hi there,i have done a search on this but no luck, (sure i saw a post once). i have just purchased some soft ray rear quarter glass, from ebay, i took a chance on it, its not too bad but does have a few scratches, some very fine and a couple your fingernail will get caught on, what is the best procedure to attempt to remove/reduce the marks, any info would be a great help. cheers.
The problem I see with the advertizment is that you cannot polish scratches out of temered glass--anything other than the windsheild. Read clsely, one weasel p!$$ says that it will do multiple windsheilds. In all fairness, I think that anyone who doesn't point out this important fact is taking advantage of the consumer.
Not to counter you Amervo ol boy, but I have seen them polish scratches and welding spots many times in tempered glass in the commercial construction industry (tempered sealed units)...I've even seen them CUT tempered glass which I thought was impossible!
As far as the specific product from Eastwood, I've never used it...was just pointing out a possible product..
Used to use toothpaste on my motorcycle windshield and visor. Toothpaste has mild abrasives in it as well. Worked on plastic to SOME degree, don't know about glass though.
I took a quick google, but I couldn't find a single service that claims to polish and or cuts temered glass. Lots of weasel p!$$ however. I would like to see a legitimate source that does such repairs because it has been my professional experiance that it's impossible to alter tempered in a controlled manner. I'm always willing to learn, the reason I learned that tempered couldn't be altered, despite the fact that City Hall told me so. And if there were a way, I have plenty of scratches in all of my glass.
It's usually done in the construction industry by experienced glazers when the only other alternative is replacing large expensive sealed units damaged by welding etc. In a commercial office highrise that can be costly so they will opt to try and see if polishing will appease the architect. I don't think it is offered as a service usually, only an alternative to expedite finalizing their contract!
I have seen good results in some cases, and will get ahold of the company contact I last had it done to see what he has to offer.
Likely the reason city hall told you it could not be "altered" was likely a liability issue, whereas they felt that any alteration to the tempered glass could cause it to loose it's strength. I would say the scratch itself would be more likely to cause a tempered unit to fail than polishing.
David, you missed the point with City Hall. You see, I was a professional automotive glazer for 17 years, branching out into theft recovery and chassis later in my career. The difference between commercial glazer and automotive glazer is that automotive glazers can do commercial, but commercial cannot do automotive because it takes a lot more mechanical reasnoing to deal with some of the issues in related automotive components.
City Hall meant the norm, not regulations. As a pioneer in structureal automotive glass and developing effective salvage methods, I definalty voilated rules set forth by city hall, saying that the glass cannot be removed without breaking it. Even GM Service manuals stated: "cover glass with masking tape and break glass to remove."
Done only as a courtisy for better customers, it's a safe bet to say that I have buffed scratches out of multi hundered windsheilds, some with exceptional results, and I have taken many stabs at scratched tempered even though it was said that it couldn't be done. This is a case of city hall being correct.
And it has nothing to do with altering the strenght of tempered glass. Plate molecules are malable and aligned, allowing for clean easy fractures. Tempered glas has its molecules reorgized so that they are in a randon, crystal-like interlock. This bind allow each molecule to be sympathetic for its neighbor, clingint tightly. As a reslult it takes epxonential force to cause a fracture, but when the fracture occurs, the molecular chain become disrupted throughout the entire glass, the reason it becomes gravel when it breaks.
A scratch or a chip doesn't affect the mollecular chain. I love the niave cop syndrome when you see them on tve beating on tempered a glass with a steel flashlight. You would think that part of their job would involve understanding the mocular chain and how it interacts. Theives do because they can pop tempered in a nanosecond, with it barely makeing a sound, and it's done with just a slight flick and little applied force. Unless it's a catrostropic blow--to withstand blows similar to those delivered by the police departmet--it's hard to break. You must send a shock wave between indivigual molecules, and it doesn't require much of a shock wave if it's targeted properly. And slight variances in thickness has little bearing on strenght.
Maybe there is a way to cut tempered, but it would be a grinding--eliminating material on the mocular level--but not a traditional score and snap process
Even if there is methods in buffing flat glass--eliminating material in a molecular level--it wont work with curved glass because maintaing optical clarity becomes an issue. (Vent windows, I belive, fall into the flat glass area.) But rather than getting into an optical clarity dissertation, the point is that buffing scratches out of automotive temper--which is curved glass for almost all automotive applications--doesn't happen.
In addition to the quests throughout my professional career, the buffing tempered topic has gone on and on and on for years and years here at the board. People have posted here asking about the assorted weasel p!$$ on the market. The comments become redundant, light scratches in a w/s but temered is a waste of time and money. And the feedback for w/s scratches range from came out excellent (if ever so slight)it's better than before, or the area is not longer scratched, but there is a bid distored area. As far as tempered, the reports are the same: It didn't do a thing.
If you think that you can buff out the scratches, because somone tells you that you can do it, go for it. I can shift into the don't give a dam what others say, the reson I know that scratches cannot be buffed out of tempered automotive glass.
Haven't tried it myself Amervo, was just passing on from experience in my industry. I will back out of this discussion gracefully at this point, but will add a note received yesterday from one of my largest commercial subtrades for what it is worth.
I have a few light scratches in mine and will give it a try next month or so and post my results..
Response: "You can use jewelers polish or cerium oxide to polish out light scratches, but it takes a while esp in tempered glass."
