Sadly, replacement windshields have gone down the too familiar path of lower quality standards that everything else in our society seems to be taking. I'd stick with PPG, if possible, but there are other factors that might affect pitting.

How bad is the acid rain in your part of the world? I'm no wacko on the environment, but can assure you that acid rain is taking a terrible toll on auto finishes in most parts of the country. Ever notice all the plastic tape on new cars as they come off a transport at a dealer's lot? It isn't put on the cars for decorative purposes; it is to protect the cars from acid rain damage during shipping.

Sandblasting could be the problem, I suppose, if one lives in the southwest. I'd give more credence to other environmental factors, though.

New Total: 6ç

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1980 300SD 146K miles.

I had the windshields replaced on both our cars. Only $165 each.

They used Pilkington (Pilkerton?) something like that. I noticed yesterday it's the same brand as in all the new Jaguars.

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2012 E350
2006 Callaway SC560

I live in the Northeast. As far as I am aware, the acid rain is not the culprit here. When you drive at 65 mph, anytime you come within 300 yards of a semi, you can hear the slight tapping on the glass from the sand lifted of the road from all of those huge tires. I can just imagine the damage it is doing.

If acid rain was the real problem, then the paint would be destroyed just as quickly, correct? That is not happening here.

Well, I applied the products today, and my initial feeling is that not much as changed (my windshield is really clean, though). I can still see all the pits, although there seems to be significantly less glare coming from them. Pictures didn't really capture them well, so I have none to post. There are several places along my drive home in the afternoon that I will check out on Tuesday. I'm not very impressed so far though...

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1982 Mercedes-Benz 300CD
1982 Mercedes-Benz 240D - stick

Hmmm...shucks...
In a relative scale, did you see a 10%, 30%, 50% improvement?

Is this type of problem covered by insurance?

I'll answer your % question after I drive it a bit. Hard to tell just sitting in it. Nearly all insurance companies will replace windshields due to pitting. The ones that won't will surely replace it if somehow you find that someone has thrown a brick through it

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1982 Mercedes-Benz 300CD
1982 Mercedes-Benz 240D - stick

Gotta watch them bricks. I had the same exact problem with the 123. All of a sudden there was a brick right thru the center of it. Insurance company had a hard time declining to pay on that.

Well I have had several occasions to drive straight into the sun since using these products. There is a noticable difference. While the appearance of the pitting really didn't change much, the amount of light they diffuse has drastically changed to close to zero. There is a huge difference driving into the sun. I would recommend this product based on my experience.

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1982 Mercedes-Benz 300CD
1982 Mercedes-Benz 240D - stick

gotta say, until I purchased my wagon ('98), I have never had this "pitted" problem on any other vehicle I have owned or driven.

After doing some research, I recently purchased Clearview Glass Polish Eckler's Home Page and tried it last weekend.

The results were mixed. Improvement? yes. Pitting go away? no. I am gonna try repeated applications this weekend to see if I can get further improvement.

Anyone try this stuff yet? I've got minor pits too, and thought about trying some....looks theoretically interesting, but could get expensive on a windshield.
http://www.asseenontv.com/prod-pages/liquid_lense.html

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1986 560SL
2002 Toyota Camry
1993 Lexus

bjcsc,

Glare due to pitting is caused primarily by light refraction and/or reflection in the voids created by the little pits which act like small prisms. The medium through which light travels, the incidence and exit angles as well as the geometry of the medium (pit) influence how much refraction and/or reflection is observed. I wonder how much of the reduced glare you’ve noticed is a result of altering the internal pit material and geometry as a result of filling them or at least coating them with the product you used. I believe that overtime you will gradually notice more glare as the material washes out of the pits. How long that takes is dependent upon the bond between the material and the pit surfaces. Just a theory but would be interesting to monitor the long term effect.

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Riadh
'89 560SL Rauchsilber
And what is good, Phaedrus, and what is not good -- Need we ask anyone to tell us these things?

Brewtoo:

Where did you have your windshields replaced? $165 seems like a great deal. What part of the country are you in?

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Bob Johnston
03 E55
Comand/Nav/Bluetooth/Ipod added
Black/black
(Oh man, this car is sooooo fast.)

What are we actually arguing???

Replacing of the windshield is one of the few car repairs which results in as-new condition.

Costs are next to nothing, say $ 200 for a new windshield fitted. How many hours of polishing are you willing to do for this.

Result is perfectly safe vehicle from the point of visibility. Buy a new set of wiper blades and you are done.

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S320L -97

markku:
You're missing the point. The point is not at all the money, at least for me, it's keeping my original windshield. Not to mention, even if I were to get some BS $200 windshield to replace it or spend significantly more $ and replace it with what's there (sekurit), I will probably end up with the same problem in 2 years with the exception of having lost the original shield, and / or being stuck with some BS shield. I'm just not convinced replacing the windshield is a significantly better solution than simply addressing the problem itself.

jammer: I am aware of the facts you state and you pretty much rewrote the ad for the products I used. It will last for ~ 4 months (according to them) and based on what I used I would say I'll get 5 or 6 more apps from the kit. I know it's not a permanent solution for the windshield, but neither is wax for the paint. I'm happy with the results and it is my solution anyway.

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1982 Mercedes-Benz 300CD
1982 Mercedes-Benz 240D - stick