Stupid me!
 

I was so stupid. I went googling and youtube to try polishing my vinyl rear window..

I tried rubbing with toothpaste and then using abrasive sponge to polish. And now it is fogged up.

Stupid me! Anyone with similar encounters? Anythint i can do now?http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/2016...891fcd5443.jpg

Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

I looked at the vinyl from an angle.. seems like the fogging is from micro scratches..

Ive ordered a bottle of meguiar plastx.. anyone has any opinions about this other than im so stupid?

Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

Porsche Boxster 986 Cabrio Hood - 9860541099 | Design 911

hi guys, i found a replacement plastic window on design911.. do you guys think this will work?

I've had good luck removing scratches in the rear vinyl window with Blue Magic headlight lens restorer.

From the look of mine do you think it is remotely possible to remove the dense hazing?

Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

The Novus products are pretty much the gold standard for plastic window treatment.

Just use plastic window polish and work hard at it.

I have also used headlight restore polishing compound to remove fold rub scratches out, doing it by hand

You would have to have someone sew in the new plastic window if you purchase it. That won't be ideal, as they'd have to cut a little bit of the black cloth off to sew in the new plastic. Just try to polish the haze off by buying a plastic polishing cream like the guys here suggested. Don't use an abrasive sponge to wipe off the polish cream. Use a soft cloth or microfiber cloth.

Thanks for the replies. Replacing the top here in my country is a 2 to 3k usd job.

I was stupid to use an abrasive sponge and tooth paste.

Anyone had it as bad as me? Possible to polish the vinyl window until it is less hazy again?

Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

Try and use Plex over and over again in small amounts by hand. Do not use a machine as that will eat away at the plastic and the heat friction will cause even more damage. Soft cloth and doing it daily should do the trick... sadly there is no 'fast' method of recovery at this point.

Sorry for your troubles, but 9 of out 10 dentist will tell you not to use Crest to polish your plastic window. Are you by chance a dentist?:)

I'm guessing it was more the abrasive sponge. :eek:

Mine had a bad hazed up area in the middle from the latch rubbing on it. It took a lot of elbow grease but it cleaned up decently. It is a slowwwwww process and you have a much larger area, but it is doable.

Thanks for this. Its quite reassuring. Do you use fingers to rub it in or sponge/microfibre?

Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

Its a fatal combination of toothpaste, abrasive sponge and plain stupidity on my part

Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

You aren't the first person to do this, so stop saying you are stupid! If you made the same mistake again, then you might be stupid.

Once your window goes hazy and then yellow the plastic is on its way out.

It wont be long before you start getting cracks, maybe a couple years if your lucky and don't retract the roof at all.

Better to invest your time in getting a new plastic window sewn in ($150-$600), buy a new third party replacement top ($450-$700) or replace the entire roof with a used glass window 03-04 4 bow top($700-$1200)

I suppose polishing will get it useable at least for the short term. I have heard others say that the plastic lens polishing/restore kits work reasonably well.

Tip: Never fill oil into the coolant system. Never fill Water into the Oil system. So your boo boo is not too terrible compared to some others unfortunate mistakes.

Novus 1, 2 and 3 They sell a kit with bottles of all three.

Kept mine clean and supple for 7 years. First treatment, With a clean cloth. Use the abrasive once, then the middle and finally the polish. Use on the inside of the window too but just the mid and polish. To maintain just the polish every 3-4 months.

Once it is clean, use soft felt between the folds when the top is down so the plastic doesn't rub against itself and use any grit like sand paper.

Mothers little helper
 

Hi, I used Mothers Plastic Polish on my MG for several years, worked a treat.

Hi in ur opinion will it help with such bad scratches and hazing like mine?

Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

I've had great results with Novus products restoring clarity on hard transparent plastic, like plastic taillight lenses. I'd think they would work well on softer transparent plastic, like the vinyl window material as well. I remember using them with a benchtop machine buffer with a cotton wheel and man, it worked amazingly well - and amazingly fast! By hand it would still work, just slower. If you do use a machine (the tool would be a rotary polisher or random orbital polisher), just make sure not to overheat the soft plastic. You might need to be careful at the edges to avoid potential damage to the canvas-like top material. (Wouldn't hurt to tape the edges carefull with masking tape, for protection.)

In summary, I'm quite sure this haze could be restored to like-new and the result will be quite satisfying afterwards. Good luck!

Hi may i ask which novus did you use? #1, 2 or 3?

Or all? In which sequence?

For hand application, i would rub it in a circular motion?

Thank you for the encouragement

Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

I used a paper towel coated with the material but a microfiber would probably work as well. It dries as you apply it and you'll go through quite a few bits of paper towel. Did you do both sides (inside and out?) Mine was only burnished/scratched on the inside. You'll want to back up the other side, while you rub, with a soft cloth so you don't stretch the material. I didn't do that at first and got a little raised area (lump in the window.) It eventually settled back down.

I use Pledge furniture polish on my boat and MG as well. Wash first then I used the polish. Works great without paying top dollar for other stuff.

Those abrasive sponges, aka, Mr. Clean sponge, can be pretty tough on soft surfaces. I've learned the hard way but fortunately not on my Porsche.

There are a number of products, some referenced here, that should get this taken care of. When I bought my Boxster the dealer gave me a bottle of Porsche branded cleaner for the vinyl window and if did a really good job of keeping the window clear and getting scratches out.

Good luck.

i just bought #1, #2, #3 Novus and tried polishing as instructed..

nothing changes for the spoilt area :(

the other side became more clear

can anyone suggest anything?

I think I used the two polishing grades of novus (either #2 or the slightly more aggressive #3). I don't think I even had the cleaner (that's the novus #1)

It sounds like your scratches may be too deep to get much of a result working for a reasonable effort by hand. You can go back and forth, or in circles, it shouldn't matter. I'd tend to go back and forth as it will help you monitor progress better.

It might be that the "abrasive sponge" (sandpaper sponge?) you used was too course, and to get good results, you'll need a finer grade sandpaper before you can polish. Do you happent to know what grit abrasive/sandpaper you used which caused the scratches? If you do, post it here but basically you'll want to go progressively finer, in potentially multiple steps, until you get to a fine enough texture that you can switch to the novus #3. If you don't know what grit it was that caused the scratches, the next most aggressive thing to try from the more aggressive novus (the novus #3 ) might be something like 2000-3000 grit sandpaper, wetted down (and kept wet) with water as you go. Do your wetsanding from side to side until all the original appearing scratches are no longer visible, before hitting it with the most aggressive novus (which would be the #3) in a back and forth direction perpendicular to the previous last wetsanding step. As a general rule of thumb, you only want to get as aggressive as you need to correct the defect. But in this case, the novus # applied by hand apparently isn't aggressive enough, so you'll want to step it up.

If the 2000 grit doesn't seem to be getting rid of the original scratch marks, then go more aggressive, like 1500. (And if that still isn't enough to get rid of the circular scratches, then even courser... 1000, 600, 400). If doing this by hand, you will need to put in much more effort and also probably use more steps than if you had the power of a machine, but you can still get a good result. Once you remove the original scratches, you'll need to work your way finer, through the steps, as I describe above.

Hopefully the wetsanding materials will be available where you live! If not, I think pieces of sandpaper would easily and quickly ship via air. :)

If you get full sized sandpaper sheets 8.5"X11" or so, fold and/or cut them into hand-sized pieces by the way, before you use them.

Like I said before, the novus worked amazing on some hard plastic taillight lenses in virtually a single step, but that was using a very powerful benchtop buffer and applying some pretty significant pressure also. It was pretty amazing how well and quickly it worked though - and the plastic looked newer than you'd see on most new cars. Usually, you need to put in a pretty good amount of effort and steps to achieve this sort of "transformation".

If you were using a machine, you might have better results without having to resort to wetsanding. However if you are just pressing against the unsupported window, you are limited in how much pressure you can apply. And you will want to keep heat low if you do use a machine (overheating the material will not possibly come up as an issue if you polish or sand by hand). Good luck - I hope if someone else has done what you're doing, they will chime in! To periodically apply water when wetsanding, a spray bottle will be helpful.

The novus is actually quite fine so going by hand, it may take a really long time to smooth through relatively course scratches. It's good you noticed the appearance becoming more optically transparent, though - this is really what the novus is made for and good to know its doing something! Wetsanding won't go fine enough to give you that result. Eventually, and with persistence, I think you'll be able to fix this. Good luck!