Polishing glass using a DA

[The Guz]

Seems like the OP just wants to polish the glass to remove things like hard water spots.

[Calendyr]

If you Watch the video, you will know why I am asking.

That is why I was asking Mike since he made the video.

The polishing is to remove the grime from the glass surface before sealing it. In the video he uses a Rotary Buffer with an Hybrid Pad. He mentions it can also be done with a DA or by hand but gives no suggestions on what to use. I was simply asking what he would use if he was to do it with a DA instead of a rotary.

[slimnib]

Careful or you will distort the glass.

[El Flaco Taco]

When I polish glass I use Cerium Oxide Powder and mix it with water.
The DA moves this very watery liquid around to much.
I use my rotary with a 3" glass polishing pad and it works great, you don't need a huge pad.
I mostly do this for water spotting or deep scratches.

What exactly are you trying to do? Just polish the glass? or scratch removal?
If you just want to shine up the glass then I would clay and spray with a spray wax or RainX.

Any glass polishing pad in particular? Or will the one that came in the Diamondite system work?

[Jaddie]

Dear Calendyr & Friends

You want to use CeriGlass and a glass-polishing pad. It's a thin pad just for glass.

I have more time polishing glass than I have polishing paint. Removing wiper trails can take hours, but a simple polishing for cleaning purposes could be finished in ten to twenty minutes. You need to keep spritzing water on the polish to keep it working.

[BlackHawk]

OP there's a difference between polishing and cleaning glass....

[AutowerxDetailing]

I made a guide a while back for how to use CeriGlass via rotary or DA. Here is a link to the DA portion:

http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum/...s-guide-3.html

Hope it helps. If you aren't removing scratches and just cleaning up the glass it will just take about the same amount of time as applying a cleaner wax to paint. More restorative polishing can take hours depending on the level of defects you are attempting to remove.

Regards,

[Unscratch]

We just got done completely resurfacing 2 side windows from a 67 Lamborghini that had grooves from the rivets holding the weatherstripping in. They were pretty bad but they were removed...without distortion. So it IS possible but I don't think too many people want to get that aggressive with super expensive, very rare, car glass.
Has anyone else had success with getting deep scratches out of classic car glass?
Never tried that diamondite. Is it fairly aggressive on scratches?

[Mike Phillips]

This message is for Mike but if anyone else knows you are welcome to post...

So I just watched your video explaining how to polish glass using a rotary buffer and Pinnacle glass polish.

I don't have a rotary buffer yet, kinda scared of them to be honest with all the horror stories... anyway, if I am to do this with a Meguiar DA, what pad do you suggest I use and what speed? I was thinking Microfiber cutting pad with high speed (5)? Is that too aggressive? I figure glass is super hard and it will need a lot of correction power from a DA.

I have polished glass in the past using a polishing pad and Meguiar Polish. I don't know how effective it was since it was the first time I did it and had no guidelines to follow. I used a paint sealant on the windshield once it was polished. Owner of the car was super happy about it when I talked to him the following week. I don't know if what I did is as good as using the dedicated glass polish or not. Any thoughts on this would be appreciated.

When trying to remove the road film, water spots and other gunk that builds up ON the glass, (not scratches IN the glass), you can us just about any aggressive foam pad or microfiber pad on a DA polisher and a quality glass water spot remover.

The less aggressive the tool, the longer it will take, that's the biggest difference. I always use a rotary buffer and as long as you don't get the glass too hot it's really not risky at all.

My best advice though is to ALWAYS TEST any product you're thinking of using on glass on an area NOT in the view of the driver in case something goes wrong.

The polishing is to remove the grime from the glass surface before sealing it.

Exactly. In fact the title of the video is,

How to remove water spots off glass


There's a HUGE difference in how you approach removing substances "on" glass and defects that are actually "IN" the glass.

In the video he uses a Rotary Buffer with an Hybrid Pad. He mentions it can also be done with a DA or by hand but gives no suggestions on what to use.

The reason why I didn't mention it was because this was a short, quick video I made using my iPhone while I had a 1964 Pontiac Catalina hot rod in the studio. It wasn't an all inclusive video make with Yancy where we had lots of time, resources and regular cameras for both video capture and editing later.

I was simply asking what he would use if he was to do it with a DA instead of a rotary.

Any foam cutting pad or any microfiber cutting pad.

[Mike Phillips]

Never tried that diamondite. Is it fairly aggressive on scratches?

At this time there is no dedicated product in the Diamondite line for abrading glass to remove subsurface defects, only polishing to remove water spots and road film "on" the surface.