Stubborn windshield - won't come clean
 

I've been trying to get the front window on my truck clean. I've tried almost everything:

Windex, ammonia, Simple green for glass, simple green. I've even resorted to engine degreaser and gasoline. Nothing takes off the streaks and marks on the window. I can still see the remnants of the grease pencil that was on the window with the stock number from when I bought the truck in December.

It is most definately on the outside, not the inside of the window. Someone asked me if it could be inside the window...I don't know how THAT could happen, but at this point I'm open to any options / suggestions. When pointing into the sun the haze from the sunlight makes for a very dangerous situation.

Steve
'00 Lariat
'97 Mystique
'94 Mustang

Try using some windex with a razor blade.

Spray the window with windex, place the razor blade in the window at a angle less than 45 degrees. move forward and back. Should take it off no issue and will not scratch the window. Just dont try to cut the window with the blade.

I always get a haze from Windex. Use Stoners Glass Cleaner.

Stoners Glass Cleaner is a great product! You can buy it at most cart parts stores for around $6 or $7.

Any glass cleaner and newspaper!

There is one other thing it could be, RainX..... or some thing like it.....it will put a coating on the windshield and will look like rainbowed streaks when the coating gets thin, the problem is its a penetrating coating and I know of nothing that will remove it short of a new windshield.... ( 24 years in the glass industry ) so when I say nothing, I mean nothing..

If this is the case recoat the windshield with RainX every couple of months, when a rock its it, get a new W/S, lesson learned, NEVER put coating on glass unless you plan to use it regularly for the useful life of that lite of glass

Duragloss Nu-Glass

If that stuff doesn't cut it, nothing will. It makes my glass look like mirrors.

Some of the haze you see could actually be coming from the inside. The plasticizers in your interior components evaporate over time and collect on your glass. I have to clean the inside of my windshield at least once a month because of it (my truck stays in the garage and is only driven on the weekends but the inside glass still gets hazy).

I clay-bar my (exterior) glass about every other time I wash. It does a wonderful job. And I will agree, the Stoner glass cleaner works very well. I even use it on my house windows.

I've always had great luck using nothing more than very hot water, and a light squirt of Dawn dishwashing liquid -- just enough to make the water suds up a little bit!

Another tip -- make sure the towels you are using have not had any fabric softener added to them when they were washed! I have found that Downy and other products of that type cause my towels to absorb moisture poorly and leave streaks on windows. I have specific towels that are used only for my vehicles, and they get washed with Tide laundry detergent and nothing more!

:thumbsup:

X2

Irritates the heck out of me to make a swipe with one of my drying towels only to see that my wife has run them through with fabric softener. They don't absorb worth a hoot when they have had fabric softener used on them.

Bon-Ami mild abrasive cleaner will remove almost anything from your windshield.
Supermarkets carry it in a can similiar to Comet (but don't use that).

I was going to suggest the same thing but you beat me to it. :thumbsup:
My dad showed me that tip over 25 years ago and I still use Bon-Ami on mine to this day!
BTW,a clay bar works great too,as Rustyzipper posted. :thumbsup:

I use either Stoners, or vinegar water diluted 8:1 with newspaper, will clean glass with no streaks at all, you'll swear it not even there. If the glass has light scratches I've had good luck buffing it out with toothepaste!

http://sanitarymaintenance.com/catal...1a2817b66fcc7d

If you can find it you might want to try A-BEN-A-QUI cleaner. Its awesome stuff, non-toxic and safe for most non-porus surfaces. We sell it at my office as a cleaner for whiteboards and baked enamel paint surfaces. It will take permanent marker that is months old off of whiteboards. One of our guys here who spends a good deal of time on gravel roads uses it periodically to help take light pitting out of the glass. Nice stuf and it has a million uses around the house.

Break out the garden hose and as far fetched as it may sound. Get yourself a large bottle of good old "Coca-Cola" and pour it over the windshield. Let it set a minute or two then flush it off with plenty of water...I first saw this done when I was a very much younger man working in an old fashioned "Filling Station". Had a gentleman pull in one night with a windshield that you could hardly see out of from all the grit and grime from a trip on the back roads of Ohio and West Virginia that had collected all the oil off of the gravel and dirt country roads. I started to clean it for him as we did back then and he stopped me, asked where the Coke machine was, bought a bottle and did what I previously mentioned. To my amazement the glass was spotless..Imagine what that stuff does to the stomaches of those who drink it...TRY IT, it works....