Hello, this is my first time posting to any forum. I'm pretty new to the world of car care as well. Until recently, I've always been the type just to wash & gloss when I had the time. I never really made any effort to research products before I used them. I just usually went with whatever I found on sale at Walmart.
Well, I bought my first brand-new car, a 2003 Subaru Forester. So I felt inclined to change. Now I try to buy only the best products for my new baby. In my quest to find the best. I found myself reading about many products to renew and restore. So I decided to make one of my older vehicles, a 1992 Ford Festiva. a test subject.
My first project is to renew the glass. The windshield is in poor condition. It has over 10 years worth of
water spot buildup and various nicks. It has an unremoveable haze that contrasts the path of the wiper blades. Even new wipers tend to skip and leave a fog which makes driving in the rain very difficult, especially at night. For me, this is a situation of repair or replace.
Being the frugal type, I decided to take the low cost approach and test various
glass care products I had around the house. I tried Windex, GlassPlus, Stoner Glass Cleaner, BarKeeper's Friend (a mild abrasive for glass), and even full strength vinegar. Nothing made a difference. Nothing! So I decided to go-for-broke and try any chemical I thought might make an impact. These failures include, mineral spirits, acetone, gasoline, and even laquer thinner. Again, nothing worked.
I started searching the internet for glass restoration products. I realized Janvil,
Diamondite, and Autoglym products were worth more research. My next step was to look in various forums for recommendations on these products. I was reading along when somene posted a very small comment. It read, "I used detailing clay and had good results." That was it. Nothing more just the one line. Since I had a small bar of detailing clay that had come with sealant kit I had recently purchased for my new car, I decided to give it a try.
Detailing clay is used to pull contaminates from automotive paint prior to compounding, polishing, or glazing. It usually comes with a special lubricant which makes the clay slide across the paint with less drag. I applied the lubricant and repeatedly pulled the clay in one direction across the glass. The clay just seemed to float on the lubricant. I couldn't feel it actually make contact with the glass. So I wiped the lubricant off the glass and started over leaving the clay slightly moist. This time I noticed a definite drag. As the clay slid across the glass it made a faint sound similiar to static electricity in a freshly laundered load of sheets. I thought nothing of it and kept dragging. To my suprise, the noise got fainter and fainter until the clay made no noise at all. I also noticed the it barely had any drag and was slick from sliding on the glass. So I stopped and felt the glass. It was as smooth as...well, ...glass! I clayed the entire windshield and finished up by removing the residue with Stoner Glass Cleaner.
To my delight, except for the nicks, the glass is completely clear. The water spots are gone. The haze is gone. And my newly installed wiper blades dont skip or leave any fog. The glass has a gloss I haven't seen in years. It was like having a new windshield!!! TOTAL SUCCESS!
The whole claying process probably took 20 minutes. Its well worth the time. I hope this message helps anyone looking for an easy quick fix to restore their vehicle's glass.
Good luck!
DISCOVERY! 
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