Wiper Woes, another ruined windscreen .............

[rfs1957]

Has anyone else suffered from this ? Might be an idea to check yours .............

In the summer I fitted three new blades (at £15.21 each plus VAT, so perhaps "good" ones ?) that I had bought - from one of the better Majors - back in May 2016.

These were going on a new windscreen.

After just one day of rain, the windscreen can now be junked.

The three blades that I had thought were identical actually turn out to have a stray amongst them, see pictures, one having retaining tangs on either end that are quite proposterously oriented so as to almost guarantee contact with the glass.



The above shows the damaged screen and the outermost wiper-end, that has here been bent upwards to give more clearance.

Below is the other end that shows more or less what the shape was as delivered.



The other pair are built more logically and have no metalwork anywhere near the glass.



Is it 'cos I is thick, as Ali G would suggest ? Or unlucky ?

Awaiting comments from the supplier, but best check yours.

[cactusman]

Oh what a pain...can't really comment on the wiper although mine (of unknown vintage) are metal tang free. As you say the glass is probably junk but it might be worth contacting an auto glass company just in case the score mark can be polished out....probably not but who knows...

[Heuer]

You have one of the cheapies in there. The more expensive ones are an aerodynamic inverted V shape whilst the cheaper versions are square in shape.

[politeperson]

Dont suppose the scratch will polish out?

[rfs1957]

I've often seen this referred to on the Forum, third-hand, but don't recall anyone who had actually done it - successfully - themselves.

I bought a kit of Cerium Oxide and the appropriate buffing-mop when I wanted to clean up the Mini-Van windows, and found it frankly useless.

It did "brighten them up" to an extent, but none of the marks you could sense with a finger-nail were affected in the slightest ; all I managed to do was get the glass worryingly hot on occasions, despite cooling water, and spray everything within 20 feet with pink droplets.

I am sure that it must be possible, but suspect there's more to it than DIY - and yet when I asked the usual windscreen-people like CarGlass (here in France) they just said they didn't do it, either for themselves or anyone else.

Happy to be enlightened by someone with real hands-on experience.

[JagWaugh]

Happy to be enlightened by someone with real hands-on experience.

I've used Cerium Oxide to remove some pretty deep marks, and diminish some _really_ deep ones (someone hit the screen with a belt sander while doing body work).

Crazing like that should come out, but it'll take a few hours just concentrating on that spot, and a few hours to clean up. Felt mop on a cordless, running slow, with a water drip keeping the area cool and patience, lots of patience.

[Mark Gordon]

I bought this kit designed for deep scratches from Eastwood. I'm waiting until the end of driving season, another month or so, before trying it out on my wiper damage which is much worse than yours. I'll report back with the results.

http://www.eastwood.com/glass-polishing ... -5658.html

[rfs1957]

Please do, Mark - I didn't have anything as dinky as that Eastwood set but would indeed have thrown $70 at the problem if I'd thought it would work. Get some good masking done, that stuff gets EVERYWHERE !

[Mark Gordon]

That's what I've read, Rory. I plan on doing it on the driveway and masking off the entire car with plastic sheeting. I saw a couple of videos on Youtube and it looks doable if you have patience and take it easy. Fortunately, my damage is on the upper right corner at the wide arc of the wiper, so if I do end up with some waviness, even the passenger shouldn't notice it too much. My other alternative is a new windshield, so I really don't have too much to lose in trying.