Cabrio rear window stubborn haze

[Justin B]

My rear window is hazy, but not TERRIBLE, however it doesn't seem like any plastic polish I've used works to remove the vast majority of haze. I've used PlastX as well as Novus 3 (the most abrasive of the three), until my arms felt like they would fall off. On the inside, and the outside, and I can't get it any clearer. :down:

Here are a few pictures of my rear window...




In the first one you can see it's just not that clear. In the second I tried to take a picture of what appear to be sort of water-spot things. I presume water droplets must have sat on the rear window and the rest of the window baked around it by the sun. Maybe. The window appears SLIGHTLY clearer when it's raining out, but that's probably just me. In the third picture I managed to focus it close to the plastic itself to show better the spots and haze pattern.

It's hard to tell in the picture but I really cannot tell if it's all entirely on the outside of the window, some inside, or if it's deep enough it might as well be, or is just discolored all the way through. Which would explain why I couldn't make it look any different at all. It feels smooth on both sides.

Am I just not trying hard enough? Having a milky rear window is really just...shitty, and I can barely stand it. I even busted out my porter cable on 2 for about a couple minutes just to see if it would make any difference, but not a thing. Does anybody have any other suggestions?

[bimmerboy12]

Ha, your rear seats look identical to mine! Anyways, when I got my cabby about 7 years ago, it looked like that and I tried EVERYTHING to get it clear. Nothing worked. It is now SOLID YELLOW and I cannot see through it. I have shopped everywhere for a replacement, and found a place called emiata.com. This guy makes them to OEM spec. Luckily mine is a zipout, which is pretty rare, so I will take the $139 plunge and get a new one. Sorry that didn't really answer your question, but just wanted to share a little knowledge.
Brian

[Maluco]

wet sand it...

[E30 Cabrio]

Try some Maguires plastic polish and a buffer.

Also, there is some stuff that is sold on ebay from Germany for BMW rear plastic windows.

You can do a search or I can look when I get home later tonight.

[Justin B]

Meguiars plastic polish as in PlastX? Used some of that :) Also used the heaviest grit of Novus which is a really good plastic polish and I haven't gotten anywhere. I'll go nuts on it tomorrow or Friday with my buffer again and put some more elbow grease into it, but it really just looks stained, not like something on the outside that can be buffed off. May even try the wet sand with super fine paper, like what grit, 1500? I don't want it to make it any worse than it is by putting lots of new micro scratches in it

[mattdk318i]

meguiars worked wonders on mine, Of coarse i used a foam padded buffer at half speed. Which took alot of the work out and let it heat up a bit to remove more of the haze and scratches
try it on your tails too

[Ral]

bimmerboy- how was the quality of the zip-in window? I'm pretty sure mine has one, and I need to replace it desperately

[Justin B]

meguiars worked wonders on mine, Of coarse i used a foam padded buffer at half speed. Which took alot of the work out and let it heat up a bit to remove more of the haze and scratches
try it on your tails too

Yeah, I only used it originally on level two for like one minute because I wasnt sure if it would hurt it or not with the heat generated. Well, I'm slowly wearing a hole through the haze on the passenger side. I'll post a picture in a little bit but I'm going to make the use of all the light I can. Using my PC now on level 5, 6 is just crazy for a plastic window...very slow process though still. It feels like I'm trying to take that cosmoline crap off of my engine with a cotton ball.

[-Javier-]

i think that needs to be replace dude.

[Justin B]

You'd think so huh. I'm NOT replacing the top, and I can imagine how much of a complete bitch it would be to stitch in a new rear window. In one hour of work (yeah, a long time but I'd also spend probably the same amount of time putting in a new window and costs $)...check this out-

Obviously not done yet, and the border right next to the top fabric hasn't been dealt with quite as much, but it's definitely doable in a short afternoon.

A little bit of work after the glimmer of hope I saw in the corner-

From inside..

A little more...

This is what I stopped at. Look at that difference! Obviously you can't see out, there's flash, but that's some nasty white haze shit...and nice clear plastic, except for the pock marks on the outside that have filled up with polish. That should all come out with a wash anyway, so I'm not worried.

Further back-


The edges aren't moldy, that's plastic polish I got on the inside when I was thinking "WTF?". Just gotta dillute it with water and rinse it out I guess when I'm done.

In the pictures where you can see out though and its still kinda fuzzy but not milky, I think some of that will go away with the finer polish I have, but am not using yet for obvious reasons.

[NC325iC]

buffing compound on a terry cloth towel

[DarkWing6]

Justin,

Ben had the same problem with his cabby. We used a mini orbital and Griot's plastic polish. It got rid of most if not all of it. When you come up for the picnic this year we can fix that for ya! You are coming, right?

[Justin B]

Of course!

[bimmerboy12]

Navy, haven't bought one yet, but the guy has made hundreds and even puts a one year warrranty on them. Its much cheaper than buying an oem window, so i will give it a try. When I have I will post on here my findings.

Oh, and I guaruntee my window is worse than yours!!! I will throw a pic on here unless I become too ashamed

bimmerboy- how was the quality of the zip-in window? I'm pretty sure mine has one, and I need to replace it desperately

[Justin B]

Ah, throw a pic up here. A local buddy of mine told me that his (since then sold) 318ic had a really nasty rear window, part of it was yellow and it was all entirely darker than mine was and he said he got everything out except a crease, obviously, with the three step Novus product. #1 is spray on, and #2 and #3 are little bottles with spouts, the higher number, the coarser it is. I bought mine at TAP plastics. I'm considering trying my fine Poor Boy polishing compound on it to see if I can get it worked out any faster, because at this rate it's eating up a lot of plastic polish.

As far as cleaning it up at Griot's, I'm sure even if I get it all out before then, some will be back by then to get rid of. Every time the top is down it gets a little fuzzier, especially right where it folds. I think I need to find a sheet of felt to fold with the window so it doesn't rub on itself.