Pits in the Windshield

Unknown

1949 Hudson Commodore 8 - has pits in the windshield:



I was wondering if anyone has experience with the removal of pits from a windshiled on a stepdown. I saw in the Eastwood Catalog a kit to remove deep scratches from windshields with a abrasive and a air sanders. Does this kit work? The windshields have no cracks or delamination. The pits reflect the direct sunlight during evening drives and make visability iffy.



Is the Eastwood kit worth trying, or is there somethign else to try before replacement. I am sort of worried about replacement as I am concerned about finding someone qualified to pull those old two piece windshields out and replace / seal them properly.



BST RGDS

GARY ( happychris )

Unknown

I had guessed that would be the answer. The Eastwood Kit shows a picture of what looks very much like a Hudson in their advertisement but I was really wondering if grinding the 50+ year old glass would be a good idea. Guess the answer is NO! I appreciate the feedback and will get new windshield glass. It is nice to know replacement is not as bad as I had envisioned.



BST RGDS

GARY ( happychris )

[Deleted User]

There is really no way to remove windshield pits. The only effective action is to replace them. With new glass and windshield rubber from K-gap the job is not as bad as one might think. The Hudson stepdown glass is installed from the inside and does not require the string through the seal installation method like most. You place the rubber seal on the glass and with the inside windshield trim removed you will see that the windows are held in with brackets screwed to inner windshield frame area. Push the glass in place and reinstall the brackets and trim. The stainless trim on the outside of the winshields do not need to be removed.

essexcoupe3131

In New Zealand, we have these professionals go around and they put a resin in the chips and can do about a 6" crack or star crack and then they just polish it and its all good, they even guarantee it. We call it novus and they happy to allow you to put a warrant of fitness on the car, It can be pretty tough here as they will knock you back for a piece of rust not much bigger than your 1/4 coin

Unknown

Essexcoupe,



We have places that can fix star chips in windshields here in the states. Most windshiled replacement places do that sort of repair. What I have is little tiny pits in the windshields. It looks like it is from sand hitting the windshields over the years leaving these little pits that are too small to fix with the normal process of grinding out and filling with a epoxy under vacuum. The sun light hits these pits making visability difficult. The Eastwood Company has a kit that uses an abrasive and a air sander that actually grinds the glass surface. This method was supposed to be able to remove scratches and pits in the windshield. They warn about keeping the windshield wet while grinding so and not to generate enough heat to cause damage. I was hoping someone had some experience with this. The feedback from Rob indicates that it is best to forget this repair and replace the windshields. If it were a start chip, I know that I could have that fixed. To fix all the pits, they would have to fill in almost the entire surface of both windshields.



Thanks for the input



BST RGDS

GARY ( happychris )

[Deleted User]

happychris wrote:

Essexcoupe,



We have places that can fix star chips in windshields here in the states. Most windshiled replacement places do that sort of repair. What I have is little tiny pits in the windshields. It looks like it is from sand hitting the windshields over the years leaving these little pits that are too small to fix with the normal process of grinding out and filling with a epoxy under vacuum. The sun light hits these pits making visability difficult. The Eastwood Company has a kit that uses an abrasive and a air sander that actually grinds the glass surface. This method was supposed to be able to remove scratches and pits in the windshield. They warn about keeping the windshield wet while grinding so and not to generate enough heat to cause damage. I was hoping someone had some experience with this. The feedback from Rob indicates that it is best to forget this repair and replace the windshields. If it were a start chip, I know that I could have that fixed. To fix all the pits, they would have to fill in almost the entire surface of both windshields.



Thanks for the input



BST RGDS

GARY ( happychris )

Gary,



If you don't want to pay expense of $370.- plus shipping, and new gaskets, I have two pretty nice step down L/R windshields, along with gaskets that have elasticity that can be used until you want to upgrade to new?



Thanks,



Ray

Unknown

Ray,



Thanks, but if I am going to go to the trouble of replacing the windshields, I think I will go for new gaskets and new windshields. Thanks for the offer though!



BST RGDS

GARY ( happychris )