New/second post/windshield so far, but need to do more for perfection

[Accumulator]

Pitch the rain-x and save the constant hassle by getting the glass coating

Eh, not gonna pitch it, and the hassle isn`t really anything...haven`t been driving that car anyhow. Not like it`s any more hassle than my usual autoglass maintenance though I expect a coating would diminish that greatly.

But yeah..I never did like RainX, only using it as the PO had it on there and just keeping it up was easier than cleaning it off. Now I`m all paranoid about how I`d polish the windshield sufficiently without any risk of getting the Glass Polish on anything (NO, I`m not gonna redo the windshield surround or cowl cover, not for at least a few years at the rate I drive that car). After maybe five or six years I might give the car a Major Detail, and I`ll probably ditch the RainX then.

I`ve just gotten over getting new detailing stuff all the time...if something`s not broken I`m gonna use it up before upgrading, and there`s NO WAY I`m gonna risk precipitating any unnecessary work anyhow.

[JJZ4MR]

OK then, back to the drawing board with my hydrophobic glass treatments. I did not see much on McKee`s Glass Coating, but I was looking for/at Aquapel in that was coming up as the top rated product. Found some great YT vids on long term use comparisons using the Aquapel. Now I`m excited to turn my attention to McKee`s. They seem to have some top notch products. Funny, I never really paid that much attention to glass/windshields, now it`s my latest obsession. Thanks to all over you for helping my base of knowledge, I really appreciate the input !

I did find that using Green Scotch Brite pads ( even though I saw online that plenty of peeps use them ) WILL MICRO SCRATCH GLASS. I wanted to polish with the rotary drill plate/glass polisher pad from 3M, I`m pretty sure they will come out pretty easily....lesson learned. A big wad of 0000 Steel wool, with the Bar Keepers Friend FOAM as a lube/hard water spot remover using LITE pressure does a great job, is cheap and not messy at all.

[JJZ4MR]

So today at first light, on a cloudy Central West Florida morning I got out my cerium oxide, high speed drill and 3M glass polishing 3 inch pad/plate, which has a foam layer under the polishing pad. The hook/loop pad on it is nice for installing the 3000 grit synthetic polishing disk. Part of the 3M headlight restoration kit, which currently is $ 10 after $ 5 rebate at O`Reilly`s. Mixed the CO, taped the inside of the glass where I had MICRO scratched with the Green Scotch Brite pad ( right in front of my view ) which is really hard to find under just the right light conditions. Anyway...in a nut shell, was not impressed with my results. Did make SOME improvement, but not much. Went over it 5 times, cleaning off, checking my work, got a little more aggressive with my speed/pressure/time over small area each time. Went over whole windshield spent about 1.5 hours on it. Even though I taped off all window trim, covered cowl with a beach towel, really a messy project. Starting raining as I was finishing, washed off the entire car afterward in the rain. CO is a pain to work with, results were FAIR/GOOD. I did have some ORIGINAL RAIN X left over, did two coats, wiped down with distilled H2O after letting it haze up for 15 mins or so. Drove around in the rain all afternoon, really great hydrophobic results. Now spending time researching M37 VS Optimum VS Aquapel.
Worst part, as I pulled off my Blue Painters Tape from around the trim. Paint on my 2010 Honda Insight Hybrid pulled up with it in a couple spots. I immediately remembered Larry of Ammo, talking about pulling tape off at a hard angle ( acute ).

[Accumulator]

JJZ4MR- Oh man, sounds like you just can`t win for losing! Especially sorry to hear the paint pulled off with the masking tape (!), wouldn`t have expected that no matter what angle you used.

At least the CO seems to have really cleaned the glass so the RainX is working better.

[JJZ4MR]

Yeah, I`m kinda bummed. The top trim is really thin, but it`s not like I pushed the tape down. The paint on these is weird. Had this happen on a small spot as I was using Turtle Wax Enduro Trim Seal on the back plastic trim on the rear. I could not get it uniform as I had to stop to avoid putting it on the paint (it`s like a shiny black dye) So I did a second coat a few months later, but this time taped it off, so I could just continue smoothly right over the tape. And some paint pulled up. My rear bumper has some separation from the paint too. I`m going to see what the dealership has to say, see if others have had similar issues. The paint came off in a jagged long 6 inch section, just in one spot. Not sure if I should just use a touch up brush, or smooth out the jagged tears and shoot it with a can. The undercoat is sorta green, looks horrible. Oh, well, live and learn, just glad it was my boring DD and not my Datsun 240 Z or my BMW Z4M