Does anyone have any tips on plastic windows? I am currently working on my wife's 97 Z3, and the window after 1 1/2 years is starting to get a very fine-rippled, rough look, and is a little tough to see through. I bought some Meguiars plastic polish, and used a cotton diaper. I have done one application of that inside, and out but it doesn't seem to have done any good at all. Although it looks like it did induce some scratches that were not there before. It has a few small spots on the inside where the window looks like something has etched the surface. I will try to post some pictures this weekend.
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Help on plastic windows (Anthony?)
- Thread starter Murf300
- Start date
Murf300,
I have not posted a reply in while. Things have been very busy around here, but I can completely identify with your problem. I've encountered this several times over the last seven years. Plastic windows on the BMW Z3, Porsche Boxster, Mazda Miata, Jeeps, etc. I have rarely seen them in great shape. I use the Acrylic-Werks Polish to restore these windows and have never let myself or the customer down. Steps:
1) Take wet 100% cotton washcloth and ring it out completely by hand. Fold in half, then fold again (small square).
2) Apply about a half dollar size of polish onto the cloth.
3) Start with exterior and wipe polish on in a criss-cross motion both N & S and E & W. Use the side of your hand as opposed to finger tips.
4) Watch your cloth for gray or gold residue. Work that plastic until your cloth is comming up clean. Leave the polish on, do not buff.
5) If you have a clay bar (I use PRO Clay Bar-Gray and the PRO Wipe Out as a lubricant), if not you can check around for a Clay Magic Kit, here in San Antonio the price has dropped to $9.95.
Spritz clay lubricant onto the polish that was left on the exterior window.
6) Now take the clay bar and wipe it over the surface with mild pressure in the same motion that you applied the polish in.
7) When the lubricant has dried, standing on the side of the car, take the clay bar and again with mild pressure set the clay bar in the middle and pull towards yourself. As you pull through try to remove everything from the surface, leaving a clean surface behind.
8) Now, go back and follow steps 1-4. At this time continue looking at your cloth to make sure you are not getting anymore gray or gold color in your rag. If the washcloth is clean proceed.
9) Grab a clean wet washcloth and ring it out about half way. Wipe the surface leaving it damp with water.
10) Take either a Dry 100% Cotton Diaper or MF Cloth and buff surface until dry.
11) Do the same process on the inside.
Now you may think this is a lot of work, but it isn't. Exterior will take about 15-20 minutes and the inside about 20-25 minutes because of the angles. Before you think that is too much work, just imagine how hard you have to work too replace that top at $1,000+, and what would you do to the new top to prevent it from doing what the old one did?. The nice thing about the effort put forth is, the window will not fade between applications, so future maintenence will be a snap, about 15 minutes for both sides.
I hope this helps you, because it sure has made my customers extremely happy.
Mark G.
I have not posted a reply in while. Things have been very busy around here, but I can completely identify with your problem. I've encountered this several times over the last seven years. Plastic windows on the BMW Z3, Porsche Boxster, Mazda Miata, Jeeps, etc. I have rarely seen them in great shape. I use the Acrylic-Werks Polish to restore these windows and have never let myself or the customer down. Steps:
1) Take wet 100% cotton washcloth and ring it out completely by hand. Fold in half, then fold again (small square).
2) Apply about a half dollar size of polish onto the cloth.
3) Start with exterior and wipe polish on in a criss-cross motion both N & S and E & W. Use the side of your hand as opposed to finger tips.
4) Watch your cloth for gray or gold residue. Work that plastic until your cloth is comming up clean. Leave the polish on, do not buff.
5) If you have a clay bar (I use PRO Clay Bar-Gray and the PRO Wipe Out as a lubricant), if not you can check around for a Clay Magic Kit, here in San Antonio the price has dropped to $9.95.
Spritz clay lubricant onto the polish that was left on the exterior window.
6) Now take the clay bar and wipe it over the surface with mild pressure in the same motion that you applied the polish in.
7) When the lubricant has dried, standing on the side of the car, take the clay bar and again with mild pressure set the clay bar in the middle and pull towards yourself. As you pull through try to remove everything from the surface, leaving a clean surface behind.
8) Now, go back and follow steps 1-4. At this time continue looking at your cloth to make sure you are not getting anymore gray or gold color in your rag. If the washcloth is clean proceed.
9) Grab a clean wet washcloth and ring it out about half way. Wipe the surface leaving it damp with water.
10) Take either a Dry 100% Cotton Diaper or MF Cloth and buff surface until dry.
11) Do the same process on the inside.
Now you may think this is a lot of work, but it isn't. Exterior will take about 15-20 minutes and the inside about 20-25 minutes because of the angles. Before you think that is too much work, just imagine how hard you have to work too replace that top at $1,000+, and what would you do to the new top to prevent it from doing what the old one did?. The nice thing about the effort put forth is, the window will not fade between applications, so future maintenence will be a snap, about 15 minutes for both sides.
I hope this helps you, because it sure has made my customers extremely happy.
Mark G.
As I mentioned near the end of this thread I saw a demo of Meguiar's new product PlastX (NOT the same as their plastic polish) yesterday and had a chance to try it out. I was quite impressed. You might want to give it a go.
EDIT: I've posted a report on my "plastic work" in this thread. It gives more info on my use of Mother's Mag/Alum polish and PlastX on my Benz's pitifully yellowed/scratched headlight lenses.
EDIT: I've posted a report on my "plastic work" in this thread. It gives more info on my use of Mother's Mag/Alum polish and PlastX on my Benz's pitifully yellowed/scratched headlight lenses.
safetyman2010
New member
Murf300 said:Does anyone have any tips on plastic windows? I am currently working on my wife's 97 Z3, and the window after 1 1/2 years is starting to get a very fine-rippled, rough look, and is a little tough to see through. I bought some Meguiars plastic polish, and used a cotton diaper. I have done one application of that inside, and out but it doesn't seem to have done any good at all. Although it looks like it did induce some scratches that were not there before. It has a few small spots on the inside where the window looks like something has etched the surface. I will try to post some pictures this weekend.
I have a little experience in this department as I have owned Jeeps since 91 and have been polishing my windows regularly since they take such a beating. I don't have a retail product I can really recommend since I don't use products easily available to you but any very fine polish should work just fine (perhaps Meguiars DACP or the plastic polish). If you have a porter cable - all the better because it takes a lot of polishing to actually start to remove the scratching. I normally use my rotary at 800 rpm with a 100% pure lambswool finishing pad from Autoint (not a blended yarn pad!) and a very fine polish and tape off all the surrounding surfaces to the window. Slowly work the polish section by section until you see a noticable difference and then remove the excess polish with a clean, soft rag and a litle of the polish or water. This should make the plastic window substantially clearer but you will never remove all the deeper scratches and damage. Most manufacturers recommend not polishing or protecting your plastic windows but as I said earlier I have been doing this for 13 years with no negative impact on my windows.