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MG Midget and Sprite Technical - Windscreen oops

Hi all,

Being an inexperienced welder 3 years ago I didn't cover my windscreen while welding in the seat and footwell areas. I now have 'black bits' stuck to the inside of the screen. These are not in the way when driving however make the cleaning of the inside of the windscreen 'difficult'.

Anyone removed such crud? and if so how? and yes I now know I am a silly billy - again!

I used gassless by the way from Machine Mart.

And for those of you following the midget trials and tribulations of Dave:
The blast down the A1 yesterday was 65 miles at above 55 and mainly (about 75%) at 70. The diff and gearbox now sound lovely and appart from the changes in tick over speed at the end of a run its all going very well. (I do tend to drive to the speed limits ;-) so its also a great thing to be happening). I have identified breather pipes etc. that need replacement so will be on this as soon as correct diameter pipe located in the week.
I must admit its the first car I have had that needed a good thrapeing to sort it out. (Please move, Running In) Ha Haa.
Dave Squire (1500)

Dave,
you're not really running the engine in (hopefully?) you are running the car and building it up to its full running potential

I used ordinary hose pipe for breather instead of the expensive vacuum pipe I was offered, been on there must be over 3 years with no problems

the higher tickover could be because of previously mentioned reasons, get a load more miles on then you might need to run through you checks and adjustments again

as for the windscreen I think you've probably had it, our house front window had the same when we moved in as the previous chap had built a stock car on the front garden, the neighbours must have loved that
Nigel Atkins

I have heard of this problem before and wondered would a clay bar kit have the stickyness to remove the muck?

Or my neighbour (with a 20-ish year old Honda Integra Type R) polished his windscreen with T-cut or similar to remove some of the 'speckledy-ness' of his old windscreen. Although this is a slightly different situation.

Malcolm
Malcolm Le Chevalier

From past personal experience you have arrived and are down the creek while your paddle is up the creek. Those little black spots have burned themselves into the glass. It is extremely doubtful that you can ever remove them without showing pits remaining.
DARNOC31

Sliding the cutting edge of a Stanley blade will sometimes remove the worst of the black specks. They are actually small lumps of weld - probably now rusted - fused into the surface of the glass. The blade should remove them but a small pit will remain in the glass which you won't ever get rid of.

I did much the same on mine many years ago. I used a glass cutting paste and several hours of my time to re-polish the surface, but the effect was to create strange lens effect distortions in the view through the screen! In the end I just replaced with a new piece of glass which absolutely transformed visibility. Especially at night, in the wet, when I finally appreciated just how much light scatter 40 year old glass creates!
Guy Weller

Much as I expected then; totally ****ed.

It will be a scrape / polish job just to stop the sharp bits catching on a cleaning rag until I can change the screen.

Not something I will make the same mistake with again.

Thanks all.
Dave Squire (1500)

Been there when I first started welding mine ! Most of the glass has since been changed but my Quarter lights still have some remaining :-(
Dean Smith ('73 RWA)

I agree, the welding bits will have melted into the glass. We had this happen to a house window when a builder cut a steel beam with a grinder without noticing that the sparks were flying up our window. His insurance had to pay for a new double glazed window. Sorry.
Mike Howlett

This thread was discussed between 03/03/2013 and 06/03/2013

MG Midget and Sprite Technical index

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