Sticky stuff on my windshield?

I've noticed small small specs of sap or I don't know torn needle tips or whatever on my windshield, I can only see them when I am driving at night so it's hard to see if I have cleaned it or not when I wash my car during the day. I don't park under a tree at home, but it's windy sometimes so who knows.

 

Any thoughts?

Get Barkeepers friend (the powder stuff). Soak a microfiber cloth and cover it in the stuff. Scrub your windshield in a circular motion and do it hard. Rinse. It will look BRAND NEW.

Clay bar will take that stuff also. Just did that recently to my windshield and it worked like a charm.

my friend suggested fine grain steel wool? any thoughts?

Sap? Denatured Alcohol (HD, Lowes, HW Store). Personally, I would not use an abrasive.

I usually use goo gone for sticky stuff on my car

Clay bar will take that stuff also. Just did that recently to my windshield and it worked like a charm.

 

Griot's Garage has a clay bar supposedly formulated for cleaning windshield glass. Bought one but have not tried it yet (raining since the day it came off the UPS truck).

A special clay bar for glass? Waste of money if you ask me. I just used the Mother's clay bar after I was done claying the paint on my car.

my friend suggested fine grain steel wool? any thoughts?

 

I think your friend shouldn't be allowed near your car

I would try things in this order:

 

1) Automotive glass cleaner and elbow grease - i.e. Stoners. It's not going to do any damage to your glass or rubber components ... ever.

 

2) (I would probably just skip option two and move to three) Rubbing alcohol/denatured alcohol. These will not damage the glass, but can be nasty on the rubber bits (not so much with the rubbing alcohol, but will still dry it out). Either of these can also have ill effects on tint if you use it on the interior.

 

3) Claybar - Also no chance of damaging your glass or rubber trim. Added benefit - use on whole car and seal afterwards for protection to your whole car.

 

4) Barkeepers friend/polish - Barkeepers friend is just an abrasive. It's pretty fine so you aren't likely to do any damage. It's a quick way to cut through any gunk on the windshield, but the claybar should take care of that. Instead of barkeepers friend, I would use something for automotive glass like Autoglym windshield polish. This is really designed more for taking out the microscratches caused by your windshield wipers and will make your glass bead and sheet glass much better. Neither automotive glass polish or Barkeepers friend will remove pitting or chipping though. The only advantage of Barkeepers friend is that it's readily available off the shelf at your local grocery or department store.

 

5) Get a new windshield. If you have glass on your insurance, you might as well use it. It doesn't affect your rates, and you can probably get the glass company to agree that it is pitted/damaged enough to warrant replacement. But who knows, maybe even the glass company would offer to polish the windshield if it's in otherwise good shape to restore the finish.

 

And as for stainless steel - do not even get it near your glass. It will just scratch and haze your windshield and you'll need to replace it anyway.

You can use 00 grade steel wool on your glass no problem. Use a glass polish or just some cheap glass cleaner.

Go out and polish your windshield with some steel wool. I wanna see before and after pics.

Seriously people, please don't recommend steel wool. Maybe you've had success with the right product, but this is one of those areas where you just don't go recommeding something as vague as "fine grain steel wool" and let people interpret what it means.

 

I like to think that we have a detailing forum with a LOT of really good information and advice, but the steel wool thing is just too vague for someone to take it as good advice. I don't want to see anyone try something that causes any damage to their car because they used the wrong steel wool. I've seen windshields damaged by steel wool - not at all recommended.

 

But I agree with the Wiener. If you recommend it, post pics of your process.

I work at a car wash and detail shop and have used 00 grade steel wool on quite a lot of windows. I've never once seen it scratch.

The first time I used it was on my Legacy because I had hard water spots stained all over my windows. I tried every remedy I could find before I resorted to this, because I also was extremely skeptic about using steel wool on my windows. I simply applied it with some glass polish and pressed as hard as I possibly could in a circular motion. It took a few applications and after two hours my windows looked brand new and felt smoother than even the silkiest of baby bottoms.

If you're not comfortable using steel wool (again, #00 grade steel wool, only), then don't. I've just never had a problem with it. You could also just take a razor blade with glass cleaner to get stuff off windows, that just takes longer.

Sorry, no pics.

I'll say it again. Try denatured alcohol & a rag. Works great and fast on tree sap. Does not hurt paint. Never thought about harm to rubber / plastic moldings, but I think you'd have to try to screw things up. It evaporates way to quickly to cause any damage. I have a ton of pine trees and get hardened sap on my cars often.

Sticky stuff on my windshield?

 

Wear a condom next time!

This stuff works great and it's cheap as hell.

 

http://letustalk.files.wordpress.com/2009/04/earth-day-bon-ami.jpg

13 years a go I used to tint windows. I believe it is 000 steel wool that works well for cleaning glass. I have some that I use to this day to clean my window when I do an Aqua-pel treatment.

Steel wool rusts. Anyone wanna argue that?

 

000 steel wool does not make 000 rust. Using steel wool will make some minor scratches on the glass. They'll probably only be visible under the intense direct light of the setting/rising sun.

 

If your glass is so bad you can't see out of it under those conditions anyways, then maybe some 000 will help. But you're gonna have one tired elbow long before you get any progress. And if you stay at it long enough, you might clear up some of the sandblasting only to replace it with microscratches.

Steel wool rusts. Anyone wanna argue that?

 

000 steel wool does not make 000 rust. Using steel wool will make some minor scratches on the glass. They'll probably only be visible under the intense direct light of the setting/rising sun.

 

If your glass is so bad you can't see out of it under those conditions anyways, then maybe some 000 will help. But you're gonna have one tired elbow long before you get any progress. And if you stay at it long enough, you might clear up some of the sandblasting only to replace it with microscratches.

 

It does not make scratches in the windshield that are noticeable to the naked eye, even if viewed in the sunset/rise.

 

You boggle my mind sometimes.

 

It actually works very fast for getting certain things off the window, hence why I use it, and why many guys that do tinting for a living use it as well.

I'm not gonna try it on my glass, but I would like to see some before and afters.

I'm not gonna try it on my glass, but I would like to see some before and afters.

 

Hey, I thought so too, when I was being trained to tint. It can work, and work well, you just need the correct stuff.

 

When I clean my car in the spring I am anal about my glass (why I aqua-pel all of my windows). IT DOESN"T SCRATCH IT IN THE LEAST! If you put it on a drill and pressed it in the window for 30 mins it might, but for cleaning little bits of stuff off the window it does not scratch. Before and after pics would look identical (assuming I could manually focus the camera on the windshield good enough and in the right light to even see it in a pic)

you wanna take a pic through the glass, not of the glass

you wanna take a pic through the glass, not of the glass

 

 

I have a large reef aquarium, I know how to show pics of stuff. If I focus on something other then the glass you will not see the scratches that are not there.

 

Case in point:

 

This glass was not even clean, can you tell, or is it floaties in the water?

 

http://www.members.shaw.ca/bkotrla1/Mar%2005/greenzoos00010closeup.jpg

water-glass-air is different than air-glass-air

 

when do you notice imperfections in your windshield? Looking at it, or looking through it?