Polishing out Side Window Scratches?

[Dmod1974]

While waiting on my lift channels and front/rear glass to come in, I decided to pull down my side windows to start installing new hardware.  After cleaning them up, I found a lot of scratches in both of them.  They're both OEM pieces, and I assume most of the scratches are from dirty window felt over the decades since they are mostly vertical.  My passenger side is bad, and the driver side is downright awful.

Has anybody had luck polishing out scratches on their side glass?  I tried a cheap kit from Amazon earlier today, and it didn't do anything unfortunately.  Some of them can barely catch a fingernail, others don't but the polish didn't affect them.

I'd really like to fix the glass I have up if at all possible.  Replacement glass is yet another expense, and after getting completely unusable front/rear glass from AMD I'm not to thrilled about going through the same thing again with the side glass.

If there's no way to fix them, has anybody RECENTLY purchased replacement glass that went in ok and was decent quality?  If so, what brand?

[moparroy]

Mine had taken on a surface pattern from the cardboard I stored it in for years. I had some success to buff that out with a polisher and compound.

I had also seen on power nation they used a special glass polisher from Summit racing. Curious how  that might work

[JH27N0B]

I went through getting my glass polished with my T/A project.
The resto shop knew of a guy who was an engineer and did concours glass restoration as a sideline. He'd developed a process. He not only polished the glass but used some product to fill low places and fix waves in the glass to make glass perfect. It wasn't cheap though, all the glass except the windshield on a Superbird I was told cost $3000 to do!
I ended up using AMD glass and hated the "pattern" I'd see in the glass in certain lights. Another shop I had do work on the car told me they had a polisher they used so I had him give my original glass to the polisher.
The glass looks tons better than the AMD glass, but if you look at it close you can see some light dips and waves from the polishers work getting out scratches. It cost far less than $3000 too!
I was told the polisher wasn't even a guy who specializes in restoring car glass.  He was a commercial polisher who'd polish windows on office buildings and such.
My takeaway is that it's not something that someone can do at home most likely.  Maybe if they did a lot of research and got some junk glass and spent a lot of time practicing before tackling their cars glass they could but it's not something easy to do, it's an art.
And perhaps a search could find a commercial polisher like the one the shop I used had found who'd do it.

[anlauto]

I bought one of those polishing kits, I believe it was from Eastwoods....bought a polisher too.....at best, all it did was clean the glass

[71vert340]

Several years ago, I bought some door glass from Auto City Classic for my convertible. No fitment issue. I don't know who makes their glass. I don't know if anyone else has had experience with them.
https://www.autocityclassic.com/dodge-glass/
Terry W.

[FE5CUDA]

I bought one of those polishing kits, I believe it was from Eastwoods....bought a polisher too.....at best, all it did was clean the glass

Restoring glass is an art form, you're not going to get the results if you're buying a Kmart kit from Eastwood.  It takes talent and experience with the correct equipment which you don't have either.

[headejm]

I had good luck polishing my windshield. It had a rather large "rub" area caused by a bad wiper blade. I wasn't worried too much about it because I would need to replace it if the polishing didn't work. Treat your glass like you are polishing clear coat paint. Start coarse and finish with polishing compound. Quarter windows should be easier than a windshield because deep polishing can distort glass and you don't really have to see clearly out of a quarter window.

1. If you want, practice first on an old quarter window. I didn't practice first.
2. Mark the scratches on the underside of the glass with painter's tape or Sharpie.
3. I didn't polish my entire windshield but you will want to do the entire quarter window.
4. #1 rule - don't overheat the glass. It will get warm but be careful not to get it too hot.
5. Start with the 1000 grit 6" Mirka/Abralon pad on a variable speed sander/polisher. Just like polishing clear coat, you have to haze the glass. You will feel the pads grab a little on the glass and you can tell when the glass is hazing. Use the 1000 pad until your scratches are gone.
6. Switch to 2000 pad and remove most of the 1000 grit hazing. The 2000 pad should mostly clear up the glass.
7. Finish with cerium oxide paste on a felt pad. This part is messy and should be done outside if possible. You don't need too much, maybe 1oz that you will mix with water to make a thick paste.

Glass should be clear and scratch free. Good luck!

[FE5CUDA]

I had good luck polishing my windshield. It had a rather large "rub" area caused by a bad wiper blade. I wasn't worried too much about it because I would need to replace it if the polishing didn't work. Treat your glass like you are polishing clear coat paint. Start coarse and finish with polishing compound. Quarter windows should be easier than a windshield because deep polishing can distort glass and you don't really have to see clearly out of a quarter window.

1. If you want, practice first on an old quarter window. I didn't practice first.
2. Mark the scratches on the underside of the glass with painter's tape or Sharpie.
3. I didn't polish my entire windshield but you will want to do the entire quarter window.
4. #1 rule - don't overheat the glass. It will get warm but be careful not to get it too hot.
5. Start with the 1000 grit 6" Mirka/Abralon pad on a variable speed sander/polisher. Just like polishing clear coat, you have to haze the glass. You will feel the pads grab a little on the glass and you can tell when the glass is hazing. Use the 1000 pad until your scratches are gone.
6. Switch to 2000 pad and remove most of the 1000 grit hazing. The 2000 pad should mostly clear up the glass.
7. Finish with cerium oxide paste on a felt pad. This part is messy and should be done outside if possible. You don't need too much, maybe 1oz that you will mix with water to make a thick paste.

Glass should be clear and scratch free. Good luck!

Yep, that's it. it will get you a whole lot closer than the Eastwood amateur kit.

[Scooter]

I used cerium oxide to buff a decent trench out of the drivers side of my windshield made when previous owners son ran the blades down to metal. I was able to get most of the scratch out in the drivers field of view. The downside is the distortion in the surface left by the buffing. I'm going to roll with it for a bit to see if I can get used to it. If not.. the windshield was going to be replaced because of the scratches anyway.

[anlauto]

Yep, that's it. it will get you a whole lot closer than the Eastwood amateur kit.

I agree, as I mentioned, the Eastwood kit didn't do much, maybe just a good cleaning

[1970Cuda]

I thought I would throw in my limited experience on polishing glass and would concur with a lot of what I read. I studied it, bought a kit too and at best it cleaned it up a little bit and mostly made a mess everywhere. I threw in the towel and bought new AMD glass - so much easier and nicer too. And if someone wants to spend the money for correct Date Coded glass, then ECS Automotive Concepts is the way to go. IMO of course. But it's going to cost around $2k for everything, probably more with shipping.

[Dmod1974]

I had good luck polishing my windshield. It had a rather large "rub" area caused by a bad wiper blade. I wasn't worried too much about it because I would need to replace it if the polishing didn't work. Treat your glass like you are polishing clear coat paint. Start coarse and finish with polishing compound. Quarter windows should be easier than a windshield because deep polishing can distort glass and you don't really have to see clearly out of a quarter window.

1. If you want, practice first on an old quarter window. I didn't practice first.
2. Mark the scratches on the underside of the glass with painter's tape or Sharpie.
3. I didn't polish my entire windshield but you will want to do the entire quarter window.
4. #1 rule - don't overheat the glass. It will get warm but be careful not to get it too hot.
5. Start with the 1000 grit 6" Mirka/Abralon pad on a variable speed sander/polisher. Just like polishing clear coat, you have to haze the glass. You will feel the pads grab a little on the glass and you can tell when the glass is hazing. Use the 1000 pad until your scratches are gone.
6. Switch to 2000 pad and remove most of the 1000 grit hazing. The 2000 pad should mostly clear up the glass.
7. Finish with cerium oxide paste on a felt pad. This part is messy and should be done outside if possible. You don't need too much, maybe 1oz that you will mix with water to make a thick paste.

Glass should be clear and scratch free. Good luck!

Interesting....  Were scratches deep enough to catch a nail?  Were the coarser grits done without any kind of paste other than water to cool it down?  I think the difference between this and most of the useless kits we've all used is that these are true abrasives.  The other kits with just wool pads and cerium oxide aren't capable of doing much beyond removing etching and rust spots.

I'm thinking about giving this a whirl since replacement glass is expensive and nobody seems to have it in stock anyways.  I only need to do my side windows since the front/rear glass are getting replaced.

[Scooter]

I thought I would throw in my limited experience on polishing glass and would concur with a lot of what I read. I studied it, bought a kit too and at best it cleaned it up a little bit and mostly made a mess everywhere. I threw in the towel and bought new AMD glass - so much easier and nicer too. And if someone wants to spend the money for correct Date Coded glass, then ECS Automotive Concepts is the way to go. IMO of course. But it's going to cost around $2k for everything, probably more with shipping.

Did you buy the clear or green tint?

[larry4406]

I have bookmarked some posts on this topic over the years.  Never have tried it.  This one looks like it was successful
https://board.moparts.org/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php/ubb/showflat/Number/2153151

[headejm]

Scratch was about 1/4" wide by about 6" long. Wouldn't really catch a nail but you could definitely feel it with your finger tips. The 1000 grit pads and the 2000 grit pads did not use any kind of paste or water to cool it down. If you run those pads at about 2,000 rpm you shouldn't overheat the glass if you are careful. You can feel the 1000 grit pad grab the glass and begin to haze it and remove the scratch(es).

You should definitely try this. PM me if you have any questions.