Glass Cleaning Clay

I tried a product last week from Griot's Garage called Glass Cleaning Clay. My car is a daily driver so it's been through a lot of weather and down a lot of highways. The rear window of my wagon was always streaking and dirty, and now I'm noticing streaking on the windshield. I first washed the car, then sprayed Speed Shine on the rear window and windshield. I used the clay bar and it picked up a noticable amount of dirt. Apparently, it pulled it out of the pitting of the glass. Great results, like putting brand new wiper blades on a clean windshield. The clay looks like it'll last for many more applcations, so it's the best $12.95 I spent this year.

is it similar to the clay used with claybar kits?

I just use my regular Griot's clay on windows and taillights...works well.

I've actually been surprised with some of the glass products I've tried this year. I got the whole Diamondite product line last fall and have been experimenting with it. I did a car that had overspay and waterspots all over the glass and I carefully tried one thing after another. I even hit the glass with my polisher and a level 2 polishing compound and it didn't help. I sprayed some of this foamy clay stuff on the glass sponge (kind of like a scrubber pad attached to a styrofoam block) and I was blown away! The stuff came right off!! I followed that up with a couple other products and that glass was good as new. I don't know why the normal methods of removing this type of damage on paint weren't working on glass, but I do have a totally new respect for glass care products.

 

Now as far as actual clay clay being any different for glass versus paint, I'd have to check that out. I have a bar of Diamondite clay still sitting on my shelf that I haven't tested yet. I can always bust out the camera and do a little video review of the difference between that and normal paint clay. My guess is that they are the same thing. I just can't imagine actual clay being any more or less effective on one surface over another. Clay is clay. Now that spray foam clay stuff that diamondite has is really weird stuff. I don't have an explanation for that one....

Care to play with products next week???

I'll be at SEMA next week working in the Autogeek.net booth. I'll get to play with TONS of products. I'll be here Monday though, so if you are here then give me a call.

 

We do need to get together one of these days that you are up here though. How long have we been trying to arrange that? lol

Forever. PM me your number. I don't recall if I ever got that.

PM sent. We definitely need to hook up after SEMA. I usually come home with a ton of products to play with and it is always more than I'll ever use. I don't mind hooking people up with my SWAG if they are willing to do some testing and see how things work.

OCDetails, help me clarify my thinking. Are you advocating this Diamondite product? I have my car detailing system down, thanks to you, but glass continues to be a problem.

is it similar to the clay used with claybar kits?

 

Very similar. As far as using the regular clay on glass, I would rather have a dedicated slug of clay because I don't want the sh*t from the windows rubbed on the paint, and I plan on re-using the glass clay many times, unlike any clay I would apply to paint.

I bought a used car down in Jersey and noticed that there were chemically etched streaks on it.

 

I did some research and found out that the acid rain down in that area is so bad that it is quite common when a car sits around for this to happen. I took it to several dif. people and was told that nothing could be done.

so the question is....

 

does regular clay work good on glass/

I like to use women's breasts. Some lacey bras catch a lot of gunk off windshields!

 

And then I woke up...

 

As far as chemical stains or spots, have you tried mixing in some corn starch with the water? I know corn starch works wonders on acid rain marks on cars.

The pits will fill themselves in with dirt again soon, it's not a big deal, clay the front window everytime you wash the car. It'll only take a minute.

 

You can use any clay bar you want on glass.

I bought a used car down in Jersey and noticed that there were chemically etched streaks on it.

 

I did some research and found out that the acid rain down in that area is so bad that it is quite common when a car sits around for this to happen. I took it to several dif. people and was told that nothing could be done.

 

 

I doubt that, usally a compound/polish will usally take them out.

so the glass cleaning clay is just a money grab and my riccardo clays are good enough huh

I don't recall if I've said it here or if it was on another forum, but I have enjoyed the glass products from Diamondite. Their actual clay product isn't likely much different than regular paint clay, but their Spray Clay is one of the weirdest things I've ever used. I totally didn't think it would do anything, but it got waterspots off that clay didn't touch and paint polish didn't touch. For whatever reason, this foamy "spray clay" did the trick on the first pass. I definitely like that stuff. But again, if you are talking about just ordinary clay, yeah... probably not too much difference. There is a little world of glass detailing products out there that I have enjoyed discovering though. If you ever have an opportunity to experiment with Diamondite products, you won't be disappointed. Come over to my garage and I'll let you try it out.

Resurrecting an old thread.

 

I've been using Bar Keepers Friend for years on windshields. It is amazing what that stuff can do :]

I don't see why clay would know the difference between all the same crap, whether on yer paints or yer glasses....

A number of different factors, really.

 

Normal detailing clay is designed to lift foreign material from the surface of your paint, and embedded in your paint. It will equally remove objects like tar (on the surface) and Industrial Fall Out like brake dust (embedded in the paint). Glass won't really have IFO embedded in it, but will pick up tar and bug guts on the surface just the same. Glass also is likely harder than the surface of your paint and less prone to scratching - because of this, the clay MIGHT be more aggressive than that used on paint.

 

Regardless, there's no harm using regular paint clay on your windshield as many of us have done that in the past with no ill effects. I would be cautious to use glass clay on paint

^ Reasonable considerations. Unfortunately, my windshield has 99K highway miles and the requisite 'sandblast' pitting. I keep waiting for a rock to make a replacement-worthy hole...

I just re-use old clay on my windows, if it's dirty clay then I use it on wheels.

^ Reasonable considerations. Unfortunately, my windshield has 99K highway miles and the requisite 'sandblast' pitting. I keep waiting for a rock to make a replacement-worthy hole...

 

Come out to the west. Since moving to colorado, I think the best I've done is about 50K miles on any one windshield. Replaced the first windshield at 37K, then replaced the next at about 90K, then got a big ol' rock within about 2 weeks of replacing that. It's bad enough to justify replacing, but far enough out of my field of view that I haven't yet. I've worked up about 20K miles since then (that was in April, I think).

 

It seems that everyone I know out here complains of how often they have to replace windshields.

 

That said, if it's super pitted from regular wear and tear, just replace it. Every time I replace a windshield, I think I should have done it sooner.

Typically glass doesn't benefit all that much from clay, but I've done a few cars that had overspray on the glass which wasn't budging with normal glass cleaner. Like I said before, I've even hit some glass with normal paint clay and it hasn't made a dent. There are advantages to having glass clay available, but unless you are doing the number of cars with as random of problems as I do, it really isn't something you necessarily must have. Old clay that you maybe dropped and don't want to use on the paint works fine on glass. If it isn't getting the junk off the glass, then you'll just have to consider other options at that point. There is always the messy, yet effective, WD-40 which will pretty much clear anything off the glass. Glass clay is more along the line of something professionals and hard core enthusiasts would keep around. For the rest of us it is fine to use old clay. But like Brady said, I would stick to using it only on the glass. It is possible that you will pick out shards of glass from cracks and chips and you don't want that dragging across the paint.

 

 

Oh, in relation to brady's last post... My '05 LGT had THE WORST winshield of any car I've ever owned in the 15 years I've been buying cars. It was absolutely the worst. One rock chip and it cracked clear across. Even just looking out the window at an angle would give you all sorts of distortions. It is like the glass was wavy or something. It caused problems with my wipers big time. I hated that glass. I've had $200 windshields that were better glass than the factory windshield that came on the car. If I ever bought another Legacy again I think the first thing I'd do is smash the factory winshield with a baseball bat, key the hood and front bumper so they had to be repainted, and slash all four stock tires. Then I would make an insurance claim and replace all three ridiculously useless factory objects at the same time for one deductible. If I could find a way to get the carpet replaced in the process then I might do that too.

 

I bet you just got a bad windshield. It happens. I've now had ... umm ... 4 windshields in the Taurus. First one was from 0-37K miles, 2nd was from 37-90K, 3rd was from 90K - 90K ... that was the one that was all kinds of wavy and screwed up. I immediately called to have it replaced under warranty from Safelite. Got it replaced while on the road a few days later. So now the 4th windshield is in from 90K - 115K, but has needed to be replaced for the last 15,000 miles or so.