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Car Forum / Driving, Maintenance, Tuning / Maintenance and Repair / March 2007Windshield scratches: experience with cerium oxide?
My new car (only a month old) has scratches on the windshield from grit in a squeegee. The scratches can't be felt with a fingernail, so they seem to be candidates for cerium oxide polishing. Unfortunately the scratches are all half the width of the windshield, and both halves have these scratches - so I'm gonna wind up polishing about 60% of the entire surface of the glass, it's not just one or two spots. I'd like to hear from someone who has used this material; specifically, I'm worried about clouding. At the moment I have a usable, but annoying piece of glass; I don't want to make things worse :) I'm willing to invest a day's work polishing this if it will save me $350 for a new windshield. > My new car (only a month old) has scratches on the windshield from > grit in a squeegee. == Check your deductible on comprehensive insurance coverage. After finally realizing the scratches can be a safety hazard under certain lighting conditions, I was able to have the windshield replaced with a factory original for no charge. >From what I understand, polishing with cerium oxide is a slow and tedious process, like an hour for a couple of square inches, then move to the next spot. Plus there is the potential to introduce unevenness in the finished glass surface. > Check your deductible on comprehensive insurance coverage. It's $500 (plus, most likely, an increased premium when I reinsure. Insurance companies are not designed to pay money but to make money...). > to the next spot. Plus there is the potential to introduce unevenness > in the finished glass surface. My father-in-law has a junker car in his driveway, I'm tempted to scratch the windshield and then try to polish it out just to see what it's like. On Mar 21, 11:32 am, zwsdot...@gmail.com wrote: > My new car (only a month old) has scratches on the windshield from > grit in a squeegee. The scratches can't be felt with a fingernail, so [quoted text clipped - 10 lines] > I'm willing to invest a day's work polishing this if it will save me > $350 for a new windshield. No personal experience, but I remember seeing a caveat; don't let the area get too hot while polishing or the windshield will crack. Seems reasonable. On Mar 21, 11:32 am, zwsdot...@gmail.com wrote: > My new car (only a month old) has scratches on the windshield from > grit in a squeegee. The scratches can't be felt with a fingernail, so [quoted text clipped - 10 lines] > I'm willing to invest a day's work polishing this if it will save me > $350 for a new windshield. You will have to be an energetic worker to polish out an area that large. And I doubt that you will have the equipment to make even passes across the glass. Why not go back to whoever damaged the glass and have them replace it. > > grit in a squeegee. The scratches can't be felt with a fingernail, so > > they seem to be candidates for cerium oxide polishing. > passes across the glass. Why not go back to whoever damaged the glass > and have them replace it. That would be me. Because the scratches are so light, I couldn't see them as I was squeegeeing. On Mar 22, 8:36 pm, zwsdot...@gmail.com wrote: > > > grit in a squeegee. The scratches can't be felt with a fingernail, so > > > they seem to be candidates for cerium oxide polishing. [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > That would be me. Because the scratches are so light, I couldn't see > them as I was squeegeeing. I wonder about temporary fixes, like just waxing it; i've had sometimes reasonable improvement with scratches on my glasses with all those wonder treatments that slightly fill the scratch, and make them a little less distracting. The best was a long time ago, a kind of waxy slightly pink plastic that you scrubbed on the glasses and polished off so that it didn't remain on the rest of the glass, worked better than those dunk liquids they sell now that cover the whole lens. Anyway, just 'taking the edge off" the scratch seems to be one of those things where 20% of the work gets you 80% of the benefits. Which also makes me wonder whether the same goes for cerium polishing of the windshield, where taking just the edges off the scratch might reduce the distraction a lot. > > That would be me. Because the scratches are so light, I couldn't > > I wonder about temporary fixes, like just waxing it; i've had I put it through the car wash yesterday for this exact reason, but I haven't had a chance to drive it into the sunshine yet. > Which also makes me wonder whether the same goes for cerium polishing > of the windshield, where taking just the edges off the scratch might I'm going to try a few things. Actually I just used a diamond to scratch a corner of the rear window of my father-in-law's junker, and I'm going to test out the polish technique there. |
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