Windshield scratches (removal)

[Brett Dikeman]

At 6:24 PM +0100 4/25/02, rob hod wrote:
>     Now that we're getting a bit of sunlight in the UK, I'm beginning to get
>annoyed by various imperfections in my windsheild.
>
>     Years ago the received wisdom was that you got hold of something called
>'Jewellers Rouge' and used this to polish out imperfections.

Jewler's Rouge is mostly for polishing metal...very thick, you could
barely describe it as "paste"; it usually comes in stick or block
form, and has a consistency similar to a grease pencil, only harder.

There are various kits that include an appropriately sized pad etc,
but one major problem is that you can, if you polish too small an
area(with any polish), end up unevenly heating up the glass and it'll
crack.  Slow, careful, and even is the name of the game.


BTW, best glass cleaner I've ever used is Autoglym glass polish.
Might be cheaper for you, since it's made in the UK.  Always been
very happy with the results; I don't use it very often(mostly when I
really want to get the windshield clean, or I'm doing a periodic
"detail" of the car), so a bottle has lasted me at least a year or
more(I think I still have about half left), not bad for maybe 2x the
cost of a bottle of windex.  It will -not- remove even the slightest
defect in the windshield, but it will get it -perfectly- clean(clean
enough that water beads+rolls like you just applied RainX or
similar.)  Supposedly Jag-e-u-ar and one or two other British car
companies recommend the stuff; I just find it's quite unique(it's an
ammonia based gel w/some sort of very fine chalk-like powder in it,
dries -very- fast, maybe a little too fast; always wanted to try
adding a little extra ammonia to it.)

Oh, I wouldn't really recommend using it a lot on the inside of the
rear window, for obvious reasons.

Brett
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