Good vision is a need-to-have when motoring in less than optimal conditions.
Definition of "Good vision": No-halos-on-oncoming-headlights, no streaking from wipers and less need for wiping.
This guide deals with getting good vision through your car's glass surfaces. Whether old and battered glass or brand-new glass.
The objective is to restore worn glass to near-new state and reduce maintenance on all glass.
Meaning if you have nice and clear glass, following this guide will let you dial back on maintenance a bit.
If on the other hand your glass is worn, sandblasted and/or scratched from wiperblades, you will regain good vision.
Tools
Cerium Oxide is used by jewelers for polishing precious stones. But at 5Euros/100g there's little stopping us from applying it to glass as well. Wikipedia has this to say on the material:
Warning: Cerium Oxide is a highly abrasive and very fine powder that will find its way everywhere if not handled with some care.
AFAIK it's not poisonous as such or harmful to your skin. But it will stain anything it gets onto, simply by clinging onto it.
Stains can be removed with water aplenty, but do try to contain it on or near the glass area. And, for obvious reasons, don't try rubbing off spills ...
Method
Worn-glass owners start here. Nice-glass owners can skip to next section.
Put a teaspoon-ful of Cerium Oxide into your container. Add a very small amount of water; like when mixing cement, you have to go slow, adding only very little liquid as you stir.
Aim for a cream/yoghurt-like consistency; this will allow for easy distribution onto the polishing sponge.
Once ready, lift the wiper arms and do a quick wipe of the windshield to remove any muck and particles.
Next, place the polishing sponge onto your polisher. The DA is meant for paintwork maintenance and will be gentler/less effective than the angle-grinder-like rotary polisher - you will have to try and see what works best for you.
Apply a bit of water to the polishing sponge with the spray bottle, then dab a few blobs of cerium mix onto the sponge and quickly slap the machine onto the windshield to avoid spills. Then start polishing; slowly at first to get a feel for things.
Aim for a moist/wet-in-wet process, adjust with the spraybottle and work your way over the glass in sections, criss-crossing and adding a little blob of Cerium now and then.
Take your time. Avoid getting the glass to heat up from friction. Depending on the state of your windshield, I'd say 10 minutes for a light touch-up, up to in excess of half an hour for properly worn glass. More if you have regular scoremarks/stripes from wiperblade metal-to-metal contact.
Immediately after finishing your work (it's a mess, and you won't know if you've made any progress yet) hose down the entire front end of the car.
Apply a brush (never to be used for any other job again) or a clean rag to help wash away the orange mud. This mud clings onto everything, so flush it away with plenty of water!
Dry the windshield. You are now looking at bare glass; no waxes, no residues, nothing. Glass.
By now, you probably still can't see any difference.
Nice-glass owners start here.
Apply your chosen glass-treatment product. If you haven't done the previous step, you'll have to perform a cleaning as per manufacturer's instruction.
If you did do the previous polishing step, there's no need to clean again.
Other than that, follow instructions.
Now, wait for nightfall. While you wait, I urge you to clean the INSIDE of your windshield with regular glass cleaner. Twice. And your glasses...
All dark outside now? Raining too? Nice. Now go drive somewhere dark - preferably with oncoming traffic. Experiment with not using the wipers at all.
Can you see it? No? Good - your windshield 'disappeared'.
For reference; my windshield has 250.000 km on it, and it was in bad shape. Now, after three sessions (partly to learn the process) it's in good shape. No halos around point lights, no smear and high contrast.
Bonus-tip
Do yourself a favor and give your headlights some TLC. Have 'em adjusted correctly and maybe even put in new bulbs; Halogen bulbs do wear out, you know. And as they do, their light output diminishes, gradually leaving you in the dark. Normal bulbs have a lifespan of some 5-800 hours, and high-bright-bulbs (I use Bosch Nightbreaker 200) last for 300 hours. That's 7500 miles or 12000 km at an average speed of 25 mph (40km/h), meaning headlight bulbs are in fact a consumable item, to be replaced yearly.
Now, combining good vision with light aplenty lets you see far, know in time and avoid accident. What's not to like?
Definition of "Good vision": No-halos-on-oncoming-headlights, no streaking from wipers and less need for wiping.
This guide deals with getting good vision through your car's glass surfaces. Whether old and battered glass or brand-new glass.
The objective is to restore worn glass to near-new state and reduce maintenance on all glass.
Meaning if you have nice and clear glass, following this guide will let you dial back on maintenance a bit.
If on the other hand your glass is worn, sandblasted and/or scratched from wiperblades, you will regain good vision.
Tools
- A polisher with variable rpm (look for the adjuster in below picture; it's NOT an angle grinder!)
- or a DA (Dual Action)-polisher
- A suitable polishing pad. I've used fairly hard sponge pads with nice results.
- Cerium Oxide. Get it on eg AliExpress, where a 100g sachet of powder will set you back 5 Euros or so (2024-price):
- A suitable container for the Cerium/water mix you're about to make
- A spray-bottle containing water
- A garden hose attached to a tap - for hosing down the car when you're done. It's a messy process!
- A glass-treatment product like RainX or GTechniq G1
- Time.
Cerium Oxide is used by jewelers for polishing precious stones. But at 5Euros/100g there's little stopping us from applying it to glass as well. Wikipedia has this to say on the material:
AFAIK it's not poisonous as such or harmful to your skin. But it will stain anything it gets onto, simply by clinging onto it.
Stains can be removed with water aplenty, but do try to contain it on or near the glass area. And, for obvious reasons, don't try rubbing off spills ...
Method
Worn-glass owners start here. Nice-glass owners can skip to next section.
Put a teaspoon-ful of Cerium Oxide into your container. Add a very small amount of water; like when mixing cement, you have to go slow, adding only very little liquid as you stir.
Aim for a cream/yoghurt-like consistency; this will allow for easy distribution onto the polishing sponge.
Once ready, lift the wiper arms and do a quick wipe of the windshield to remove any muck and particles.
Next, place the polishing sponge onto your polisher. The DA is meant for paintwork maintenance and will be gentler/less effective than the angle-grinder-like rotary polisher - you will have to try and see what works best for you.
Apply a bit of water to the polishing sponge with the spray bottle, then dab a few blobs of cerium mix onto the sponge and quickly slap the machine onto the windshield to avoid spills. Then start polishing; slowly at first to get a feel for things.
Take your time. Avoid getting the glass to heat up from friction. Depending on the state of your windshield, I'd say 10 minutes for a light touch-up, up to in excess of half an hour for properly worn glass. More if you have regular scoremarks/stripes from wiperblade metal-to-metal contact.
Immediately after finishing your work (it's a mess, and you won't know if you've made any progress yet) hose down the entire front end of the car.
Apply a brush (never to be used for any other job again) or a clean rag to help wash away the orange mud. This mud clings onto everything, so flush it away with plenty of water!
Dry the windshield. You are now looking at bare glass; no waxes, no residues, nothing. Glass.
By now, you probably still can't see any difference.
Nice-glass owners start here.
Apply your chosen glass-treatment product. If you haven't done the previous step, you'll have to perform a cleaning as per manufacturer's instruction.
If you did do the previous polishing step, there's no need to clean again.
Other than that, follow instructions.
Suggested products: GTechniq G1, RainX, whatever you fancy at Halfords, Biltema or where you go for maintenance supplies.
Make sure it's for glass treatment, not just an anti-fog-liquid.
Make sure it's for glass treatment, not just an anti-fog-liquid.
Now, wait for nightfall. While you wait, I urge you to clean the INSIDE of your windshield with regular glass cleaner. Twice. And your glasses...
All dark outside now? Raining too? Nice. Now go drive somewhere dark - preferably with oncoming traffic. Experiment with not using the wipers at all.
Can you see it? No? Good - your windshield 'disappeared'.
For reference; my windshield has 250.000 km on it, and it was in bad shape. Now, after three sessions (partly to learn the process) it's in good shape. No halos around point lights, no smear and high contrast.
Bonus-tip
Do yourself a favor and give your headlights some TLC. Have 'em adjusted correctly and maybe even put in new bulbs; Halogen bulbs do wear out, you know. And as they do, their light output diminishes, gradually leaving you in the dark. Normal bulbs have a lifespan of some 5-800 hours, and high-bright-bulbs (I use Bosch Nightbreaker 200) last for 300 hours. That's 7500 miles or 12000 km at an average speed of 25 mph (40km/h), meaning headlight bulbs are in fact a consumable item, to be replaced yearly.
Now, combining good vision with light aplenty lets you see far, know in time and avoid accident. What's not to like?
