My car is a 1998 Chrysler Sebring Convertible. It has the original windshield, and about 160,000 miles on it. The windscreen is covered with tiny little chips / chinks from debris hitting it for the last 18 or so years.

Is there any good treatment or coating that can be applied that helps with these little speckles, or is the only remedy replacing the windshield with a new one?

I took this photo today on the way to work. I live west of work, so I get to stare at the sun on the way to work, and again on the way home.

Please forgive the mess on the left side. The rest of the windshield is clean on the inside. I have a little cloth-on-a-stick tool that i use on it.

You'll have to zoom in on the image to see it, but overall you can see how the sun is blown out.

enter image description here

  • The link isn't working for the pic. Also, you can post the pic directly into the thread, if you like. – Pᴀᴜʟsᴛᴇʀ2 Nov 11 '16 at 13:43
  • A while ago I had an Renault Espace's headlights polished. The lenses were heavily scratched/faded, but after polishing they looked just like new. I suppose some same sort of technique must be available for windhields. I've got a 40yo oldtimer with a windscreen much worse than yours, so i'm also intersted in this. – Bart Nov 11 '16 at 19:13

There's probably something somebody can do to restore the glass on a windshield to pristine condition, but the cost would be close to a new windshield, if not more. For example, when I bought my first car, I was nuts about having rock ships filled. At $10 a pop, I thought it was reasonable. I filled maybe 10 or 12 stone chips over the course of 2 or 3 years, and then all those filled chips spawned a crack that connected many of them and now I had a spiderweb for a windshield.

For a new windshield, you are paying for a new part and a little bit of labour for installation. Restoring a windshield will be a lot of labour, and you still have a 19-year-old windshield. Also keep in mind that a windshield is a safety thing in a crash, so shops may be limited in what they can do to repair windshields.

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