Polishing Rear Window

[doughep]

This is probably pretty elementary to most of you 'seasoned' convertible owners, but this is my first, and I'll pass this along for any other rookies out there.

My rear window was so badly hazed, I was having trouble seeing through it. It also had some areas with pretty significant clusters of scratches. I had been looking for Meguire's Cleaner (#17) and Polish (#10), but couldn't find it in any store, only mail order. I stumbled across a pair of 3M products - 3M Plastic Cleaner (39017) and 3M Plastic Polish (39010). Noticing the similarity to the Meguire's part #, I decided at about $7 a bottle, I'd give them a try. All in, it took me about half an hour to do and was about as easy as you could hope for.

I was so impressed with the results of just the cleaner that I was tempted to skip the polish. But hey, I bought it, and was determined to use it. I'm glad I did, because the results were spectacular after using the cleaner, and even better after the polish. I can't overstate the significance of the difference it made.

Below are a set of before-and-after pictures, but my cell phone camera doesn't do justice. The before picture looks much better than the window really did, and the after doesn't look nearly as clear as it now does.

Before:

After:

[jinijazz]

I see 3M clears out well, but does it help to remove the cloudy holding area (see the highlighted portion in the pic)?

[HenryV]

Try Plexus, I have been very pleased with it. It seems to work on cloudy spots - but I haven't really had any trouble yet.

Some people say that heat (mild heat - e.g. hair-dryer, or better, summer-sun) is sufficient to clear the plastic, then use Plexus to keep it clear.

My car is the left most in the pic below (foreground).

[doughep]

I see 3M clears out well, but does it help to remove the cloudy holding area (see the highlighted portion in the pic)?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Yeah, it really did. The whole window is now consistent and as clear as glass. If I can get a hold of a better camera, I'll post some better pictures.

I was really impressed with the stuff.