it and report back.

I'm guessing that an initial polish might be detrimental, as the teeny pits are a little rough, which may give a little "tooth" for the Optimum resin to attach to and fill. Just a guess, as I obviously don't know what I'm doing....

Hans.

[Thomkirby]

If your rock chips have left that many craters in the glass, I am surprised the clear coat is not equally blemished. I did use the Griots Garage Fine Glass Polish and it helps but will not fully remove. Carpro Ceriglass is what Mike Phillips uses in the detailing classes and is quite effective to remove wiper scars. However your windshield is a bit scary if those micro chips are present and not on the paint.
As to your first question, the Optimum coating products are not fillers, but anything will be a help. Coatings are really very thin so not sure they will help. I did my wife's Camry after 8-years of chips and the polish just made me realize how many were on the glass. I used GG Glass Sealant and it took hold but it did not fill in those bigger spots. Try it or even use any spray wax and see how it does. In either case do give the glass a good cleaning and clay bar treatment before you apply any coating or wax.

[The Guz]

Optimum’s glass coating won’t fill in pits. No glass coating will.

[4regt4]

Optimum’s glass coating won’t fill in pits. No glass coating will.
Ok, noted. But I'm not sure where else to go, as replacement is something I would like to delay.

Squeegee on some clear paint? Just kidding.

Hans.

[AaronE]

Glass polishing with the ceriglass (or other reputable glass polish designed to remove materical) may be the way to go. I have to price out a glass kit vs just having my glass replaced with the same issue (micro abrasion from sand/dirt/pebbles/etc "etching" the glass). According to Mike, it's a lot of work but can be done.

Sent from my SM-G950U using Autogeekonline mobile app (http://r.tapatalk.com/byo?rid=87407)

[Coatingsarecrack]

I would think if anything would help it be the Ceri glass. Will actually polish down glAss.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[SWETM]

If you put in some time and thoroughly cover up the surroundings of the windshield. The Carpro CeriGlass and their Rayon Glass Polishing Pads can at least knock down the most of the edges of pitting and deeper scratches. So it's clareing less. I did this on a bad back window on a hatchback. So it had wipers and the design of those cars does that a lot of sand and grime lands on the wipers and other parts around. The owner before had used hard paper towels I think LOL. So the scratches where very deep for being glas. But with some time and many reapply the CeriGlass on the pad and spraying water so it don't dries on the glass. It worked great on the very fine scratches and knocked down the edges so they got less visible. This when you are correcting glass and not just do some passes to deep clean which I did on the rest of the windows and my own car as well. Is very messy and a lot of slinging and we are talking about hours polishing. And I'm a little worried how much you can go at polishing as with paint it's about heat control and to hold that down. Since your windshield where so easly chiped it can be either a real rock hard glass or a very soft glass. And yes this goes with glass too but the difference vs paint is that the medium hard glass is very hard. The problem if your windshield gets to high of a heat is that you have a kind of laminate in the middle of the glass that can be destorted and make it very bad to look out through the windshield after that. My advise if you are going to be trying to polishing the glass. Is to first cover up the rubber seals and trim and paint around the windshield. You can find good plastic cover that's used in bodyshops at a painters shop for Automotive paints. Start at the bottom or the on a small area on the passenger side of the windshield. And see how it works for you to polishing glass. Then evaluate if it's worth the time it takes to polishing glass when you have tested on this one small section. The best results from polishing glass you get with a rotary polisher. But have low expectations as it's very hard to correct glass and impossible if they are just a little deep sadly. Then it's getting out the CeriGlass from the pitting. The fastest way for me was just to use a polish that is known to not dust and that's easy to wipe it off. And use a glass cleaner or a panel prep wipe product to wipe off any residue left by the polish.

Another thought that I don't know so much of and if it's needed to be applyied on a new window or if it's able to mask up defects on an old window. Is that there some PPF for being applyied on the glass. That could be worth to look into. Then if it's worth it vs a new windshield I don't know.

I got a lot of rock chips on the windshield a couple of months back after driving on an asphalt road they repaired 2 times only. Don't know what they used there but the small rocks in the asphalt flew like crazy. Maybe 25-30 small rock chips just from that. After just a quick polish with the CeriGlass and their Rayon Glass Polishing Pads. And focused a little longer where I saw the chips. It degraded the edges to be less visible at least. But not fun when I noticed this first. Also one thing that I did cause of the wiper even when I put on new ones. Got damaged directly and leaved a thin line of water behind. I used a razor blade in a mini scraper and shaved off any glass that had gotten lifted by the rock chips. This worked great and is something I did after the claying but before the polishing.

/ Tony

[A-train]

Ceri glass to achieve the beat result then have windshield ppf installed.

Sent from my SM-N950U using Autogeekonline mobile app

[DBAILEY]

Find someone willing to go at it with cerium oxide polish, glass rayon pads and a rotary. They would at least diminish them.