Windshield dimples

[Piwoslaw]

My windshield is getting more and more dimples in it. Lots of sand and pebbles on the roads here, unfortunately So far only one tiny crack, but nothing to worry about. The dimples are a pain when the sun or someone's headlights are shining in front. Also dust, mud and splattered bugs get in the dimples and the wipers don't remove them.

Anyone know of a remedy? I'm not ready to replace the whole windshield, plus the new one would get dimpled quite quickly on these roads. I read that someone tried sanding and the glass cracked. I guess it's not as simple as smearing Rain-X over the glass?

[cfg83]

Piwoslaw -

I DO NOT advocate any of these, but these may give you a hint on what to do :

Windshield Repair
Windshield Crack Repair - The Inventor & Patent Holder Of Ultra Bond Long Crack Repair

On TeeVee I saw one that was insurance-approved. If they can fix the crack, they guarantee the fix for life. Right now my wife has a "star break". It hasn't expanded, so we haven't got around to fixing it.

CarloSW2

[Frank Lee]

I've polished a windshield. It is a very slow process and not suitable for "the whole thing" as it messes with optical clarity some and that's OK in daylight but gets obvious at night for exactly the reasons you already noticed, esp. oncoming headlights.

[RobertSmalls]

I have 240000km on my windshield, and it's all pitted. No, I don't know of a remedy.

Those mobile windshield repair services amuse me. You can buy a tube of specially formulated superglue for $10 at the parts store for filling small stone chips and stopping cracks in windshields and become a mobile windshield repairman yourself. However, it won't do much for a pitted windshield.

[bgd73]

if it is an oe windshield and doing this, you may just have to keep swapping them out.

If 5mm or greater thickness they go a long day. My area is bad like that with glass too.

upon thinking of my own glass, it is 23 years old, on its third subaru,
the original car was given away at 167,000 miles
the second car I put the glass in was totalled and it survived.
that too freakishly made it to 167,000 miles (I'd swear I have a math witch omen)
the third sube, back to a 1987, and I have racked up yet another 25,000 miles...
in all its about 250,000 miles, and 23 years.
the glass is oe from 1987. I liked it enough to go down a muddy road and buy another original thick one, and bounce it all the way home. Another thing I noticed about the 1980s..when carbs ended , the glass thickness seemed to dwindle.
the point here? If thick enough, the glass does not get the errors. I took note years ago, some cars had thicker than others. you may be able to do this for yours, simply measure before purchase. I also avoid a name called "safe-lite" the biggest hoax since vtec.

[aerohead]

Eastwood Tool used to offer a glass polishing kit.Pretty expensive.Pretty labor intensive.You might try for them online to check it out.

[Christ]

If the windshield is just getting that bad, consider replacing it. Once pitted, polishing glass won't do much for the pits, especially if they're more than .001" deep, since when you polish (non-porous, remember) glass, you're only taking off a few thousandths anyway.

Safe-Lite glass, by the way, is heat tempered and lighter than molded plate glass. It also contains a plastic layer in the middle, which, in addition to tempering, prevents small rocks and other impacts from completely shattering the windshield, instead, just leaving a possibly repairable star chip or a terminable crack which won't interfere with the driver's field of vision.

[some_other_dave]

Originally Posted by bgd73

...If thick enough, the glass does not get the errors. ... the biggest hoax since vtec.

That's a big "nope" on both counts, there.

Thick glass still gets sand-blasted and pitted. The only ways I know to avoid it are to either put plastic "tear-offs" over the outside of the windshield, or not to drive the car. Or to get lucky.

VTEC is a great way to make decent power and/or decent economy out of little four-banger engines. You get to pick your cam profile for your current driving conditions, and switch on the fly. You can optimize for several different RPM ranges, or for different things under different conditions. It works quite well, generally...

-soD