Re: Glass polishing - How to remove scratches in glass
I'm wanting to tackle some scratches the tint shop somehow managed to put into my drivers side window that are driving me nuts (can't feel them, but can DEFINITELY see them!) I bought the CarPro CeriGlass kit and a couple different pads to try (LC glass cutting and CarPro rayon glass pads.) I want to try this when my G9 shows up, or maybe on my little Meguiars DA Power polisher on a drill? The glass on my 300 is triple layered acoustic glass.
Any tips would be great! I'm afraid to tackle this and make it worse!
Re: Glass polishing - How to remove scratches in glass
I have about 4-5 articles on this and show it in all my classes. At my last class just last weekend we tackled the WORST windshield I've ever seen. Got to about 90% scratch free. We could have got it to 100% but I cover so many topics and the class detailed a total of 13 cars in 3 days. Because glass polishing takes a LOT of time, at some point we had to stop and move on to the next car.
I will get with the owner, show him how HE can do it and even give him the stuff to do it. Then it's all him and his time.
If the paint is great on your car then place some bath towels around adjacent panels like the roof, hood, etc. Glass polishing tends to be messing.
Tape off around the window frame too and avoid getting splatter in the channels.
Take your time and be prepared to spend a lot of time working on the glass. Glass is hard, it will not polish out fast like paint.
I'd do some Google searching, use terms like
Glass Polishing Mike Phillips scratches pits
That should pull up some of my articles and then read them.
Re: Glass polishing - How to remove scratches in glass
Thanks for tips Mike! I've been reading a bunch of posts here and elsewhere about it, but still scared to try as I don't want to make it worse and it really shows up in the sun :/
From what I've read CarPro pads are the only ones to use (which is to bad as I bought some LC ones too.) I may replace the window its so bad (I will if the polishing doesn't work.)
Re: Glass polishing - How to remove scratches in glass
I took my GG G9 DA with a CarPro Rayon pad and the CarPro CeriGlass and went to town on the window, speed 5 and a sprayer of water to mist it with, lol. I got 90-95+% of it out in only 15 minutes or so! I could leave it like this as its more then adequate now, was surprised how well it turned out! I'll go over it again this weekend and see if I can get rid of the last of it. Some messy crap doing this!
Thanks Mike, saved me a bunch on not having to replace the window!
In the picture below you will see the pads, products and tools you need to remove scratches from glass.
Glass is very hard and in order to abrade it in a way to remove scratches without at the same time instilling scratches you need a polish specifically made for glass that contain
Cerium Oxide
Step-by-Step How to remove scratches in glass
IMPORTANT
Never start by working on the glass in front of the driver field of view. Just in case something goes wrong you don't want to impair the view of the driver.
Step 1: Wash and dry or wipe glass clean.
Step 2: Tape-off and cover any perimeter window gaskets, wiper arm assemblies, surrounding plastic or trim. Anything you do not want to stain with polish splatter.
Step 3: Apply some CarPro Ceriglass glass polish directly onto the face of a CarPro Rayon glass polishing pad.
Step 4: Place the face of the glass polishing pad against the glass and then using a slow speed setting, turn the polisher on and spread the polish out to small area. When buffing out a car windshield, divide the windshield into quarters and work one quarter at a time.
Step 5: After you have spread the product out at a low speed setting, turn the speed up to a fast speed setting on a dual action polisher like the Porter Cable 7424XP or a low to medium speed setting on a rotary buffer.
Step 6: Make SLOW overlapping passes with firm pressure. Have a spray bottle of water on hand to re-wet the abrasives as the polish will tend to dry out as you work it. You can get more buffing time from the abrasives by re-wetting them with water.
Buff till you have removed the scratches to your expectations then repeat to a new section till the entire window is free from scratches.
Glass polishing can be very messy because the polish will tend to splatter. You can reduce the amount of splatter by using a water sprayer that does a good job of atomizing the water into a fine mist versus an generic spray bottle that squirts water.
My comment....
You can remove scratches out of glass using either a rotary buffer or a dual action polisher like the Porter Cable type. With the dual action polisher it will take a little longer but in my opinion the glass polishing process is easier on you when using a dual action polisher versus using a rotary buffer.
Slow process
Figure on taking 2-3 hours to machine polish and remove the scratches out of the average size windshield. Longer if you're new to this type of polishing.
Re: Glass polishing - How to remove scratches in glass
Originally Posted by Icarus
Thanks for tips Mike!
I've been reading a bunch of posts here and elsewhere about it, but still scared to try as I don't want to make it worse and it really shows up in the sun :/
From what I've read CarPro pads are the only ones to use (which is to bad as I bought some LC ones too.) I may replace the window its so bad (I will if the polishing doesn't work.)
Originally Posted by Icarus
I took my GG G9 DA with a CarPro Rayon pad and the CarPro CeriGlass and went to town on the window, speed 5 and a sprayer of water to mist it with, lol.
I got 90-95+% of it out in only 15 minutes or so!
I could leave it like this as its more then adequate now, was surprised how well it turned out! I'll go over it again this weekend and see if I can get rid of the last of it.
Some messy crap doing this!
Thanks Mike, saved me a bunch on not having to replace the window!
Thank you for the update and I agree - it is messy.
Originally Posted by Red&BlackJacob
Absolutely AMAZING! Thanks Mike!
Stay tuned, I have a brand new glass polishing article I'll be sharing.
Re: Glass polishing - How to remove scratches in glass
Mike, I have a glass polishing job coming up and I'm trying to scramble to get the stuff together on time for the job. Can I get the link for the 5 inch interface pads?
I legit tried looking on the AG website but they didn't pull up. Darn my luck.
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