Old window glass, looking for new technology

Rub the etching out with Whink (in a brown bottle), put it wet wet on a small cotton rag and rub a 1' area in a circular motion until etching dissappears, wipe it off of the window while it is still wet. Do not use it in direct sunlight or if it's really hot out. Rain-x afterwards.

Once they get that bad polishing them out is your best bet. Either by you or professionally.

Also wear gloves, hydrofluoric acid is not a dietary supplement.


The active ingredient in most stain removers for use on glass is hydrofluoric acid. IN rust removers too. Not necessarily in an outright dangerous concentration as long as we talk about household products but certainly not healthy either. Esp. if you have to treat larger areas.

OTOH the stuff you can buy for professional use is higher concentrated and can be outright dangerous. In that case you want to take a closer look at the MSDS to wear the appropriate safety equipment. Which also means to take a closer look at the gear. For example gloves come in several different variations, depending on the chemical they have different protection times.

I don't know about the situation in the US but over here professional safety gear can be astoundingly cheap if bought from online suppliers instead at the DIY stores. In fact properly rated gloves (greetings from OSHA) are cheaper than brand name dish washing gloves at the supermarket...

For a good polishing you can use Venco Marine products (vencomarine dot com.) The problem with RainX is that it is a silicone based product and only lasts for 2-3 months. The problem with silicone based products are that if you dont get all the silicone off properly you create a build up of silicone on the glass. With time you will see that your vision is not very clear. With mechanical cleaning you remove not just the silicone but all the contamination in the glass. Regarding pits there is not much you can do unless you use the car windscreen systems where they fill it with a clear resin.

With Silicone and Polymer products you only have about 4 months. Venco is a polymer based product. The mechanical cleaning is the most important part before applying any water repellent product.

There are 2 part products available where you use a acid wash. Be very careful as i had a few boats where the crew did a acid wash and did not rinse the glass properly and when they put the 2nd part on it trapped some of the acid below creating an orange peal affect and once that happens you will have a bigger problem.

good luck

Look into commercial glass polishing products that include a buffing wheel and various grits of cerium oxide or diamond grit.

There is no magic sauce that will repair mechanical damage by disguising it.

You are correct Marmot, there are several diamond buffing wheels and it works very well with minor scratches and very shallow pitting. I used a microscope to look into the glass to see how deep the scratch or pit is before even attempting to repair it. If it was to deep i wouldn't even attempt it.

An ounce of protection

To the boat washers out there, Brushes don't belong on glass or isinglass. They should get cleaned with soft materials, polished and coated from new.

Replacing or polishing and then sealing are your only options if they are that bad. Maybe test polish one of the worst windows just to see if polishing them all is worth it.

I used a glass polishing product by IMAR, by hand and was pretty impressed at how it took out very minor scratches and stuff.....IMAR Professional Grade Glass Polish #1001.

Hi,

While not solving your issue in any way this system certainly fits the thread subject.

Asahi Glass | UV and IR Cut Glass "Coolverre"

I have heard of a recent yacht that uses this technology with great success.

Removal of water spotting

On most spots on glass we used a polishing wheel with a foam pad worked great just messy. Tried a product on an old 1982 sea ray with real bad spotting and came out great and then protected with a sealant. Try sea clear solutions. There is a video you can watch. A buddy of mine used it on his 85 Hargrave and came out perfect. Hope this helps.