Morris Minor Owners Club

I picked up some glass cutting compond from a well known car store yesterday.

Hebe's windows are a bit on the "well used" side. They're certainly legal (no cracks) but there are some scratches here and there - I suspect from someone trying to clean her windows with a dirty or non lint free cloth. This stuff is meant to cut a fine layer to remove surface scatches and make an otherwise slightly tired screen a bit more acceptable.

Has anyone used it? Or do I plunge right in with a side window and see how it goes?


Cheers!

Nikki

P.S Hebe's Brightwork is far from Bright. Any tips I should bear in mind when cleaning it? Someone has told me it takes a while for the chrome to shine up (i.e, it will take several applications and cleans before it's looking shiny again) I know there are a few places where pitting has occured (like her rear light clusters) and that these can't really be got rid of, but the rest I'm hoping will just clean up...

P.S Hebe's Brightwork is far from Bright. Any tips I should bear in mind when cleaning it? Someone has told me it takes a while for the chrome to shine up

If the chrome is faded no amount of polish will re-brighten it, the best thing to try 1st is car polish as this contains no abrasives which some chrome polishes do.
Probably the best is Autoglym but mainly I prefer MER and if you have a local market its normally only £10 a litre which will do half a dozen polishes and its best advantage is that you can still use it in sunlight unlike most polishes that have to be used in the shade and on a cool day which is not always practicle. I also find that with a bit of elbow grease its very good on chrome and even removes/reduces rust spots on bumpers but it depends how bad they are. Also with Mer if the shine is only middle of the road you can apply a further application to improve the shine. I once bought a car with faded paintwork and thought I would have to resort to a cutting compound like `T cut` but a couple og goes with Mer worked wonders. it also removestar spots and the like as well its only drawback is that it can leave a bit of a dusty residue but it soon dissapears, one other advantage as its applied with a wet cloth if you have just washed the car you dont need to leather it off, good luck.

No I have not used a glass cutting compound so I cant comment

Yup - I agree. Avoid cutting compounds on the paint and abrasive cleaners on the chrome.
Modern polishes have chemicals in them to dissolve paint oxides and metal oxides so they should work wornders, although a fair bit of elbow grease is required too.

For glass cleaning the easiest to use mild abrasive is...... toothapste ! No, don't laugh, it really does work. Apply with a soft cloth, rubbing in cirular pattern, then wash off with clean water. Of course, when you see how rough the stuff is, it might put you off cleaning your teeth !

we use mer on telescope bodys at work. good stuff as kevin says. i put it on the deck of my skateboard once and promptly sliped off.

While on the subject of rough glass, is there any polishing/cutting compounds that can help to remove pitting from over enthusiastic use of a grinder without protecting the windows? I went to the trouble of covering all of the windows on Molly when I started her open heart surgery but I didn't spot that the protection on the removed passanger door had slipped off resulting in a very pitted window.

I know it's my fault (I should have known better as I did the same to my first Mini windscreen 21 years ago) but is there any way of restoring the surface?

You can only restore light scratching. Grinder sparks should produce metal 'dust' more than pits in glass. It's weld spatter that usually does that. If it's weld spatter then it has usually melted it's way in quite far so the only way is to replace the glass