Mopar Muscle Association UK

I'd appreciate your experience with glass....3 of my 4 door/quarter windows have the vehicle registration etched into them. You may remember this was "acceptable in the 80's"! (no it was not done by me...). Apart from looking horrible I plan to change the registration to a correct age-suffix. On top of that there are quite a few deep scratches in some of the glass.

After looking quite extensively at polishing out the scratches myself, I've concluded that even if it is possible (on balance, it probably is) I don't have 40-50 hours to spend polishing them. One option would be to find a commercial place to do that, there are such places with professional machines to fix commerical glass scratches, but I imagine that would be pretty costly and still no guarantee of results.

So maybe my options are either to live with the scratches and find a cheap/easy way to get rid of or obscure the etching, or buy new glass. Buying new glass would be a last resort because it's expensive and I'd kind of like to keep the old stuff ideally, but I'd definitely consider it.

so - any ideas of getting rid of the etching and/or the scratches, and any experience buying reproduction glass??

you may find with a quick blast of the etched area with a similar gun/media that it can be cleaned out well enough for the standard superglue style windscreen repair stuff to make it all but invisible.. but that stuff usually involves employing a chap who has been "on the course" and purchased the franchise. Most of their work is insurance company work so i have no concept of how much it actually costs.

i have tried polishing a toughened windscreen....that was a waste of time, everything covered in white T cut glass scratch remover and no appreciable difference to the scratch the only thing that seems to have any impact on that stuff is the sparks off a grinder so how the hell it gets scratched in the first place i don't know...Diamond???

polishing may well work with a laminated screen...

spent my insurance excess on a new laminated one and the scratched one awaits a new owner under my decking. it would have been really quite expensive had i not had a genuine stone smash the original whilst car was taxed insured and driving on the road.

its a pilkington laminated screen made on the isle of sheppey. seemingly they had a buck for a 71-82 aussie car screen...!
Maybe chrysler were particularly conscientious in respect to spares supply back in the 70s which seems Highly unlikely given their dire support for every other aspect of the aussie imports


pilkington may have an E body one, there have been enough of them here for long enough for someone to have needed a screen

i get the impression from articles in practical classics that the cost decreases if you need more than 1. finding a similarly afflicted friend may be worth it.

Dave

I've not had any experience myself with any 'professional' help but if you go down the franchise route, the company on the link below list a local ish man.
https://www.glaswelduk.com/local/enfield
Would it be worth getting them to try just one of the rear roll down windows first, and if that works get them all done? I've no experience of them, just a quick search.
I did try the T cut Glass scratch remover but all that did was give me a sore shoulder.

Thanks both, I agree I tried the polishing route and it was not successful, at least the way I did it. Others have had success, but you need the right materials and mainly shedloads of time and patience....
Nice find Stu! That's def worth looking into......will report back in due course

Jewellers rouge,5 grade oil and hours of time,but it works.

latil wrote: ↑Tue Feb 19, 19 2:15 pm Jewellers rouge,5 grade oil and hours of time,but it works.

Yes I agree, hence my first post.....(even if it is possible (on balance, it probably is) I don't have 40-50 hours to spend polishing them.)...I tried the jewellers rouge and also saw others who had succeeded in various other ways (Trizact, polishing compound, etc) but massive time and energy investment ...for me not a good equation, but for some, it is!

MrNorm wrote: ↑Wed Feb 20, 19 12:36 pm

latil wrote: ↑Tue Feb 19, 19 2:15 pm Jewellers rouge,5 grade oil and hours of time,but it works.

Yes I agree, hence my first post.....(even if it is possible (on balance, it probably is) I don't have 40-50 hours to spend polishing them.)...I tried the jewellers rouge and also saw others who had succeeded in various other ways (Trizact, polishing compound, etc) but massive time and energy investment ...for me not a good equation, but for some, it is!

i am pretty sure your side glass 2 parts per side are unique to a convertible ??????????? i think i may have some ??

I just re read this you say 3 off your four door quarter glass windows,, sorry gavin I thought you meant the ragtop not a 4 door something,

No you are right Dunc, I meant three of my four windows for the ragtop (actually one quarter glass and two doors) were affected. Yes you are correct, actually both quarter and door glass is unique to the convertibles. I messaged those Glasweld guys but no response yet - if you do have anything let me know....

Hi Gav,
Have you asked Stevenage Glass if they polish glass?
I don't even know if they do anything with automotive glass, but thought it worth as ask?


glass is glass, right?
(haha)

i have just asked the glass guys next to me who have the polishing machine-they said it would leave a dip in the glass even if they can get past the etching,welcome to try if you can get a piece here.
rule of thumb with glass marks is if you can catch your fingernail on it -it wont come out.

Thanks for the further advice Dave and Stu (sorry Stu, did not see your last post).

I did contact Glasweld but they said they did not have the equipment to do the etching, though could tackle scratches. I'm definitely going to make a few more enquiries, including suggestions above. I can definitely get over to St Albans, it won't be in the next month but Dave I will give you a shout in due course for more info, certainly worth someone taking a look.
Yes the rule of thumb about fingernails (should that be a rule of finger...? ) is that such scratches are hard to remove without distortion. It requires more material removal and a wider area if minimising distortion is an objective (obviously on a windscreen, for example, it is). Not really an issue for me in that localised area, but I need to speak to the experts.
There also comes the time where even the experts have to spend so many hours polishing that it costs more than replacing the glass. I took another look at the glass and spares I have, I think the quarter windows would require a lot of polishing but the door windows are not bad IF I can get rid of the etching.......more to come......

Time to hunt for 4 small period looking Mopar stickers??

MattH wrote: ↑Wed Mar 27, 19 8:52 am Time to hunt for 4 small period looking Mopar stickers??

.... that's actually a kind of genius idea Matt that is obvious but didn't even cross my mind.... That is definitely worthy of consideration, either if I can't do anything better or even as a non-permanent solution. Thanks, great idea.....

I was thinking of the Zebrazone type stickers but what about these for the rear ones

https://www.forabodiesonly.com/mopar/th ... als.58041/