Glass polishing, Any tips? Options

[bbrock]

The last thread I found on this topic is almost 10 years old so thought it would be worth revisiting. I bought a set of tinted side glass that looks pretty good but has a patina of minor pits, scratches and scale you might expect from 50 year old glass. They'll need to be polished before I can use them. Anyone done this or have any suggestions or tips? There are lots of YouTube videos and other sources that make it look easy, but it's always nice to get help from people you trust and aren't trying to sell you something.

Thanks (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beer.gif)

[djway]

Cerium oxide to polish out fine scratches. Deep scratches can be done, I have done it, and it is a TON of work.
I did an early Ghia that had very bad scratches everywhere. I tried all sorts of materials, some made things worse but I did find a working solution.
6 inch pad with wet/dry paper, the starting grit depending on how deep the scratch is. You must have water running over the glass at all times to keep the temp down. As with anything you keep going to finer and finer grits and then you finish off with the cerium oxide.
You must pull the glass and set up a table with the set water supply. It is a lot of work.
My Ghia glass is very rare and expensive so it was worth the hundreds hours invested.
Good luck

[bbrock]

Cerium oxide to polish out fine scratches. Deep scratches can be done, I have done it, and it is a TON of work.
I did an early Ghia that had very bad scratches everywhere. I tried all sorts of materials, some made things worse but I did find a working solution.
6 inch pad with wet/dry paper, the starting grit depending on how deep the scratch is. You must have water running over the glass at all times to keep the temp down. As with anything you keep going to finer and finer grits and then you finish off with the cerium oxide.
You must pull the glass and set up a table with the set water supply. It is a lot of work.
My Ghia glass is very rare and expensive so it was worth the hundreds hours invested.
Good luck

I've watched a few vids on the deep scratch repair. My take away was that in addition to the tools you show, you also need to have a large pair of balls.

So when you say wet/dry paper, you are talking just regular wet/dry abrasive paper? Not some special diamond grit at $80/ pad? Also, what did you mount them on? All the vids show high speed drills or grinders which surprised me, and the pros were grinding dry which also surprised me.

I think I'll try the milder methods of steel wool and cerium first and evaluate. If they need more, I'll see what the local glass shops say about it If need be, I have spare glass with at least one humdinger of a scratch to practice on first. My motto is: "Fail Spectacularly!" Hoka hey!

[djway]

Cerium oxide to polish out fine scratches. Deep scratches can be done, I have done it, and it is a TON of work.
I did an early Ghia that had very bad scratches everywhere. I tried all sorts of materials, some made things worse but I did find a working solution.
6 inch pad with wet/dry paper, the starting grit depending on how deep the scratch is. You must have water running over the glass at all times to keep the temp down. As with anything you keep going to finer and finer grits and then you finish off with the cerium oxide.
You must pull the glass and set up a table with the set water supply. It is a lot of work.
My Ghia glass is very rare and expensive so it was worth the hundreds hours invested.
Good luck

I've watched a few vids on the deep scratch repair. My take away was that in addition to the tools you show, you also need to have a large pair of balls.

So when you say wet/dry paper, you are talking just regular wet/dry abrasive paper? Not some special diamond grit at $80/ pad? Also, what did you mount them on? All the vids show high speed drills or grinders which surprised me, and the pros were grinding dry which also surprised me.

I think I'll try the milder methods of steel wool and cerium first and evaluate. If they need more, I'll see what the local glass shops say about it If need be, I have spare glass with at least one humdinger of a scratch to practice on first. My motto is: "Fail Spectacularly!" Hoka hey!

Regular wet/dry on a pad. There is an adhesive that you smear on the pad that holds it and then peals off. You can sometimes get two or three stickys out of one application.
I used a high speed drill with the xtra grip handle screwed on.
I tried some of the stone polishing pads and they would start to wabble and catch an edge which cut in more scratches so don't try that.
When using the cerium use the felt pad or even a short wool pad on a buffer. By hand you will never make a dent although steel wool may cause a haze.