Hope for scratched windshield?

[dibbons]

Right in front of the driver's seat we have a windshield with some obvious deep scratches. I heard somewhere that one is able to polish glass and remove such defects. Is this just a dream or a viable solution?

 

[Bad Sport]

Yes, you can polish some defects out.

With that said, be very very careful, if done incorrectly, you can end up with the "coke bottle effect".

 

[Mopar to ya]

Body shops do it all the time. It really depends on how deep the scratches are.

 

[TrailBeast]

From what I have read and heard if you can catch a fingernail in it, then it too deep to polish out.

 

[MOPARMITCH]

From what I have read and heard if you can catch a fingernail in it, then it too deep to polish out.

Yup, Tried to get some pretty deep scratches out of a Road Runner rear glass. Tried my *** off for a week, with everything I knew or ever heard of. No Go.

 

[TrailBeast]

Yup, Tried to get some pretty deep scratches out of a Road Runner rear glass. Tried my *** off for a week, with everything I knew or ever heard of. No Go.

You mean I was right???

Bummer.

I looked into it quite a bit because I have some marring in my side windows from before I bought the car and they kept rolling them up and down with bad whiskers and felts.

 

[GeorgeH]

From what I have read and heard if you can catch a fingernail in it, then it too deep to polish out.

X50 most glass guys will agree

 

[pntastar69]

Time for new glass

 

[RedFish]

Many years ago a guy convinced me he could remove a deep wiper scratch and all the sparkles from the windshield of our first B'cuda. This old gentleman worked about 6 hours with diamond compound and a buffer for only 40 bucks.
The glass looked much better from the outside but from the inside.. the view was weird, wavy, distorted, kind of under water like. And the wiper blade wouldn't clear the arc about an inch wide where that scratch was either. 40 bucks wasted.

 

[grimreaper]

Minor issues can be buffed with cerium oxide but anything very deep will take a long time and leave the waves mentioned previously.

 

[66Dvert]

Right in front of the driver's seat we have a windshield with some obvious deep scratches. I heard somewhere that one is able to polish glass and remove such defects. Is this just a dream or a viable solution?

if you can run your fingernail over the glass and feel it catch, it is too deep to fix without ruining the optical focus. I did one for a friend that just "Had" to have his fixed instead of getting a new one and it ended up like looking through a fun house mirror from the drivers seat Also it would take forever to even try to polish out. I worked at a glass plant in Michigan and learned the hard way what will or will not polish out. light scratches and rubs can be polished out using different polishing compounds but again if a fingernail can catch in it it's toast.

 

[RustyRatRod]

Tooth paste and a buffer will remove surface scratches. Ay deeper than that and either you live with it or replace the windshield.