My windshield may be original, not sure, but it has a trillion tiny little nicks/pits in it that make it hard to see in the sun sometimes. Is there a way to polish these small nicks out?

 

Mine is the same way. I use glass wax that I got at Ace hardware, comes in a pink tin rectangular pint can. It helps but washes off with window cleaner so you have to redo it when you wash the car. I dont drive in the rain but I'm sure it wont hold up to to much wiper use either.

 

Did you use a high speed buffer? Cant imagine rubbing by hand would eliminate the problem...but then again, I've never tried it.

 

I would take it to an auto windshield shop and ask. My guess is, though, that the only real solution will be to get a new windshield. I don't know if they're available for your car, but you could ask at the glass shop. I bet it would look 100 times better than the best polishing job could ever achieve.

In 1995 I had a new windshield put into the '75 Delta 88 I had at that time that had windshield wiper scratches that no amount of polishing could remove. What a huge difference. You don't realize just how much visibility through the glass has been lost over the years until you can contrast it with a brand new one. Made the car look ten times better. Cost me about $160 at the time, and the glass shop guy came to my garage and did the installation right there.

 

http://search.eastwood.com/search?as...&p=Q&ts=custom

 

I tried some of that Eastwood stuff. Give it a shot and good luck. Glass is hard and polishing it is difficult. On top of that, it's difficult to get a smooth, FLAT surface if you have a very wide area to do, and that will begin to introduce optical distortion. If you had a single scratch somewhere, polishing it out might be a viable option. But your own words are "a trillion tiny little nicks/pits." It sounds like a lot of polishing over much of the windshield's surface.

Also, do you have a polisher to attach the polishing wheel to? These things often require a high-speed polisher, and if you were planning to use your electric drill, it might not spin fast enough. It'll also probably start to get pretty hot if you keep it running for many minutes.


I went to this site just now:

http://www.windshieldstogo.com/

A new windshield for a 1971 Cutlass convertible is $303 if there is an antenna in the windshield, $203 without the antenna. That price includes them coming to your house to install it. You didn't say what body style you have, so I stuck in convertible. If it's a 2-door coupe, those prices are considerably cheaper. $216 with antenna, $116 without. Hell, at $116, I'd probably do that before trying to polish the whole windshield. And before ordering from this place, I might try calling a couple of local auto glass shops first. Could be cheaper, and you might get faster service.

 

Wouldn't you know it...out of all the winshields you listed, my car needs the most expensive one..antenna in the windshield/convertible. Thanks for checking out the info for me. Was hoping polishing would save on a big expense...job situation right now--laid off.

 

I've polished windshields several times with the Eastwood kit and it may not get all of the pits out but makes a lot of difference. You keep the buff moving and you won't get distortion, you actually have way more chance of distortion trying to do one little spot. It 's worth doing even if it isn't scratched or pitted, cleans all the hard water glaze and glass cleaner junk off and makes a lot of difference too.
If you've ever buffed paint it's about the same deal but a lot slower.
Those replacement windshields are fine but on a factory stock resto you should have the right date codes and markings or you will get popped by the judges if you are going to seriously show the car.

 

Well, like I said, I would try the polishing first if you're at all inclined. Certainly less money than a new windshield. But if you're laid off, should you even be spending the $60 for the polishing kit?

Bluevista is right if you're worried about originality, but, on the other hand, life is too short to worry too much about these things. Besides, how do you won't polish the date code right off?

 

Jaunty take it easy buddy, I've already got a wife asking me these types of questions...I need a place to go where no matter what, everyone responds with "spend baby spend."

 

I have the same problem with my 65-I think mine was from desert driving,as I have seen it in newer cars also.I am going to try the Eastwood kit,as the glass has the original date codes,and also the CHP sticker in the lower left corner,don't want to lose that!
The pits don't show up much until you drive into the sun at a low angle,then it gets real hard to see. ---bil

 

You won't get the chips out with a polishing kit...too deep and even if you managed to take that much material off you WILL end up with distortion at that point. Minor scratching, etc?? Yes..but not those chips.

Call around locally.....Safelite and the other large places. Also consider removing the windshield yourself and:

>Installing a new one yourself, or

>Doing the removal and prep work....getting all the old stuff cleaned out of the channel, etc and then having a pro do the install. Get it spotless and clean and maybe they'll appreciate the prep work you did which will make their job a lot easier.

Think about it.....the real mess and nightmare is cleaning all that old hardened butyl and chaulk out of the channel. The pros make money based on their speed and the original hardened butyl and any chaulk is the big "roadblock" in that process. Remove the "roadblock" and maybe you and the pro walk away very happy.

Again...I'm talking about presenting them with a SUPER CLEAN windshield channel....the kind of work where the guy walks up and says "that's really, really nice....it must have taken you forever". A lot different from a "well I sort of cleaned it up and maybe got most of the stuff out of there" type deal.