Windscreen finished

Hi

Long day and my arm is aching but the windscreen is lovingly hand polished.

My first job this morning was to get the wheels out of the way and onto the car.

And don't they look nice, not an exact match as they don't have any pearl in them so you don't get the slight flip but still look good.

Most of the rest of the day has been spent on the windscreen, yesterdays efforts turned out great so I had to do the same on the other upright. 

This side had the same pitting on the top edge as the other.

I started rubbing by hand then turned to my DA sander and put a 320 grit on for the main removal of the paint.

This took the main of but left 320 marks so I put a 500 on the DA.

This took out the main scratches but time to have a go by hand, I started with 400 dry in straight lines before moving onto 400 wet.

Starting to look good, then moved onto 600 wet.

Then onto 800 wet.

Then onto 1200 wet.

And 1500 wet.

Then onto 3500 diamond cloth wet.

By this time around 90% of any scratches where gone so it was time for the polish.

I gave it 3 polishes with the fine cutting compound before moving onto the metal polish.

This is after 3 polishes with the Autosol metal polish.

It was a bit premature as there was still a lot of work to do but I gave it a coat of wax and let it set for 15 mins then a good polish.

I shall redo the wax when I am ready to fit and then out with the white gloves.

The rest of the frame has the brush effect. The top rail is an extrusion as opposed to the cast sides and has no paint on so I gave that a sanding at 400 and 600 dry by hand to replicate the brushed look.

I'm not too sure about the bottom rail although I think it may also be cast as it also had a coat of paint or lacquer on it that took a bit of work to remove.

It all came up nice.

The inside had the brushed finish so again with the 400 then 600 dry.

Once I sanded everything in sight I mixed up a concoction to clean the glass, I new white vinegar cleans glass and I also had a packet of fine lime polishing powder so I mixed the 2 together, got a nice bubbly reaction as the acetic acid and the lime mixed.

That should lift any residue from years of road dirt, sneezes and sap and it worked a treat, I had to use the flat of a razor blade on the inside screen as all of those sneezes left a few lumpy bits.

I did clean it after with glass cleaner to help neutralise any acids I may have left on the rubber.

One refurbished screen, Terry has wrote saying that the damage to the rubber is more than likely caused by the windscreen wipers, other than that small damage the rubber has come up nice so I shall return the spare inner seal to Bruno.

Terry also mentioned the danger of not fitting the correct size rivets when replacing the windscreen fittings so I was extra careful as these are perhaps the main cause of windscreen cracks.

Anyway everything went according to plan and hopefully when I hit my first speed bump it will stay that way.

Now it is finished I shall bubble wrap it and put it under the bed as I still need it off for fitting the dash demisters when the dash is re-fitted.

But of course I couldn't resist having a look, so I loosely fitted it to the car.

Love the way it tapers in.

I shall get new seals for the quarter light and Terry has put me on to where I can buy them from.

I also recieved my new indicator light for the dash from CBS, I only ordered yesterday morning and it was here by 1400 still for £7 postage I would hope so.

I don't know whether its good or bad that they only had the double indicator in black and not chrome, you get a nice contrast to the chrome but not the match, O well its done now.

Terry also explained how to connect from the flasher unit in the fuse box which I shall look into, I can always then put it back the way it was, although I do quite like the new look.

See ya Paul