Scratched Glass

[Mr.Ian]

Hi, i'm just wondering if anyone else has this problem.
Front door windows are being scratched when wound up or down on the outside and the scratches are now easy to notice.
I've prized the outer window to door seal away from the glass and given it a good clean to get rid of any sand or muck that is stuck but a scratching noise can still be heard.
This is only a problem with the front door windows, the rears are fine and scratch free.
I don't open my windows anymore and am not going to till I sort the problem.

Anyone had this on their 75

[GreyGhost]

Must still be some grit inside the rubber.

When you get it sorted you should be able to cut the scratches off the glass using jewellers rouge.

Best of luck

[Mr.Ian]

Thanks GG you've made my day, thought i'd have to change the door windows to get rid of the scratches.
Only slight scratches anyway but scratched all the same.
I'll try n give the seals a good thorough cleaning, I was just wondering if it was one of our common little problems we have with these cars (only had it 7 months).


Ian

[Pete]

I've never heard of scratched glass myself and not experienced it on mine either - unlike my MGB GT on which this is a very common problem. If you find out what has caused it then it will be interesting to hear more.

[GreyGhost]

The rubber seals are pretty tight I can only imagine something got in while the window was open and has been worked further in with use of the window, could just be a grain of sand or something even smaller

[SteveWaller]

Mine has the same problem on the drivers side. The rubber seal was filthy and grit embedded in them had scratched the glass. I have cleaned the rubbers, but the scratched glass is still a problem. What would people suggest I use to try and polish the scratches out and where would I get such a product? By the way, giving the rubbers a good soaking in silicone lubricant helped a lot.

[GreyGhost]

This is the best product for the job, not necessarily from this company. Do search for Jewellers Rouge on Google for more info.

http://www.briliant.biz/products.asp?CategoryId=7

[Lates]

Be a little careful with jewellers rouge as it can marr the surface take it slowly. Joking apart fine scratches can be polished out with toothpaste - and no it doesnt matter if its whitening.

[Jules]

I didn't have much success removing very light arc scratches on an MG TF windscreen, with a proper glass polishing kit from CETEM. :mad:#

Must have spent 5 hrs machine polishing just 2 inches of the arc!with various grades in the kit, with very little effect. The scratches were so light your finger nail would not catch accross them!

I did not want to beaten, but I'm afaid I was and had to sell the TF as it was.

Isn't it strange there are no proffessional companies offering a mobile glass scratch removal service like they do with scratches and dents on paintwork? ;)
I rang Autoglass and various local independent Windscreen repairers and they all said "it's not viable mate"

If you Google glass scratch repair, loads of companies claim their products will do it!
Wonder how true it is.

Has anyone been successful with the toothpaste trick?

[T-Cut]

In order to remove scratches by abrading away the glass, the abrasive has to be harder than the glass or it will not be touched. Toothpaste sounds like a non-starter to me. Maybe OK for paintwork, but not glass. I've not polished a windscreen before, but I have created parabolic mirrors by grinding and polishing glass discs and the standard abrasive used is carborundum powder (silicon carbide). You can get these powders in different grades from coarse to very fine. They use the same BS numbering system as wet and dry abrasive papers. The finest carborundum (say 800 grade) would easily take out very fine scratches, but would leave the area 'fogged'. This fogged area would then have to be polished using a finer abrasive paste like jeweller's rouge or cerium oxide. Both are as fine as flour, but extremly effective. The principle behind abrading and polishing glass is the abrasive should be coarser than the 'fault' you're trying to remove, or it will take much effort to remove it. That's why a series of abrasives, getting progressively finer, is used for mirrors. Each one removes the scratches produced by the previous one. I think to polish a windscreen, you'd need at least two abrasives if it isn't to take weeks to do the job. I suspect nobody does this commercially because of the effort involved. Once you've done one windscreen, you won't fancy doing another.
TC

[podge]

Small world T-CUT I used to be a parabolic man but now I'm an APO! and like the other Pete my other pride and joy a 69B-GT too suffers from the dreaded scratched drop glass. G etting back to the thread, a guy I knew at Pilkington's allways reckoned there was a chance that heavy polishing would create stresses in the toughened surface, so the glass might then shatter at any time.Peter.

[John Kelly]

yes mate,exact same problem as yourself,see my thread(13/12/07)
It's blooming frustrating and the noise is excrutiating sometimes.How strange it only happens on front windows!Let me know if you sort it,and how you sort it.I am actually thinking now of buying a scrap door(appx £50) and practising taking inner panel off and replacing,till i am confident i can do same on my own car.Plus,i will have a decent replacement pane to swop.Regards,John

[mayor]

I managed to scratch the windscreen by using a plastic kitchen scoring pad which I didn't think was possible. Tried the toothpaste remedy but no good I only ended up making a white mess which took ages to clean off but the scratches only show in bright sunlight so I will have to live with it I guess