Cleaning Glass

[Dino]

Hi,
I recently boat a Broom Ocean 38 that was kept in the Med for 15 years. The glass windscreen and some of the large cabin windows are a bit stained. They appear to be toughened glass. I tried some generic household glass cleaner but I didn’t get rid of the marks. I’ve seen some companies offering glass polishing products. Are these worth trying or can anyone recommend an alternative?

 

[DavidJ]

Halfords do a mild abrasive cleaner for car windsceens, I guess that would be safe enough to try.
Meguiars Perfect Clarity Glass Polishing Compound 236ml | Halfords UK

 

[Moonbeam]

Sounds like you got your new pride and joy back home
It might be worth trying a car headlight polishing kit like this https://www.amazon.co.uk/3M-39073-Restoration-Discoloured-Headlights/dp/B0078IHJ1K
I've used this kit (or similar) many times on faded plastic car headlights, and it does bring them up looking like new after some time. So..... the glass window on our log burner got a bit cloudy over time and was not cleaning up with usual elbow grease, so I tried this kit and it worked well... might be worth you giving it a try on a small non important area before going at the rest!

EDIT: For glass... I only used the final 3000 grit 'trizac' disc and then the foam polishing discs. I thought the 1st two stage discs, (800 then 2000 grit from memory), were too abrasive for glass. I ended up buying a job lot of the 'trizac 3000 grit discs on ebay for fine polishing. The kit whole kit works well on props too!

 

[Moonbeam]

Halfords do a mild abrasive cleaner for car windsceens, I guess that would be safe enough to try.
Meguiars Perfect Clarity Glass Polishing Compound 236ml | Halfords UK

I used that product as a finishing polish after using the 3M kit I linked to in above post and it does work very nicely.

 

[Dino]

That’s folks, I’ll try the Meguiars polishing compound and see if that works.
Yes, I got my new pride & joy back home. I must write up a cruise report of the trip from Mallorca to Barcelona

 

[penberth3]

That’s folks, I’ll try the Meguiars polishing compound and see if that works.
Yes, I got my new pride & joy back home. I must write up a cruise report of the trip from Mallorca to Barcelona

Vinegar is worth a try for all sorts of cleaning jobs, before you spend a lot of money!

 

[AndieMac]

Any liquid cutting compound used with a mechanical buffing machine, with either foam or lambs wool pad will transform the glass windscreens. I prefer the lambs wool pads as they are more forgiving and don’t shred if bumped against a raised section.

Many people think they will scratch the glass, but they won’t. If in doubt, test the process on an inconspicuous piece of thick glass.

This process is also the best way to prepare a contaminated (by accumulated salt and grime) windscreen prior to applying a Rainex type product.

 

[Dino]

Thanks folks, I got the Meguiars Glass Polish yesterday. I tried it by hand last night with a microfibre pad and with a foam pad. It removed a good bit of the staining/oxidation. I’ll try it with a DA polisher over the weekend and see if I can get the rest off.