as you might know, older swiss twikes are fitted with a plexi windscreen to save weight. (elsewhere in the EU, the glass manufacturer-lobby was successful in having legislation for cars include glass as the only material approved for windscreens…which adds an uncool 30kgs to european twikes and forces even the hyper-efficient VW XL1 to have a glass windscreen even though all side windows are poly carbonate!)

after my vandalism incident last year, and my subsequent purchase and custom fitting of the worlds’ last original twike plexi windscreen, i am obviously even more interested in keeping it in pristine condition!

however, normal usage, especially in switzerland with lots of salt and rain, sees the plexi hood getting scratched very quickly – just by using the wiper as designed! even though i don’t use the wiper a lot, my plexi was looking bad and was slowly posing a risk when driving at night.

scratched plexi
scratched plexi

with my former job, my car allowance contract addendum had an interesting clause: “must have vehicle washed professionally at least once a month”. which meant i had my plexi reconditioned twelve times a year. who wouldn’t like this? 🙂

for the last two years, however, i have no such luxury and must take care of this myself. after asking around, i settled on the stuff everybody – even dreifels – uses for this: an abrasive paste combined with heavy-duty industrial teflon wax.

the paste i've been using up until now
the paste i’ve been using up until now
combine with teflon wax for industrial use
combine with teflon wax for industrial use
*extremely* long-lasting wax
*extremely* long lasting wax

taking care of the windscreen with these products is a labour of love – it takes for ever, deeper scratches are even more work and overall i got the feeling that the plexi was somehow slightly clouded after every usage.

queue the music: research time!

after many a website and checking back with my mechanic, i found this professional car-aftermarket product from 3M’s “perfect-it” line: bought through interesting channels, it turned out to be the russian version of a product on sale everywhere: (it even says on the bottle “universal abrasive paste”)

russian 3m product
russian 3m product
perfect...it!
perfect…it!
the implement of choice?
the implement of choice?

with some more research, it turned out that the pad shown on the bottle was not the ideal one for my use-case. 3M, however, unsurprisingly, had the right pads on sale in the same product range.

combine with these pads
combine with these pads

with everything ready, i just had to wait for a sunny day to try it out…

lets see what the new stuff is worth...
lets see what the new stuff is worth…

with just a few drops of this stuff on the plexi windscreen, i start applying the paste overall in a circular motion. according to the instructions, i just have to continue for until the paste turns hard, take a fresh pad and continue until the paste is no longer visible.

it sounded suspiciously simple – but it was! with just 10 minutes work, my windscreen looks brand new and at the same time seems to have some kind of water repellent layer. look for yourself!

VODOO! super clear plexi!
VODOO! super clear plexi!

definitely worth the investment and work!

One Reply to “plexi-vodoo!”

  1. Thanks for another interesting post!
    (and thanks for your response to my query in January)
    Simon B, England.

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