Bubbajones_ya

Okay so I'm pretty upset right now.

My old driver's side window has sizable "wear" in it from it being out of the front track. It's about 1/8" wide all the way up and is very opaque. Apart from that, there are a bunch of small scratches all the way up from the old weatherstripping.


Due to this, I purchased another window off someone a while back that was in mint condition. However, it didn't have the rail guide on the rear of the track. I recently had time to switch to power windows, and decided to put this new window in while I was at it.

My first attempt to get the guide on the window track broke (a spare guide I got from the guy), so I then welded it on for good.

However, I didn't think about covering the glass when welding and the welding sparks ended up pitting and leaving marks all over the rear of the inside of the window that are easily felt by my finger.

Currently, both windows are outside of my car so I won't be driving it until I put one of them on.


The best and easiest option would be to get another window, but I don't know if I'll be able to find one here soon, and won't have the money to buy one outside of a junkyard for quite some time.

A question I have is, does anybody know of something I can do to try and fix either widow? I read nail polish may work. Could I shoot clear coat over the messed up part of the window and then sand it and buff it out?

My old window has many more scratches, but they seem less deep than the new marks put in my new window. I can still lightly feel them with my fingernail though.

If I tint my new window, will the tint help hide the welding marks because they are on the inside of the window, or does that not matter?



I'm just trying to think of unique ways to fix the damage on either window. I don't believe buffing/polishing the welding damaged window will work because the marks seem too deep.

mantaguy

iTrader: (5)

You could try this method.

Bob88GTA

iTrader: (2)

Agree^^^^^ Looks like your best shot.



Tinting will not work due to the "pits" left by the welding spatter. Air will remain in the pits and will show as a small spot under the tint.

Bubbajones_ya

Thanks guys!

I read about the cerium oxide but I don't have any so I'll try and see if I can find it.

I do have a rotary and wool pad, along with a bunch of other buffing pads.

If I can't find the cerium oxide locally, I may have time to check some junk yards and hope to find something good this weekend.



It was so depressing last night realizing I ruined my perfect glass.... I came home after my engineering statistics test beat me up pretty badly hoping to relieve some stress in putting my door back together.... then I saw what I did.

Bob88GTA

iTrader: (2)

I feel for you.

Remember....If you try the buffing technique, do not hold the buffer in the same spot for too long......it will heat the glass up and possibly shatter.

mantaguy

iTrader: (5)

You can get it from amazon.
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=...04226188,d.cWw

Bubbajones_ya

Thanks for the link!

I am going to try and hit up a few salvage yards today and see if I get lucky, otherwise I will order the cerium oxide.

I did try some slight buffing the other night with some meguires m105 compound stuff. It's not meant for glass but I thought I'd give it a try. It did absolutely nothing (like I read), but I did notice the glass get pretty hot it some areas with the buffer so I will make sure to be careful if I get this stuff!

Bubbajones_ya

Well... I went to some junk yards today. The first one had a window in a firebird that was probably good, but it was rolled down with power windows, so it would have been much too difficult to get out without power tools. I didn't have a drill to take out the rivets at the time either, and the yard wanted me to put $40 down in case I broke the window trying to get it out.

I decided to pass on that, and went to another yard on the other side of the city from me. That yard had a lot of choices, and I found one window with only 3 scratches that weren't too bad. They only wanted 26 for the windows too and I didn't have to put any money down (which is the usual for junk yards I've been to.)

I ended up getting slightly distracted becuase I needed to find a window crank for the door with the good window, and because the cars were parked semi close, I could open the door all the way. This made it difficult to get the window out. I did take a crank off another camaro and was able to use it to move the window I was taking.

It happens that when I finally got it out and up to the register, it was 5:02, and they close at 5:00. I'm not sure if they closed the register earlier than 5:00 or not, but either way I wasn't able to pay for the window....

I understand the people want to go home, and I don't think they should cater to waiting on people.... it's just a very frustrating situation, especially because it took me almost 2 hours to drive there due to traffic, and a little more than 2 hours to drive back to my house. I can't be mad at the people there because it was after 5:00 after all.... but I can say I'm not very happy right now.




So after all this, I may try a different junk yard tomorrow, but think I will order some of that cerium oxide. I believe I may have to sand some areas down on my either of my windows though because the scratches can be felt with my fingernail.

Does anyone know what type of sandpaper I can use on glass? Worst case, if I destroy the window I'm sanding, I have another, and I can always pick up another scratched one in a yard if I destroy both so I'm not super worried about breaking them now. After all the frustration I have been through with this, I may need to break a couple of windows just to calm down!


Anyways thanks again for the help you guys have provided with the links to the cerium oxide and techniques for buffing!

Bob88GTA

iTrader: (2)

So...what was you supposed to do with the window under your arm, just leave it?? What a bunch of jerks.
I guess if you didn't get though when you did, they were gonna just close the place and leave you in there as their "junkyard dog" for the night? Oh well....

Wife'sCar

iTrader: (1)

2 minutes? That's some bull. I hate that parts yards pull that crud and get away with it. Yet when I worked at a grocery store there was this one woman once a month would come in ten minutes till closing (11pm) and take at least an hour and a half to shop, claimed she suffered bad anxiety attacks in crowds. So 1230-1am till she was done, then I still gotta do the closing crap, so I'm not out till 2-3 am, god forbid I tell her sorry were closed at 11. I'd have lost my job.

J. Chris Davis

iTrader: (1)

So you went through all of the work to pull a window out yourself and it was only 2 minutes passed closing. You just worked for them for free and now they have a window they didn't have to take out themselves and can sell now. Being a business and it only 2 minutes passed closed and refusing to sell to you is pretty bull.

1988CamaroSC

iTrader: (2)

I think I may have "accidentally" dropped the window if that were me....

bigal55

iTrader: (1)

An old trick is to use toothpaste with a buffer. If the scratches aren't too deep, the toothpaste will polish the glass. You might want to try this to see how it works for you. Always seemed to work good for wiper scratches. HTH!

Wife'sCar

iTrader: (1)

Toothpaste isn't as gritty as it used to be, new stuff doesn't work for crap. Used to do the same for headlights. Tried that recently and only ended up with still foggy headlights that now smell minty fresh....

J. Chris Davis

iTrader: (1)

I'm curious about the toothpaste method. I wonder if there is still some gritty toothpaste still available. I have some good amount of scratches especially on the driver window, but they look to be more surface and not deep scratches. Came from the outer window sweep. Got new ones on the way.

Wife'sCar

iTrader: (1)

I'm sure you could use the same polishing compound that comes in headlight buffing kits on a window. Maybe even the whole kit.

bigal55

iTrader: (1)

You need grit? Try adding some baking soda in with the tooth paste!
BTW, plastic polish won't work on glass either. Headlight covers are plastic.

J. Chris Davis

iTrader: (1)

Good idea!

Bob88GTA

iTrader: (2)

Diamond dust....... it's a lapping compound.......diamonds cut glass

http://www.diamondpacific.net/polish.html#polish


Or just throw down some beach sand......No, I'm kidding.....Don't use sand!!

Or...just suck it up and go get that window you worked you azz off removing it.
By the time you're done trying to remove these scratches, with mediocre result, you could have the new one in. JMO at this point.

tglennon11

iTrader: (2)

i used this stuff to take out my wiper scratches on my windshield, and i HIGHLY recommend it, i used a HF DA on high. BUT you MUST use the CarPro glass pad, anything else wont work, even with the rotary.

http://www.carpro-us.com/ceriglass-g...cleaner-150ml/

http://www.carpro-us.com/glass-rayon-polishing-pad-5/

It works as advertised, but only light scratches, anything deep enough to catch you fingernail is too deep.

Bubbajones_ya

Haha yeah... I'm still a little upset I wasn't able to get the window.

I understand though that some people spend so long in stores after they close and that can get very annoying. I didn't realize it was so close to 5 but oh well. I may go back to the yard, but it probably won't be until Sunday so I don't know if the window will still be where I left it in decent shape.

Thanks for the info on what other things to use. I have heard of toothpaste before, I think the scratches are too deep in my window for that. I should be getting the cerium oxide in tomorrow, hopefully it can take out a lot of the weatherstripping scratches/cuts on my original window, but if not I'll be looking again for another window.

I may run to my local hardware store today and see if they have some silicon carbide sandpaper to sand down my glass where the deeper scratches are. Maybe doing this, I'll be able to get out the scratches with the cerium oxide after all.

bigal55

iTrader: (1)

If you try silicon carbide paper, get the absolute finest you can get and go very gentile on pressure, you don't want to create more or deeper scratches. GL!

Bubbajones_ya

Hmm well I must not have been sanding long enough, but I couldn't get the sandpaper to get rid of the scratches, so naturally the cerium oxide didn't help above that. I tried sanding for a good 15-20 minutes it seemed, but I was going all over the glass because there are a lot of scratches. The cerium oxide did get rid of the haze the 400 grit put in the glass, but the scratches were seemingly untouched.

I ended up getting both pieces of glass and the rear hatch locally for only 5 bucks from some guy who had them for a long time. The drivers door glass is pretty badly scratched still unfortunately, but its a little better than what I currently had.

I may try using even heavier grit sandpaper on my old glass in the meantime and see if I can eventually get those scratches out. I could feel them with my fingernails, but they didn't seem SUPER deep. I suppose I'll have to sand away for a while though. I think I'll go down to something like 220 grit, then back to 400.

If non of that works, then hopefully eventually I'll find a good drivers glass. I really want to tint my windows... but don't want to tint glass that's all scratched up.

Bubbajones_ya

Well my friend and I went to that junkyard again to get a power window/locks wiring harness from another camaro for his car since there were so many there.

I decided to look for glass again since I was there (I think they ended up selling the glass I pulled to nearby glass repair shops) and there was an 84 camaro that was just put in there. The glass on that camaro was near perfect so I ended up getting that (and they let us pay this time.)

I made sure to take as much change from all the cars I got too to recoupe my loss from last time (and I remember there was a folded up dollar bill in the car with the window I took out last time, so I made sure to snag that!)

I made out with $1.67!

Anyways I got the window and just finished installing it. It looks so much better now I can finally get my windows tinted.

I now need to replace my windshield though because there are wiper scratches and some chips from rocks in it. That will have to wait though because I won't have the money for that for some time.

J. Chris Davis

iTrader: (1)

Got enough to buy a pop! Sounds like a good day picking at the yard.