Polishing Windshileds - The final report.
It is very clear that having your windshield polished by a professional is
something of the past - since it is laborious and takes to much time, NOBODY
wants to do it. I have called 25 places or so in the San Francisco Bay Area
and got only one guy to come up and give me an estimate of $350 to start
with. Since a new windshiled (for a Sprite) cost about $150. getting a new
one is a very clear choice.
Now suppose, as in my case, you have an original one and you want to keep
the car as original as possible, or that parts are unavailable for your
car and you can't find one:
The Eastwood Co. (800-345-1178) sells two products for polishing glass.
The first one (Product # 1919) cost $19.95 and is pitched as a remover
of light scratches and it comes with everything except a LOW-speed drill
(1,800 rpm or less) that you need for the job.
The second product (#1917) costs a lot more ($32.95) and it is suposed
to be used with a SLOW-speed polisher (1,500 rpm) and they say it will
remove scracthes that cannot be caught by a fingernail. These LOW-speed
polishers are NOT cheap machines, the one shown in the panphlet, a Makita
7" electronic sander-polisher is priced around $250. There are some cheaper
Black & Decker models in the market for around $60. and, one can rent these
machines from local places for about $15./day.
Neither products will solve the problem of cloudness near the edge, this
is caused by a vinyl layer (inside two buns of glass) being exposed to air,
and the only solution for that is a NEW windshield glass.
Just on the side, they also offer a product for polishing vinyl windows,
that removes halo, haziness and hairline scratches for $19.95 and another
one to fill in chips.
The other company that offers some products on that line is J.C. Whitney & Co.
(312-431-6102). The product (13XX2455R) seems to be almost the same thing as
the one sold by Eastwood - the kit with cerium oxide and polishing wheel costs
$24.95. They also have a product for polishing vinyl and plastic (71DV1263X)
for $6.95 and a glass repair kit for $4.98.
sold by Eastwood
Paulo Ney
|