If the glass has a witness mark (light scratch) from the wiper, does this warrant a deduction? I would expect it might, but thought I'd ask. Thanks
Might try to polish it out. If you can't get rid of it you might be able to minimize it. Take it to a pro or practice on another car first. Gotta be some YouTube clips on windshield polishing.
I had a wiper mark professionally polished out-- do not see it and no distortion. I found a high end restoration shop which would call a professional any time they needed to polish out marks or light scratches. I would call a shop near you which restores high end cars.
I tried two guys who do this type of work, and they just look at the car and say, "Pass". O-heat it and it cracks. Cause distortion, and that's not good. Changing the glass is Fun-fun-fun. I'm starting to like the scratch - not! I was thinking of trying 1000 or 1200 grit wet or dry (used wet), then try and polish. Just the thought of this makes me cringe. How we love them so!!! I might have new glass on my "To-Do" list.
I polished scratches out using cerium oxide and pads using a drill but next time I'll buy a proper polishing machine, it's very time consuming and can be awkward to do if the glass is still installed as you need to apply pressure. Deep scratches are problematic, need to fill them. I had very deep pits on a 512 driving light I can't get out and ended up replacing it. +1 on youtube, helpful tips there...
Full disclosure: One part of my vintage restoration business is production of rare, one-off and/or obsolete application windshields and other specialty glass for vintage cars. Just offering advise here based on 30+ years of experiences with these types of issues. Yes, perhaps the smartest and easiest way to save yourself time, money and not to mention aggrevation is to just replace (or have it replaced ?) the windshield with new. Basic "rule of thumb" usually is that if the scratch can be felt when pulling your fingernail across it, it's too deep to get it meaningfully or successfully polished out. Not only it's more time consuming than most people realize, but also more often than not results end up looking worse and more distractive than the prior scratch itself inevitably leading to replacement of the said piece of glass anyway. Think the distortion on the flat surface of the glass due to having to remove enough material around the scratch to get to the bottom level of it, not to mention having to get rid of all the sanding scratches created during the process to get to that level, etc.
why not try to repair it by windshield rock chip specialist? they fill in the chip/scratch. it's usually covered 100% by your car insurance. quick, easy, they come to your location. you can always replace the windshield later.
