According to a car repair technician at Ninety Eight Auto (Cat Lai ward, Ho Chi Minh City), after a period of moving on the road, car windshields are difficult to avoid minor scratches due to dust, wipers or impacts during use.
With scratches, glass polishing can help the surface become flatter and clearer. However, this method does not mean that the glass is completely restored to its original state.
Polishing means taking away a part of the material
According to the technician, when polishing a scratch on the glass, the surrounding material will be processed to reduce the difference between the scratched area and the remaining surface. Therefore, a quantity of material on the glass surface will be removed.
With very shallow scratches, polishing can be considered to improve appearance and visibility. However, if the scratch is deep, continuing polishing for complete treatment may require more material to be removed.
The technician believes that a scratch of about 0.5mm may be a threshold to consider polishing in some cases. For deeper marks, car owners need to check the reality before deciding to handle them, instead of trying to polish many times.
In particular, ordinary glass should not be equated with multi-layered glass. The structure of each type of glass is different, so the treatment method also needs to be appropriately assessed.
Glasses should not be polished regularly.
Another issue to note is that polishing should not be considered as a periodic maintenance method. Each treatment can change the glass surface, so repeating many times is not a suitable choice.
After polishing, the car owner can replace the wipers if this part is worn or leaves marks on the glass. Using appropriate wipers helps to limit further scratches during operation.
The technician also said that a waterproof coating can be added to the glass surface after polishing. This coating helps water separate quickly from the glass surface when it rains, but needs to be maintained and supplemented according to the actual condition.
Thus, with glass only scratched and not seriously affected, polishing may be a solution. However, car owners should not abuse this method. When cracks or deep scratches appear in the glass, it is necessary to check carefully to choose a suitable solution, instead of trying to polish many times.
