MX5 windscreen chip query

[shauniebabes]

After having the car sitting on the drive due to the roads being too icy, I finally got the chance to take it for a spin. Then a gritter decided to make up for it by dumping a load of grit in my path !

So basically I now have a load of small chips in the windscreen. They are pin prick sized with the odd one being deep enough to just notice with your finger nail. They're nowhere near being bad enough to make an insurance claim but they are annoying as hell.

Can they be polished out ?

Or failing that now much would a windscreen be for a Mk2.5 1.8 ?

[I Am Milk]

Are you sure it's not just dirt on the windscreen?

I'd be pretty surprised if the salt from a gritting lorry could do that to your windscreen.

[shauniebabes]

They are tiny chips. I was driving towards the gritter so impact speed was at least sixty

[I Am Milk]

Very odd, I've done similar, and never suffered the same fate as you - and I've got an eunos which I believe has a thinner screen.

I think your best bet would be jewellers rouge for polishing glass, not sure how successful it'll be though.

[MX-5 Lazza]

I have the same on mine after an aggregates lorry going the other way hit a bump and dumped a load of grit & stones all over my car just as I was passing. I also got a load of stone chips on the bonnet & boot and all over me! Yes I know I should have got his reg but I didn't think of it at the time. I don't think there is anything you can do to polish the chips out of windscreens. If they are deep enough you can get them repaired for free on your insurance if you are fully comp.

[Glassman]

Pitted glass cannot be polished - not without causing massive distortion in the glass.

They can be tidied up which, tbh, I wouldn't advise as the process requires each little impact to be enlarged, very slightly with a metal pick, or mini drill. A thicker resin (to what is [i]injected[/] for larger damage) is then used to fill the 'crater' and then cured.

Any excess cured resin is then scraped off with a sharp edge. The last stage is to polish the area.

Windscreens will suffer from pitting regardless. This kind of damage really is superficial and not to be worried about, unless the car is a showpiece.

HTH