JeanLuc
Free Member
Over the last few days, I have been polishing the years of accumulate scratches and swirl marks out of the double-glazed acrylic windows on the van. Having gritted my teeth at the thought that I might do more harm than good, and watched the helpful YouTube video by the late John Wickersham, I set to work. I must say the results are very good and although there are still a few small scratches remaining, we are no longer 'seeing through a glass darkly'.
In the event I did not buy a scratch removing kit (Fenwicks or Seitz) but decided to use what materials I had to hand from a recent job of removing scuff marks from the rear bumper (courtesy of a lady in a hurry at a filling station).
To remove the deeper scratches I used 2000, then 3000 grade wet-and-dry abrasive paper. In practice, this meant sanding most of the window's surface and by the time I had finished this stage, I was left with silver-grey windows that one could not see through! I then used Menzerna Heavy Cut Compound 400. This is what I had bought to deal with the bumper problem and it is probably more aggressive than ideal so if you are thinking of doing this yourself, choose a proprietary window scratch removing product or a less aggressive cutting compound. The Menzerna 400 worked well for me but it needs using with care and requires a decent dual-action polisher (not a cheapy from Halfords) and a firm foam polishing pad to break down the compound. It will also work with a rotary polisher but this increases the risk of over-heating the acrylic.
I guess it took me about 1½-2 hours per window but we have only four windows in total so the task was not too daunting.
If anyone feels like having a go, here is the link to the John Wickersham video to get you going:
In the event I did not buy a scratch removing kit (Fenwicks or Seitz) but decided to use what materials I had to hand from a recent job of removing scuff marks from the rear bumper (courtesy of a lady in a hurry at a filling station).
To remove the deeper scratches I used 2000, then 3000 grade wet-and-dry abrasive paper. In practice, this meant sanding most of the window's surface and by the time I had finished this stage, I was left with silver-grey windows that one could not see through! I then used Menzerna Heavy Cut Compound 400. This is what I had bought to deal with the bumper problem and it is probably more aggressive than ideal so if you are thinking of doing this yourself, choose a proprietary window scratch removing product or a less aggressive cutting compound. The Menzerna 400 worked well for me but it needs using with care and requires a decent dual-action polisher (not a cheapy from Halfords) and a firm foam polishing pad to break down the compound. It will also work with a rotary polisher but this increases the risk of over-heating the acrylic.
I guess it took me about 1½-2 hours per window but we have only four windows in total so the task was not too daunting.
If anyone feels like having a go, here is the link to the John Wickersham video to get you going:
