I am trying to decide whether to repair or replace the windshield on my Cessna 180.

How horrible of a job is replacement? The acrylic surface is mediocre at best, though there is no discoloration, optical distortion or crazing. Does anyone know of facilities or personnel in Oregon, Washington or Idaho who can refinish the surface to near perfection?

Replace it. We have polished on old ones until tired and not made much progress.

It can be a pain in the ass, if someone used blind rivets instead of screws to install the lower strip. Also if there was a bunch of adhesive used the clean-up can be tedious. Make sure whoever does it trims it right. We pulled a perfect one out of our 206 that was too loose and rattled around and cracked. It also leaked like a sieve.

Get a Great Lakes aero plastic or LP aero --- NO c balley for me. Get the 1/4 inch much quieter .

Try to polish it with a power buffer and Mcguires mirror glaze, (the little blue bottle everyone uses to clean off bug splat) , if it doesn't look good in 5 minutes, give up and replace it.

There are several "good" polishes out there, but it's a fact--if you can't see progress in about 5 minutes over the worst parts, bite the bullet and replace it. The difference is phenomenal--you'll be shocked at what you've been missing!

Cary

We got our Cessna windshield from LP Aero Plastics, it came very well packaged and well protected - the fit was great. We went 1/4" as suggested above, I wouldn't want thinner it would be pretty flimsy.
Install takes time, certainly a two-man job.

I have a 180 windshield that you can have. I had it up on eBay for a while and got no bidders. It needs a good home. It is a Cessna windscreen and is in great shape. I am putting in a new one from Great Lakes for the restoration. PM me.

Greg-