Imperfections in window glass & decal problems

[N~8~Ball]

Hello all Im having trouble figuring out how to remove the imperfections in the window glass on a couple of my future builds with out damaging it further. The two projects are amt's 1/16 1955 Bel air sedan and nomad. I bought the kits through eBay and they are vintage factory sealed, Therefore when the kit was tightly packaged at amt a couple of the tires and the little piece if wire supplied for the ignition system came in contact with the windshield and side glass. Time and pressure has showed that rubber and plastic don't coexist well together. It looks like the rubber tires and ignition wire marred the glass leaving and imprint of the tire tread/side walls and the outline of the ignition wire. What is the safest method or procedure to remove these markings? I feel there will be some sanding involved. What product can I use to make the glass crystal clear again after the sanding? Im hard Pressed to find new glass for this model. I'm feel I can repair this glass and I really don't want to have to get new pieces vac u formed. The other issue Im having is with the same kit is the decals are stuck to the instruction sheet. If I try to separate them, one or the other will get damaged. What is a sure fire way to separate the two with little or no damage to the decals? I will greatly appreciate any help with the problems I'm having. I was really bummed out when I opened the kit.. and found it like this. I don't see a lot of the kits around anymore either so I have to make good on what I have. Thanks for looking and see you at work bench. Nate

[E St. Kruiser50]

Hey Nate

I've had to redo several pieces of kit glass in the past. Use as fine a sandpaper as you can to start with, as whatever you use will leave scratch marks that will have be removed.

I usually end up with the last grit of sandpaper being 2000.

After that I do the polishing with Novus Plastic Polish #2. You can also use the #1 and 3, if your especially picky, or want to experiment a bit. Sometimes I use all three.

Alway's support the glass the best you can while polishing, as clear styrene can sometimes be pretty brittle and fragile.

Hope this helps - dave

[FujimiLover]

Just a thought about the window. If there is a small crack in it, won't gap-filling CA-glue work? It's very thin stuff and can be a mess if not carefull, but I think it's designed for filing in gaps and cracks. You could try that to fix the crack itselfe and then polish it out.

[Aaronw]

CA glue fogs clear plastic.

If you don't already use Future give it a try after the sanding and polishing. Future does a great job filling small scratches and imperfections, it protects the clear parts and makes them appear thinner because it makes them more clear. I've saved some pretty bad clear parts in limited run kits with a simple dip in Future.

[Zoom Zoom]

1/16 scale is a perfect opportunity to make your glass from sheet butyrate (styrene tends to fog in tighter corners). Well-stocked hobby shops should carry it, .040"-.060" would be ideal, .020" might be okay. Remember, Juha uses it on nearly every kit he does, and he's working 1/25 scale. You can make some easy templates from the current glass. It couldn't hurt to try, the glass will end up a lot more in-scale and clear. It's not necessary to vac-form the glass. Otherwise you will have to sand out the imperfections on the current glass, and carefully polish the glass out w/micromesh sheets and compound, and very likely a final dip in Future to give it supreme gloss.

You may even have some scrap sheets of clear lying around that were used for packaging. Even if styrene it might work, or at least you can practice with it.