Windshield restoration

[Ronald5256]

Well I seem to have solved the photo upload problem it was the size in the end
And so I can finally share the pictures of the restoration of my windshield I won't bore you with the details of how it was done unless you want to know it may be of some benefit to someone out there lol

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[homie]

Wait... what? bore me please! What's the point of the post less we learn nothing

[you you]

I'd like to know too.

[you you]

Will Cousin It tell us?

[Smaug]

He's obviously buffed the hell out of it with a grainy toothpaste and a lot of elbow grease.

The cloudiness looks similar to what you get if you hit your plastic watch crystal or sunglasses lenses with DEET-based bug repellent spray.

[homie]

I have plenty of rubbing compound since buffing out new paint, I wonder if it will polish up a stock PCX windscreen. You remember how those looked new? Then there was a short period when they looked like they would become the eye sore of the bike but after a few wipe downs all the minute scratches actually became the normal look and it wasn't so bad. If one was to learn how to keep that buffed one might be buffing it too much. But Ronald do tell us what's up here in case we want to torture ourselves on a weekly basis

"DEET-based bug repellent spray"

[Jge64]

I don't know what he did, but I can tell you what works perfectly, pled is pretty hard, so lots of passes.....
Random orbital
Medium foam pad
Speed 75%
Meguires 105 polish, about 8 to 10 passes,
then meguires 205 final polish , about the same amount of passes...
Done, seal with your favorite product.

[Ronald5256]

Ok if you want the details lol first it is a stock windshield with 5 years of ware on it my weapon of choice is a rotary action polisher with a 3" backing plate I wouldn't use a dual action it will not have the speed or the cutting power for this type of work then we come to the pads all 3.5" in diameter microfiber course cutting pad / medium foam cutting pad / and a foam finishing pad as for compounds I used rupes blue (coarse) green (medium) yellow (fine) and some sort of lubricant I used a spray on detailing wax but you could use water as it's only used to keep the surface temperature of the plastic down super super important and a hand full of cloths so hear we go set up your polisher with the backing pad and the microfiber cutting pad and give it a spray with the lubricant to prime it set your speed at around 40-50% of max speed apply the coarse compound 4-5 pea size drops will do place the polisher on to the windshield and switch it on always start and stop with the polisher in contact with the windshield this will avoid creating extra swirls make your passes in a left to right motion then up and down with a 50% overlap continue until you see no more improvement remember to spray your lube on every pass or so it will wash off the spent compound and keep the temp down so you don't burn the surface if you do it's game over now move on to the next step change the pad to the foam cutting pad and prime it with lube apply green (medium) cutting compound and repeat until no more improvement is seen by now you should start to see the screen coming back to a shine the final step chance your pad to the soft finishing pad once more prime it with lube and apply your yellow (fine) compound now reduce your speed to around half of the previous setting and polish in the same way don't apply to much pressure let the polisher glide over the screen just guide it and repeat until you have a mirror finish and that's it I am not going to lie it takes time and effort I did it to see if it could be polished I have a lot of experience doing custom paint on cars and the process is some what the same a word of warning you must keep the surface temperature down as you work it's easy enough to forget to lube it and the friction will make the plastic go white and is irreparable I hope you find this interesting if not long winded if you have any questions please feel free to message me

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[Mel46]

I just read all of that in one breath...
Ok, so after all of that action I guess that you will ride your bike around with the basic windshield instead of a taller one for bad weather? You did a nice job on it, though, so that is to be commended. In fact, when I had to do a much larger windshield it was a real hassle, so good job.

[Ronald5256]

I just read all of that in one breath...
Ok, so after all of that action I guess that you will ride your bike around with the basic windshield instead of a taller one for bad weather?

Until I read some of you guys stuff I did not know you could get tall windshields to be honest

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[homie]

Ok if you want the details lol first it is a stock windshield with 5 years of ware on it my weapon of choice is a rotary action polisher with a 3" backing plate I wouldn't use a dual action it will not have the speed or the cutting power for this type of work then we come to the pads all 3.5" in diameter microfiber course cutting pad / medium foam cutting pad / and a foam finishing pad as for compounds I used rupes blue (coarse) green (medium) yellow (fine) and some sort of lubricant I used a spray on detailing wax but you could use water as it's only used to keep the surface temperature of the plastic down super super important and a hand full of cloths so hear we go set up your polisher with the backing pad and the microfiber cutting pad and give it a spray with the lubricant to prime it set your speed at around 40-50% of max speed apply the coarse compound 4-5 pea size drops will do place the polisher on to the windshield and switch it on always start and stop with the polisher in contact with the windshield this will avoid creating extra swirls make your passes in a left to right motion then up and down with a 50% overlap continue until you see no more improvement remember to spray your lube on every pass or so it will wash off the spent compound and keep the temp down so you don't burn the surface if you do it's game over now move on to the next step change the pad to the foam cutting pad and prime it with lube apply green (medium) cutting compound and repeat until no more improvement is seen by now you should start to see the screen coming back to a shine the final step chance your pad to the soft finishing pad once more prime it with lube and apply your yellow (fine) compound now reduce your speed to around half of the previous setting and polish in the same way don't apply to much pressure let the polisher glide over the screen just guide it and repeat until you have a mirror finish and that's it I am not going to lie it takes time and effort I did it to see if it could be polished I have a lot of experience doing custom paint on cars and the process is some what the same a word of warning you must keep the surface temperature down as you work it's easy enough to forget to lube it and the friction will make the plastic go white and is irreparable I hope you find this interesting if not long winded if you have any questions please feel free to message me.

x once a month good work

[you you]

That's too much hassle for me. I was sold on toothpaste...