Clean Glass

7173Mustangs.com

Help Support 7173Mustangs.com:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

73mach1whiskey

Active member
Joined
Aug 18, 2013
Messages
33
Reaction score
0
Location
United States
My Car
1973 Mach1 Ram Air 351C
I have been trying to get water spots off of my glass and have had no luck. Maybe its not possible after 40 years. The steel wool method seemed golden until i tried it and realized it made no difference at all. Anyone out there have any luck restoring/cleaning windows on their mustang? To be fair to the steel wool I have only tried the 0000, maybe i need something stronger but i am afraid of scratching.

 
Try vinegar and water 50/50 mix, or try Crest tooth paste (seriously, it works).

 
Hi Whiskey,

Water spotting or marking is mostly a problem of "Hard" water which contains minerals, salts, calcium,and lime residues that have baked, and etched into the glass.

There are professional glass cleaning and scratch removal companies out there that would remedy your problem. Being in the auto spraypainting game, i have used 2 Pak cutting compound and a buffing/polishing machine in conjunction with a foam or lambswool buff pad and have achieved excellent results in removing the staining. You can use the compound without a buff, but obviously, it will take a lot of elbow grease and effort to get the desired results.Your glass will never be scratched or damaged when using these 2 pak cutting compound products.

A word of caution when using steel wool of any description.(I never use it at all). The problem is that when you use steel wool for whatever reason around any paintwork, the wool sheds thousands of very tiny sized fibres as you go about using it. It is absolutely imperitive to totally remove all the residue fibres from surrounding paintwork areas. If you don't, the fibres will rust. If rusted fibres are left on the paint surface, they etch or literally weld themselves onto the paint surface, and are very, very hard to remove from that painted surface. So much so, that in some cases, you are forced to refinish the panel that has been affected. I've run into that problem several times over the years, and for that reason, won't use the stuff at all.

There are other types of polish/abrasive poducts out there that do just as good a job or if not better than the old steel wool.

Hope that helps,

Greg:)

 
Last edited by a moderator:
so far i tried the vinegar, toothpaste and those combined with steel wool. nothing. i will try the others as well but i think i'm stuck with what i have and that's years of neglect on the glass. i have not tried the buffing with wheel polish but did try buffing with compound several months back. i will try the wheel polish buffing soon. thanks for the input so far and anything more is welcome! Bon Ami is a good idea as well and will try that soon.

 
I agree with AustinVert, your glass is etched by the hard water. Because glass is so hard it takes a fair amount of work to polish it out. If you want to try it by hand have a tub of elbow grease handy.

 
I have tried everything, hand, machine...i have a ton of elbow grease but it's not touching it. i'll see if a professional shop will try. if they can clean a test area then i will pay them to do it. thanks everyone.

 
Old post but I'm wondering about what worked, if anything.

Tried the clay bar? I know it works wonders on removing other stuff.

 
Secret method, but I'll share

Mist the glass with water until it is just short of beading and running. Lightly sift baking soda onto the damp glass with a sifter or through a piece of screen, cover it all with a single layer of paper towels and mist lightly until the towels lay flat, leave it a half hour and then come back and use the towels to buff the glass.

Rinse thoroughly and dry with a clean cotton towel

 
I bought a '95 Honda Civic hatchback from a friend who'd just driven it... that's all (neglected, in other words), and it had water spots so bad, it affected outward visibility. I'm friends with a guy who owns car detailing shop locally, and he recommended a product he sells, but it's similar to this:

http://shop.advanceautoparts.com/p/eagle-one-etching-mag-cleaner-26-oz.-836604/7030000-P

It might be this: http://www.carbrite.com/products/Car-Brite-Select/Select-Acid-Wheel-Cleaner/

I too, had tried vinegar, toothpaste, steel wool, Mother's Mag & Wheel Polish (which is essentially same stuff in those headlight reconditioning kits), and got nowhere. The glass had severe hard water spots that nothing would touch. Mixed up the acid wheel cleaner, misted it on (not enough to run, though - it will work its magic on paint, too), waited a minute or so, wiped it all off - voila! Done.

You can see how brilliant the glass came out - I wish I'd gotten a pic of 'before.' This was 'after' cleaning the glass, obviously... but mostly right after getting the windows tinted and cleaning up the car.

glassafter.JPG


 
Back
Top