Polishing glass

[Baconz2012]

My brother has some nasty streaks on his window that are really instilled into the glass. They are mostly from the electric window system as well as heavy water sports and some minor swirling. Would I need to buy special pads/compound. Or could I use the ones for the paint as well?

[Rsurfer]

My brother has some nasty streaks on his window that are really instilled into the glass. They are mostly from the electric window system as well as heavy water sports and some minor swirling. Would I need to buy special pads/compound. Or could I use the ones for the paint as well?
Paint compounds will not get them out. Get some glass polishing pads with some Ceri Glass. Mike P has a thread on polishing glass with a rotary (messy job).

[WickedLou9]

I'd like to know this too. I tried once with my DA and a glass pad and the Cerium Oxide paste and I don't think I made a dent.
I did find, however, that the cerium oxide works like magic on headlight lenses.

[Vegas Transplant]

My brother has some nasty streaks on his window that are really instilled into the glass. They are mostly from the electric window system as well as heavy water sports and some minor swirling. Would I need to buy special pads/compound. Or could I use the ones for the paint as well?


Plan on dedicating upwards of three hours minimum to the task at hand.
Again, YMMV

[Kinalyx]

Wow, really? 3+hours to do just the windshield?

[Vegas Transplant]

Low ball # guesstimate from previous experience...don't offer this service anymore....more power to those that do.

Windshield would be considerably more.

[FUNX650]

My brother has some nasty streaks on his window that are really instilled into the glass. They are mostly from the electric window system as well as heavy water sports and some minor swirling. Would I need to buy special pads/compound. Or could I use the ones for the paint as well?

-This sounds like a side window, not the windshield...Is that right?

If so...
-Auto glass for windshields must be of a laminated-glass process.
-Auto glass for the side & rear windows is tempered glass

Both are "safety-glass", with different 'protection' provided from a person/animal being cut by their being broken:
-Windshield glass shards sticking to the sandwiched lamination material(s)...somewhat eliminating sharp edges.
-Tempered glass, being brittle, explodes and shatters into a zillion small oval-shaped pebbles when broken.
This eliminates the danger of sharp edges. You can still get cut, though

I'd use extra, extra caution on trying to polish tempered auto glass...especially using a buffer.
Any undo stress (going from "hot to cold" and back again, pressure, etc.)
may just be the undoing (explosion) of tempered-glass' inherent inclusions.

What I do is try to reduce imperfections by using something like Meg's #4 on a terry cloth applicator...
By Hand Only!!

After cleaning any "by-hand polishing residues"...
I'll further clean the tempered glass with a glass-cleaner like Sprayway/D120...and call it a day.

Most of these tempered glass blemishes (except perhaps some of the water-spotting)
are from the window rubbing up & down against dirty window seals. Try to keep those clean as well.

As with any procedure that you may be attempting...Please be careful.

:)

Bob

[Baconz2012]

-This sounds like a side window, not the windshield...Is that right?

If so...
-Auto glass for windshields must be of a laminated-glass process.
-Auto glass for the side & rear windows is tempered glass

Both are "safety-glass", with different 'protection' provided from a person/animal being cut by their being broken:
-Windshield glass shards sticking to the sandwiched lamination material(s)...somewhat eliminating sharp edges.
-Tempered glass, being brittle, explodes and shatters into a zillion small oval-shaped pebbles when broken.
This eliminates the danger of sharp edges. You can still get cut, though

I'd use extra, extra caution on trying to polish tempered auto glass...especially using a buffer.
Any undo stress (going from "hot to cold" and back again, pressure, etc.)
may just be the undoing (explosion) of tempered-glass' inherent inclusions.

What I do is try to reduce imperfections by using something like Meg's #4 on a terry cloth applicator...
By Hand Only!!

After cleaning any "by-hand polishing residues"...
I'll further clean the tempered glass with a glass-cleaner like Sprayway/D120...and call it a day.

Most of these tempered glass blemishes (except perhaps some of the water-spotting)
are from the window rubbing up & down against dirty window seals. Try to keep those clean as well.

As with any procedure that you may be attempting...Please be careful.

:)

Bob

Whoa, I didn't know that. Thanks for the information bob!

[FUNX650]

Whoa, I didn't know that. Thanks for the information bob!

You're welcome!

Another reason for side/rear auto-glass being tempered:

-In cases of emergencies, you can more easily break, (even by kicking sometimes), through tempered glass in order to exit a vehicle.
-Not so easily with laminated-glass.
-Makes sense, then, to have something like this stowed inside your vehicle:

Results for lifehammer - Search (http://autogeek.commerce-search.net/search?catalog=autogeek&query=lifehammer&x=37&y=6):)

http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/500/LifeHammer.jpg (http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/showphoto.php/photo/50893)

:)

Bob

[TomG]

I don't know how bad the damage is, but before you go nuts, try poorboy's pro-polish with a white LC pad. It makes a big difference on a windshield. We were directed to try this at the poorboy's expo and it cleared up some relatively gross glass.

[wangotango]

Recently used DG Nuglass on rear window of mid-sized SUV to remove water spots.
Not real nasty spots but annoying and not removed with best window cleaner.
Tried Nuglass with 3" GG DA & GG glass pads.
On other half tried Nuglass with 3" orange pad.
Same results per side, removed spots, polished nicely, easily.

[AutowerxDetailing]

Paint compounds will not get them out. Get some glass polishing pads with some Ceri Glass. Mike P has a thread on polishing glass with a rotary (messy job).

+1 for CeriGlass. The water spots will come out with just a few section passes and a foam pad. It will only take a few minutes per window. The scratches, on the other hand, will take hours to fully polish out. Dedicated glass polishing pads will be a must if you plan on putting a dent in any of the scratches in the glass.

Sent from my LG-VM701 using AG Online

[swanicyouth]

I went through the whole thing of polishing my windshield using a DA, CerriGlass, and LC glass cutting pads. It cleaned the window, but left slight micro marring behind. I'm not sure why. Maybe I need glass polishing pads and a rotary.

[Ipsdrew]

I've done a couple vehicles recently with heavy water spots and chemical etchings. Used the Groits Garage glass polishing pads with the Detailer's High Performance Glass Restorer on my GG6 (speed 5). Removed 95% of the defects with 1-2 passes and 99.9% with multiple passes or a second application.

[AutowerxDetailing]

I went through the whole thing of polishing my windshield using a DA, CerriGlass, and LC glass cutting pads. It cleaned the window, but left slight micro marring behind. I'm not sure why. Maybe I need glass polishing pads and a rotary.

IMO the glass cutting pads (the thin, firm, fiber discs) are way more aggressive than would be needed for most situations. I think the glass polishing pads would give a better result with CeriGlass. My experience with the cutting pads is they are so aggressive with CeriGlass that they impart their own scratch pattern that then needs to be polished out with a softer pad.

Sent from my LG-VM701 using AG Online