For those Cabriolet owners with older plastic windows that are clouded, stained or scratched, I have a recommendation for some simple, inexpensive hope-in-a-bottle. Having read all the posts I could find here on RennTech, and then followed up by reading about the various products on the manufacturer or distributor web sites, which included products with three steps, products that only came in entire roof refurb kits, and products that cost too much, I moved on to a broader market research of vinyl window cleaners. The boating and camper industries use these sorts of polishes or cleaners far more than we Porsche owners, so Marine and Camper sites have lots of product information and formulations too.
For me the outcome was this: Vinyl top cleaners are simply a protectant lotion of some sort, with a very mild abrasive. So many of them might be quite good. In the end I settled on trying a Meguiar's product - car specific, with a solid reputation for good, affordable detailing products. On a whim, not wanting to wait for shipping, I called my local NAPA shop. They had Meguiar's PlastX cleaner/polish in stock. Price, $6.49 for a 10 oz bottle. This is a multi-use product that claims useability for covertible windows, headlights, plexiglass surfaces, and, yes, even scratched CD surfaces!? http://www.meguiarsd...tail/MEG+G12310
The rear window on my 2002 Boxster S was not just clouded lightly, it also had vague shadows of paint residue on the outside (like the white paint car dealers use to paint prices on windows or white shoe polish used for a Just Married announcement?), and grundge on the inside near the corners (looked almost like someone had taped something on the vinyl and left the tape residue to decay. The window wasn't horrible, but it wasn't pretty either, while the rest of my low mileage Lapis Lazuli vehicle fairly gleamed. So the less-than perfect window was an irritant I had gotten tired of looking at.
I wasn't expecting miracles from my $6.49 bottle of Meguiar's PlastX, but that's just about what I got. The polishing of the rear window exterior had instant effect. A moistened mini-towel (try a rinsed, damp, baby wipe for this) and some elbow grease had the first layer of film off in a jiffy. The second layer of grundge, the white paint residue, took some extra effort, but to my surprise this came off too. ALL of it! Then I set to work on nicks and on the folded top, driving vibration scuffs. These too polished out!
What was even more surprising, and satisfying was that rather than smearing or caking, the PlastX product seemed to absorb into the vinyl, much the way good skin lotions restore chapped hands in the winter. The inside of the window had some especially tough residues which, given the success on the exterior, I was now determined to remove completely. The entire job took about 1:20, and I did drip sweat from my forehead. I recommend pushing the seats all the way forward, and mounting the hump (so to speak) to get at the rear interior of the window effectively.
The results are nothing less that stunning. I used to wish I had a glass window, circa 2003 on, but now I'm so thrilled with the plastic that I'm reveling in its larger size. The thing shines enough to reflect the garage lights from above!
An added bonus - I was able to use the PlastX to polish the plexiglass rear windstopper which had a few scratches in it. Many of these came out. What's next, my CD collection?
PlastX is also used as a finishing polish for refurbishing clouded plastic headlamp lenses, a task for which Maguiar's has a number of how to videos on their web site.
But try PlastX on your Cabriolet vinyl window! For $6.49 from my NAPA shop, I can't recommend this fix enough.
- 2seatcollector