Is it possible to sand&polish windscreen?

[dwilkinson]

Hi,
My cowling window really looks bad. foggy and scratches. Is it possible to sand and polish the window. If so what is the correct Technique?
Thanks,
Doug

[jimcor]

Tell you what has worked for me on cloudy car headlight plastic is regular old Simichrome Polish. Polish in an up and down motion, not circular. Makes 'em shine like new. Then wax to protect. You'll have to repolish about every three months or so. I bet this will work on your windscreen too.

There are pllastic polishes that are made specifically for your application, but I've never tried them. Novus plastic polishes come to mind. Sold at all the usuall outlets, plus at airport FBOs.

[8trackmind]

This is how you do it. 3m link

[hotspur]

try brasso, straight strokes. I did it on an FJ1200 screen and it came up a treat

[argonsagas]

This is how you do it. 3m link

There are quite a few polishes specifically made for this.


The 3m link offers one, but it has a VERY bad suggestion, which is to use a power anything to do the work.

Do it by hand only and use only vertical strokes to avoid later problems from swirls that catch and distort light.

[DaveDanger]

Take a look at this kit http://www.sisweb.com/micromesh/acry..._hand_kits.htm

It's the best I've ever found for use on aircraft (polycarbonate) windows. I have used it many times on motorcycle helmet face shields and fairings as well.

A few people here mentioned several methods of application, and I'll add mine here.

The proper use of Micromesh® cushioned abrasives are best applied in alternating vertical and horizontal strokes. Begin with an abrasive sheet coarse enough to remove the scratch depth you're dealing with, but do it in a perpendicular direction to the scratch. After you've removed the scratch completely, move to the next finer sheet and work at 90 degrees to the first sheet motion, until the first sheet polishing marks are removed. Go to the next finer sheet and......
Each time you use a finer sheet and move 90 degrees to the previous. When you have reached the finest sheet, all evidence of the scratch will be completely gone and you will have a glassy finish. You do NOT ever work in circular motions.
For personal preference, You may want to make sure and finish the last sheet in a vertical direction to make sure you don't collect sunshine glare on the grooves, but if you've done the job correctly, there will be NO grooves when you're done. Consider that the finest sheet grit on these products is in the range of 6000 grit. That's six thousand.

It is time consuming and takes some elbow grease, but you'll be happy with your end result.

My take on power tool driven abrasives (for window polishing) is that it's best left to professionals in a strictly commercial environment. It's incredibly easy to build up too much heat in a polycarbonate, plexiglass or lexan pane. Instant ruin.

[Clone]

Permatex makes a product to polish the plastic lenses for headlights it works well on lexan windscreens as well. but only use hand power, no powertools to use it.

[chef1366]

Follow Daves lead. I bought a "like new" windshield off ebay. The damn thing looked like it went off road into some trees. My wife found the micromesh product online. I used it and it looked brand new when I was done.

[hp1000s]

We use the Micro-mesh products on our race-boat canopies/ retired F-16 fighter windscreens.