With no windscreen wiper and having had to put up with some fairly nasty sea conditions this year (water over the front of the boat) the windscreen on the Merry Fisher was definitely looking a little worse for wear. The real problem was when the sun hit it the number of minor scratches made it almost impossible to see clearly and so it had got to the stage where it was either fix or replace. There’s just too many crab pots around here to be running around half blind! Having priced up a replacement I decided to give the Starbrite Clear Plastic system a go first, this is how I got on.
First of all the Starbrite system actually comes in 2 parts. The first (Starbrite Plastic Scratch Remover/Restorer) is a reasonably thick liquid which goes on very easily via a damp cloth. The idea of this step is to remove the hazing effect of small scratches that I guess we are all familiar with? I’ve got to admit I was a bit sceptical, I’ll also admit I was more than impressed with the results. One application was all it took and the difference between before and after was chalk and cheese as you can see in the picture below.
The process is very simple, apply using 1 cloth, leave for a couple of minutes then wipe off using a clean dry cloth. You should notice the improvement instantly. Just to clarify this looks completely different to just cleaning your windows with soap and water.
The second part of the Starbrite Clear Plastic System is a polish (Starbrite Clear Plastic Polish). Again application is simple, put on with 1 cloth, remove with another. The idea here is to buff up your clear plastic and to protect it from further scratches. I did mine 3 months ago and I’ve got to say that I haven’t noticed any real scratching since doing it even with some nasty seas.
Just to finish the job properly I did both the inside and outside of all the sides of my Merry Fisher 580, doing this used about a third of the standard 8 ounce bottles. As I’ve said the results were fantastic, the only downside being that by removing a lot of the hazing any deeper scratches tend to stand out more! This isn’t a fault with the product, if you have really deep scratches then you’ll need something else to clear them up (let me know if you find anything because I’m still looking?) Either way compared to replacement windows you can’t go wrong at this sort of price, the Starbrite system does make a real difference. Here are some more pictures where you should be able to see the obvious difference between before and after treatment.
