How do you polish or buff odd shapes, corners, etc?

[vollychief]

When you are using a polisher or buffer, how do you get into the corners, odd spaces or around emblems that a round pad won’t fit? 

 

Some members on the fire department will be working on one of our engines to get it parade ready for a July 4^th parade.  I was thinking of polishing the windshield and I’m trying to get it in my mind how others get the corners polished.  We have very hard water and the windows have a lot of water spots on them.  

 

Thanks for your help!

Edited July 2, 2018 by vollychief

[mc2hill]

Usually with smaller pads, or in a very tight spot by hand.  The Rupes iBrid works great for small spots as it has 1" & 2" pads.  Similar tools are Dremel-type tools, and Dremel-like tool that is powered by an extension on a rotary polisher.  There are also small head pneumatic polishers, but most of us don't have a powerful enough air compressor to run those.

[shane@detailedreflections]

@mc2hill has some good advice there. We use a variety of polishers to get into different areas. 

 

I will add that when polishing glass, be prepared for it to take a long time. Glass is very hard and polishing is slow and tedious. They make special pads/polish specifically for the purpose of glass. I would suggest using them. 

[Firebuff17]

I have cleaned a windshield that was heavily damaged with water spots by hand. I did not have access to small pads; or large pads designed for glass, and did not have any glass polish. From what I have read and researched it usually requires a more aggressive compound specifically designed for glass. 

I tested a small spot first in an area that you wouldn’t really see.  I used liquid Bar Keepers Friend with a micro fiber cloth. Some tough spots needed extra power so I used 0000 steel wool pad, glass cleaner as a lubricant, and polished very lightly.  

@Shane@detailedreflections is 100% correct in saying it is slow and tedious. Took me several hours to do a truck windshield. And my arms/shoulders were killing me by the time I was done. 

Edited July 2, 2018 by Firebuff17
Don’t know why some text is larger than the rest.

[ZMAN024]

I'll agree that polishing glass to remove water spots and wiper blade patterns is a long tedious job.  I spent several hours working on my son's Jeep windshield a few weeks ago.  I used the SK Mini with the 4" MF Cutting Pad and a product from another company specifically designed for polishing glass. The small pad fit into the corners fairly well.  Unfortunately, however, I had to do a few areas I couldn't get with the SK by hand.  It came out great, but it took 4 or 5 passes on most of the areas to get it to my satisfaction.  All in, I spent close to 2-1/2 hours polishing and then sealing with Adams Glass Sealant. 

[RayS]

Given that this is a Parade Firetruck, is it a modern truck or a classic?  The windshield material can be different if it came from the 50's or earlier.  Some of the old Firetrucks were the first to use a safer type glass, sometimes custom made and some even had a film over them.  Definitely test any actions on a small area that is as hidden as possible, since replacements for these old windshields are almost impossible to find. 

 

Years ago, I had the pleasure of working with a 1951 Firetruck that was kept for parades and it was fun working on it, but it had some special challenges also.

The most difficult thing to polish was the Light and Siren, it was a one piece unit attached to the fender.  It had 50 years of abuse when I got my hands on it and it took forever to get clean, shiny and working, but the kids sure did love it when it was done.   This is the type of truck, that I had the pleasure of working on - not the actual truck itself:  http://www.classiccarstudio.com/inventory/1492-1951-Chevrolet-3800-Firetruck-Pickup-Truck/

[vollychief]

13 hours ago, RayS said:

Given that this is a Parade Firetruck, is it a modern truck or a classic?  The windshield material can be different if it came from the 50's or earlier.  Some of the old Firetrucks were the first to use a safer type glass, sometimes custom made and some even had a film over them.  Definitely test any actions on a small area that is as hidden as possible, since replacements for these old windshields are almost impossible to find. 

 

Years ago, I had the pleasure of working with a 1951 Firetruck that was kept for parades and it was fun working on it, but it had some special challenges also.

The most difficult thing to polish was the Light and Siren, it was a one piece unit attached to the fender.  It had 50 years of abuse when I got my hands on it and it took forever to get clean, shiny and working, but the kids sure did love it when it was done.   This is the type of truck, that I had the pleasure of working on - not the actual truck itself:  http://www.classiccarstudio.com/inventory/1492-1951-Chevrolet-3800-Firetruck-Pickup-Truck/

It is one of our front line engines.  All of our trucks haven't been cared for like they need to be.  They get washed when dirty, but that's about it.  No spit and polish.  With some of the current members, they are starting to show more ownership and pride in the department.  What better way to show that than to spend 5 plus hours on one of the engines.  It looks sharp and you can tell they spent a lot of time on it. (plus it is good PR, and I will take all we can get!)  They didn't get to the diamond plate though. 

I guess I should have been more specific.  I'm doing the windows to get the hard waters stains off.  I don't want to attempt to do a correction/polish.  I'm going to start with vinegar and move to claying the windows before using a buffer on it.  

 

 

[vollychief]

I appreciate all of the help and advice!  Thank you!!!

 

 

If vinegar and claying the windshield doesn't work, I'm guessing it would be a bad idea to use Adam's Finishing Polish? 

Edited July 3, 2018 by vollychief

[SlammedRT]

35 minutes ago, vollychief said:

I appreciate all of the help and advice!  Thank you!!!

 

 

If vinegar and claying the windshield doesn't work, I'm guessing it would be a bad idea to use Adam's Finishing Polish? 

 

We use to use this. It works very well. This is just one example. Plenty out there using powder and felt pad. If necessary and not just for one parade it is well worth the money.

 

https://www.eastwood.com/pro-glass-polishing-kit.html