glass care and cleaning

[fazool]

My first engineering job was designing windshield wiper systems so I saw some factual expertise in action.
Wipers work when the clean rubber is wiping across the glass and not dragging over road film so, with winter here, its a good time to remind everyone of a trick for keeping your windshield clear.

In your car care/wash arsenal you want to always have a can of Bon Ami powdered cleaner. Its a gold paper can that looks like Comet cleanser. Bon Ami, however, is a non abrasive powder so it doesn't scratch the glass surface. And it won't harm your paint if it trickles down onto it. No bleach and no abrasives. Don't use it on your paint but it won't hurt it if it spills or runs onto it.

Wet the glass, sprinkle this on and wipe with a polishing motion.

I can attest that the company that invented windshield wipers used this extensively on all the glass in our engineering labs when testing wiper blades. It is totally safe on your glass unlike Comet which is highly abrasive and contains bleach.

Also a light wipe on the blade rubber will improve wiper performance. Keeping your glass and rubber blades (truly) clean will get more usage out of your blades before you have to replace them so it will save money.

Bon Ami is not popular but I find it sometimes in the grocery store's cleaner aisle. A single can will last the lifetime of a car for me. The paper can gets wet and wears out long before I run out of cleaner so keep the can in a ziplock bag in my bucket of car cleaning supplies.

[owgz35]

Glass cleaning products contain a combination of ingredients including alcohol, ammonia, and detergents that will clean, but may also cause steaks. Depending on how fast or slow these ingredients evaporate, and their concentration, streaking problems may occur.
"Rain X" could be useful but only when applied onto a Pana Roof (effective as rain just runs off) but I personally would not use it on the front screen/rear screen, reason is that it seems to leave a hazy film on the screen, which may obscure your vision. This is my personal opinion, others however who have used RainX.

[dasapir]

I have been using Rain-ex for years. I like that often in light rain I do not even need to use my wipers. Initially it is difficult to remove the light haze film but with a few repeated buffings with clean cloth I can remove the haze. What I do find to be a problem is there is a haze or streaking at night in the rain. That has made me less of a Rain-ex enthusiast, of late.

So a question Fazol, does Bon-ami work well with Rain-ex or better by itself and how often should one wipe/wash the windshield with Bon-ami?

[boosted5cyl]

I've had good success with a product called "invisible glass". It works to bead the water very well to such a point that often you can see very well without your wipers. This, or something similar to it is essential for winter driving IMO.

[dasapir]

Fazool, I was finally able to find a can of Bon Ami, which I purchased, of course. However,when I read the directions at home, on the outside of the can it states explicitly not to use it on windows, glass, or mirrors. When you mention that there are no abrasives would not limestone and feldspar be abrasive? Feldspar is used in glassmaking and limestone is used in toothpaste as a filer and abrasive to help clean teeth. Enamel, by the way is harder than glass. That is why dentists can use metal on teeth, but metal will scratch glass.

So I am a little hesitant to use on the front windshield. Even mild scratching can cause an unusable windshield.

I am curious to hear what you have to say.
thank you.

[RobTarD]

I haven't tried it myself but Cerama Bryte seems to work well for automotive glass. It's the stuff used to clean glass ceramic cooktops and it works great for that.

After doing a bit of research I think I'll give it a go. I replaced a door with a junkyard special that has a decently oxidized window. If it doesn't work I'll just replace it with the original glass, so I don't really have anything to lose if something goes wrong.

[Matty Moo]

I use 93% alcohol on the exterior windows and distilled water with streak free cotton cloths on the inside. Then I hit the outside one more time with the water.

[98T5]

Hope's Perfect Glass.

[kcv70]

I got this idea from the autogeek.com web site where I saw an advertised product called clay foam. Diamondite clay foam is advertised to deep clean windshields and other outside glass. It seemed expensive, so I took an existing detailing clay bar and quick detailer spray and cleaned the windshield on my '12 XC90. Clean it as if you were to clay bar your paint. The results were amazing. The clay bar removed a lot of contaminants and made the glass smooth. If I had Rain-X applied it would have probably removed that, too. Remember to re-apply Rain-X. I repeated the process on my glass shower door in the house with the same great results. This is much less expensive than buying Diamondite glass products. autogeek.com has some very good videos on this and other topics.

Also, I used Meguair's water spot remover, a mild abrasive, with Porter Cable DA polisher with very good results, then re-applied Rain-X. I called Meguiar's and was told their polishes and compounds are made for car finishes, but it is appropriate to use on glass surfaces. I noticed that Rain-X sells a clay bar kit. My experience is that the clay bars sold in Meguiar's and Mother's kits, along with their respective detail mists works very well on glass. Be sure to keep the glass lubricated when using the clay bar. I did in this to my glass shower doors and removed a lot of contamination.

Speaking of windshields...I've had good luck with the premium Bosch windshield wipers called Evolution and ICON on my "01 V70 T5 and '04 C70. One brand or the other will work on your Volvo. Use the sizing guide on the Bosch website for the best fit. I noticed it contradicted the one on Amazon.

[polskamafia mjl]

An in-depth look at cleaning glass presented by my favorite source for detailing/cleaning information.