Help cleaning car windows...

slow_jazz

AK Subscriber
Subscriber
any suggestions for getting car windows crystal clean. i've tried everything i can find but still when the sun shines i see all these swirl marks.

things i've tried. windex, windex wipes, armour all glass wipes, ammonio free windex.... car auto glass spray....

nothing seems to help.
 
use windex, but instead of papertowel use newspaper, not colored paper, the black&white stuff. :thmbsp:
 
Try "Sparkle".The purple stuff in the clear bottle w/the gold label.

It's what we used @ the auto glass installer I worked at as a youngster.

Second the newsprint.
 
You have to go gradually from wet to dry. Start out with a damp paper towel, move to a dry one, then finish with newspaper. The ink fills in the little pits in the glass, apparently.
 
usually i dress up like a bum and go downtown and set up on my favorite corner and jump out when the car stops and spray my dollar general glass cleaner all over the windows and wipe away with my dirty rag until the the warning buzzer goes off for the blind people to stop croosing and then i grab windshield wiper and tell the people if i don't get five buck 's i'm ripping them off it usually works every time gotta change your corner every time you do it!!!! but it put my boy thru j.c.(junior college) :>)
 
To get the last residual grease/smear off of glass and get a scrupulously clean surface, you cannot beat wiping down with alcohol. 95% ethanol is probably best, good quality isopropanol should be good too. Diluted alcohol should work OK as well (use very good quality water, preferably distilled). In the olden days, we used this technique as the final step to clean glass pates that were used to cast polyacylamide gels for protein electrophoresis. If anyone doesn't know what that means, and REALLY wants to know, I can explain if you'd like :)

Newspaper is famous as a glass cleaner. It soaks up residual grease and oil when used dry. If you can, use virgin "newspaper". This still shows up as a packing material IME.
 
Also might wanna try one of those microfiber cloths to get all the streaks off after you get the glass fairly clean. Just wipe the windows down with the dry cloth, should take care of any residual smearing.

I don't actually use glass cleaner most of the time, just a little spray of water, some newspaper, then the microfiber cloth.
 
Want to get rid of the smears? Roll 'em down! The same situation frustrates the hell out of me too!! I apply the cleaner real lightly, (after the glass is clean), and sort of buff it with paper towels, you want to buff the light moisture off before it dries. Seems to work pretty good for me.

Good luck,

Ron
 
I've always had good results using sparkle and a rubber edged squeegee....

If I saw streaks, it ment that I hadn't gotten all the dirt off yet.. buy I never had to go over it more than twice even when it was really filthy.

Just my $0.00002 worth........
 
Single edge Razor blades + Windex. cover inside dash with towels. Spray windex freely on window to be cleaned, work from top down using razor sort of like squegee pushing blade edge forward but on angle so back edge is resting on finger tips as you push. try it on your side windows first to get the feel of it, do inside and out side like that. apply a bit of pressure so edge rides the glass. takes a bit but the result is what you are looking for. Method is used by many to clean before window tinting. I have done in past and still use.
 
Newspaper is the best with windex-type cleaner OR

at the gas station I use the a towel soaked with a little gas and use that on both sides of the windshield.
 
bolly said:
use windex, but instead of papertowel use newspaper, not colored paper, the black&white stuff. :thmbsp:
Newsprint is the magic ingredient. Worked one Summer for a detailer, we went through tons of the stuff. Clean clear windows.
 
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