I use Plexus.
Works great.
FWIW, I recall reading stories of people using the traditional (car) Rain-X on GA planes and having to replace the whole window after it went dark.
Pledge!
Plexus and A-Glaze
H2O !
We are doing some maintenance so a/c is down. The canopy is in reasonable condition as we clean before and after every flight, hangared since 3 years ago and with a cover. There are a few paint dab marks in the rear quarter panel which are no factor in flight as none of us can contort to that angle, but it bugs me somewhat. I also have a thing about the canopy being as clear as possible, a legacy of flying C152 school a/c which were somewhat long in the tooth and if I own or part own something, I want to take care of it if I can.
Is there anything which can be done by ourselves, cost effectively to :
Day to day, we use plexus generally with a microfibre.
Acrylic (Perspex, Plexiglass etc) as used on most aircraft canopies can generally be polished back from a degraded condition, including dramatic stuff like sanding out major scratches and polishing from there. You can’t remove everything, but can remove a lot with enough to work. Conversely, polycarbonate (Lexan etc) may be strong and impact resistant but it’s seeminigly impossible to remove flaws and polish back to an acceptable finish.
Age-related internal cracking aside – just polish it as Silvaire mentioned.
With the right prduct that should work with all materials (incl polycarbonate – own experience from boating).
As a form of protection, you can treat it with expensive specialty stuff or simply use some high quality wax product from time to time.
That also makes it easier to remove the inevitable layer of flies more easily…
Google ‘micromesh restoration kit’
I’ve used this stuff very successfully on a couple of aircraft canopies.
It’ll do just what you’re asking.
P.
I sent my windscreens and windows off to a professional aircraft window polisher on the Turbo Commander and the results are spectacular. It’s not cheap, but it’s a lot cheaper than buying new windows. Think I spent about $2000 for the windscreens compared to buying new ones for $11K…
You can also do some or all of it yourself, if you prefer. Just make sure you read up or look online on how to do it, so you don’t make it worse.
First thing to do is take a NEW razor blade and see if it will take it off.
After that the micro mesh will work but you can actually, as Silvaire says, use wet&dry paper and it’s possible to get quite aggressive if you’ve got really deep scratches.
