Well its that time of the year. The sprinklers are on and washing the Malibu every 2 days with a nice bath of hard ass water. Now my windows have impossible to remove spots on them as well as the paint but not as bad as the windows. Does anyone have a safe way to remove them? Thanks.
On the glass just use a straight edge razor blade. Super easy and it can't scratch the glass. It is what tinters use to get crap off the glass before they tint too, and what dealers use to remove window stickers.
As far as what? I assume the inside of the windows is water spot free LOL?
A good tinter will use alcohol and a blade to get the windows nice and clean before they start. Just be aware that dirt and spots on the outside are more noticeable once you have tint. So you will wanna keep them extra clean.
Try the clay bar on the windows first, I've had bad experiences with razor blades on glass. Even though it looks like they don't scratch the glass, somehow they do. You can see all the scratches with the glare of the sun.
If you use a straight edge, that is new it can't scratch the glass if you use it right. One of my best friends has been tinting for 15 years, and works at a Lexus dealer now, and that is all he uses.
Use a clay bar on the paint or windows... and Permatex makes an auto glass stripper thats on Amazon for like $8 that is potent but works. Then Aquapel the windows and wax the paint!
Clay bar is the way to go before a good coat of polish, and then wax. IMO
white distilled vinegar works great. Use it straight out of the bottle for really hard spots and after there removed pour a little in when you wash the car, it smells but it removes water spots.
I use Adams products and swirl and haze remover takes them off paint and glass. I use it with the porter cable polisher and don't know if it will work by hand.
The finest grade steel wool (#0000) will also work on windows and not scratch it. just make sure you do it while it's wet and don't put too much pressure.
You can buy hard water spot remover from a boat shop. It's expensive. Vinegar is what we have always used. Really hard spots may take extra work but...it's a Ph thing. Once you have the spots cleared up....WAX, WAX, WAX!
Vinegar is a light deluted acid and reacts (neutralizes) the calcium deposts. I also used it when I detailed cars years ago. Another trick is to spray distilled water over the car after washing and it will help prevent the spots if you miss wiping the car down after washing.
I use a garden sprayer to spray down the car with a gallon of distilled water... It's an extra 88 cents a wash but works well... and alot of times it only takes half a gallon or so if the car has had a few minutes to start to drip dry as you cleaned out your buckets, etc...
So you guys that use vinegar, you just use it for your final spray down of the car after you're done washing it? I'm looking for an easier way then having to claybar the whole car (even though I'll do that sooner or later).
I waxed with NXT 2.0 and a random orbital buffer a month ago, and it didn't get the water spots off...I was hoping it would, but didn't really do much at all.
White vinegar and very fine steel wool. Rub lightly until you don't see or feel the water spots anymore. You can feel them because they are the mineral deposits from hard water after the water evaporates. In extreme cases it'll eat into the glass and cause pitting. Those are much harder to remove and may end up requiring glass replacement. Check with a window, glass, or tint company to see if they can give you any suggestions.
DONT USE STEEL WOOL, it scratches the glass, you may not see it while your doing it, but in the right sunlight it looks like you took a buffer to your windows with sand. It will scratch them. The best thing i've found so far is a product made by duragloss, which is a water / hard spot remover. its sold at carquest and it applied by hand or machine. just put some on a rag and start rubbing. Wash your windows first of course. And wash again when done and apply 2 coats of rain-x.
what I do is wash the car under the shade then air dry it by leaf blower to minimize hard spots then dry it with chamois leather, then wiping the glass again with (invisible glass) wipes, it works for me.
White cars are easy though, my old one hid everything. I mean it was filthy but looked clean. When it was clean you could hardly tell the difference. Then again I did have the tri coat so it was a off-white.
I probably won't use steel wool...I'll just try 100% vinegar on a rag after the car is washed and dried. I have some spots on my paint that won't come off either...will that Duragloss product work on paint as well?
Steel wool #0000 will not scratch your glass. ... Other grades of steel wool might but I have been using #0000 steel wool for years on many vehicles. You can also use it to remove scratches in windows over time.
Would never use steel wool on paint that's a very bad idea
Hard water on glass? No problem here.....but! Hard water spots on paint, that is another story. I have heard 1/2 Vinegar and 1/2 water mixed will do the job. Haven't done it yet. Since my current ride is the Ford Focus with (I think?) metallic paint, it might hide those rascally hard water spots!
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