Anyone ever polish a windshield?

[Hay Dude]

My IH-7500 windshield has thousands of fine scratches on it. It almost looks “hazy”.
Am I on the right track that it might need to be polished?

Anyone do this and can impart some constructive or helpful suggestions on what product/technique to use?

 

[Engineer42]

Test a small area with toothpaste

 

[not2old]

I used to work at a business that had a glass shop and I bought the polisher when the glass shop closed. It is a slow speed sander usually used with a foam disc for feather edging when body working on a car. There was a three inch disc on it for polishing glass with jewelers rouge. I don't remember where I bought the rouge and if you want to see a picture of the device, I can't send it until I return home on the week-end.

 

[Rockbadchild]

yes use cerium oxide glass polish

 

[dodge man]

I have a Porter Cable buffer meant for polishing and waxing cars. They make pads and polish made for windshields. The buffing pads are pretty thin so you get more pressure. I get my stuff from Griot’s Garage. I think getting scratches out of a windshield is like getting them out of paint. If you can hook the defect with your finger nail, it’s not going to polish out.

 

[gstrom99]

IHMO, you'll never get it satisfactory, if it has "thousands" of pits. I've polished a few (with the correct tools and paste), that had defective wiper arm streaks. They never came out very good.

 

[Hay Dude]

Wonder if this is best left to a “pro”? Like a body shop or windshield rep. shop?

 

[BleedingOrange]

Haydude, have you priced out a new windshield ? It doesn,t look much bigger than the one I had replaced on my 2008 Ford F150. I paid 300 cash canadian funds to have it replaced. Huge difference from the old pitted one.

 

[Hay Dude]

Haydude, have you priced out a new windshield ? It doesn,t look much bigger than the one I had replaced on my 2008 Ford F150. I paid 300 cash canadian funds to have it replaced. Huge difference from the old pitted one.

Well this is an “International” windshield.
I bet it’s $1,000+
Like these clowns want $1,000 for a new rubber floor mat…

I was looking at this kit from Amazon.

https://www.amazon.com/Nu-Finish-Windshield-Polishing-Applicator/dp/B0DK45X7Q5/ref=sr_1_6?dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.LzVFMHCGl8d4TGyOkD8IEer_RCdBArsN1P0aCbbvvCDiPnvUVXmojuHA6xFCo2PyyIMU6wJt__bpJ9j4PhscEYkuZ_mFBeyCmsvzCOzNNpmez8eUTiqjhtu_ROvuB9F0DJxkqOrlf1dJNzDezUZX5oIVN1nsR8-Z5oO9Uxm-yCvMuCHZ784duVprfyRYxI11tt3iAeiNcSQPWMDL90ik28cyfDx0cp3JtSkUdaoE3D8elqbbUqk3OALzrsNlyxz-kEaFTO4B8JABrwUyFoWcxfeykMmjYHWpYyWy5mpZP7GfWaadniUJeuPm-NfQuoKAwBUb94Vd9-Ii0D0IcWOVHeaSutVDLwH83xUpxJ1KcpNJKDaCN9wccRGQY-tq0C-kitU3bIXTuFLBjRVHe-dxCcYnGVHq4gJ8bxQdDjJ7Wf9UzgjUdjF0_J5m9LjIGvjH.xfOEsbqS9b3MVrrzoOJxszvr08SpKbHmKqvGx0WNJAU&dib_tag=se&keywords=windshield+polishing+kit&qid=1739230036&sr=8-6

 

[MtnViewRanch]

I was in the glass business for 35 years, worked with pieces of glass that cost 10s of thousands of $$. If you value your time at more than 1 dollar per hour, just get a new windshield. It is basically impossible to get these out and not have the glass destorted. Like was already mentioned, if you can feel it, you aren't going to fix it. I use to go by if your finger nail caught it, time to get a new piece of glass.

Like was mentioned, get a price for a new windshield, don't guess. Go to an auto glass shop and actually check.