hotzip

The hardtop rear window in my recent 1960 purchase is cloudy and has fine scratches. Any product or products that I can use to polish out the scratches or just fork out the money and replace the window?

Frankie the Fink

You will get a ton of opinions but I talked to a top restorer and he recommended Janvil products: www.janvil.com. I bought the kit for plastics and did my hardtop rear and side windows....the scratches are gone and the glass literally sparkles now.

I'd give it a shot before replacing the window...that requires major disassembly of the top and the distance between, "I think I can do this myself!" and "what the heck happened?" can be quite short...

JohnZ

Meguiar's makes a pair of matched products specifically for plastic windows, and your local airport FBO will have "Novus" products they use for aircraft Plexiglas windows.

MiguelsC2

Meguires 2 stage only. Cleaner and then polish. Works on all plastics. Brought many a beat plastic rear window back to life with this stuff. Made my 47yr old gauge lenses look like new!

Their all in one product is junk.Along with most of their other products. My opinion.

Fawndeuce

I used what I had on hand for mine, Autosol Solvel that I was using on the stainless (worked great), and then Brasso for a final finishing polish. I've been using Brasso for years on plastics with great success, I collect vintage watches and use it on acrylic watch crystals.
I don't doubt that products designed specifically for the job might be quicker or work better, but sometimes you have to make due with what you have.



Paul

firstgear

it depends on the scratches....if you can't feel them with your finger nail, then a good plastic polish will do. If you feel any of them with your finger nail, then you need to sand them out. Not just any sand paper will do, you need a micromesh sandpaper that gets progressively finer and reaches equivalent of 6000 or 8000 grit. Then you use the polish from there. I had scratches from assembling my hardtop, some that I put in when the screwdriver slipped, this kit took them out.
http://www.woodturnerscatalog.com/st...cro_mesh?Args=

here is a posting I put up when I did my hardtop. I had bought a kit from Glassworks, but the amount of sandpaper they supply in the kit is kind of small, so I bought a kit from the guys above.

putting my hardtop together and a series of photos showing a scratch being sanded out and polished.
http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c1-a...on-update.html

the scratch at first from the screwdriver slipping

When that happened the "F bombs" flew in the garage, but after I talked with Glassworks and they said, "oh, the screwdriver slipped on the barrel nuts", I got the feeling that this was common but fixable and sure enough sanding with progressively finer micromesh sand paper did the trick! BUT only sand where you can feel a scratch with your finger nail, other wise use just the polish on the fine scratches.


The final product at Cleveland Autorama
http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c1-a...r-at-show.html



Also another supplier for scratch polish remover is Novus
http://www.tapplastics.com/shop/product.php?pid=113

firstgear

As Frankie said, this is really something you don't want to have to do unless it is really and absolutely last resort.....minimum for a new rear window and seal (you might as well if you are in there) will be $500 to $600 and that is if you dont decide to just go ahead and redo the whole top. On mine I did the whole top. I paid to have the paint done on the top as well as to have someone take the dents out and polish the SS, I did the rest. You can figure that you will be in for a minimum of $2500 and more like $3500 to $4000 when you are done. A new outright purchase of a hardtop from Glassworks will set you back about $5800.

hotzip

Thanks for all the product suggestions, photos and advice. I'll see what I can find locally from the list. Think I'll practice of a old plexiglas window off my motorcycle to hone my skills. I'll let everyone know how it went.

Frankie the Fink

I can tell you the Janvil product I cited above also includes a heavy scratch remover along with the light scratch remover and customary polish.

Glassworks quoted me $1,000 just to replace my rear weatherstripping because the back of the top has to be disassembled and that's almost a third of their total restoration price so that tells you how big a job it is...

JoesC5

I use the Novus products that I purchased from a local industrial plastic supply house. They make three grades...don't use #3. Only use #1 Plastic Clean & Shine(item No. PC-12) and #2 Fine Scratch Remover(item No. PC-22)