Windshield Help Needed

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Desertnate

Active member
Over the years I`ve steadily improved my skills in detailing in all but one area: the inside of the windshield.

I`ve got a good product and towels to clean the glass, but my work flow normally ends up like this:
1) Clean the the inside of the windshield. Inspect in the current lighting (indoor or outdoor). Looks good.
2) Drive to work the next morning in the rising sun and notice horrible stripes and missed areas in the corners/edges where my hands won`t fit.
3) Get home from work, clean windshield AGAIN. Inspect AGAIN in available lighting. Looks good.
4) Drive to work the next morning and notice stipes and other areas AGAIN, but they are much smaller
5) Get home from work, clean windshield AGAIN. Inspect AGAIN in available lighting. Looks good.
6) Drive to work again and by now it`s usually looking good, but not perfect.

What techniques and tools do you use to get into the tight areas and ensure the whole surface is being properly cleaned? What type of lighting do you use to inspect your work? Broad daylight and overhead LED`s in my garage don`t seem to work and stuff doesn`t appear until I`m driving into the sunrise and can see my shoddy work.
 
I started using McKee`s 20/20 cockpit glass cleaner once every three months and eliminated my windshield issues.

For regular weekly cleaning i use the stoner glass cleaning tool with the guitar pick shaped head on it.
 
Here is the link for the best tool ever to clean inside front and back window glass --- https://www.autopia-carcare.com/stoner-invisible-glass-reach-and-clean-tool.html#.XQE_fFWpH3g

Here is the link for the McKee`s 20/20 cockpit glass cleaner - Note - it says "Do not use on window tint... https://www.autopia-carcare.com/mckees-cockpit-glass-polish.html#.XQFC8VWpH3g

The process that works best for me is to use good quality clean absorbent microfiber or pure cotton towels that have no residue in them..

And it also works best for me if the cleaned glass is still moist for the wipedown, otherwise it might dry and leave streaks that you cannot see easily..

Sometimes, it takes a couple of complete passes to get that stuff off inside glass.. If its a smoker car, a lot more passes to break that nicotine residue down and out..
Dan F
 
I try to inspect in unforgiving lighting, like right before sunset.

And I carry a window towel in the vehicle so I can do spot touchups whenever I notice something I missed. No cleaner, I just fog the glass with my breath and wipe it. For tight spots where my hands won`t fit I just crumple up the towel and shove it in there. I use my Griot`s Polypropylene Window Wipes for this (and for all other final-pass glass cleaning).

Stokdgs- I got one of those for Christmas last year :D Haven`t tried it yet, was thinking more for the house than the vehicles (think "just barely inaccessible windows"), but I bet others would find it great for both. Glad to hear it gets your seal of approval. And that`s a good heads-up about the McKee`s 20/20 and tint, don`t seem to see those caveats as much these days.
 
Zap cloth, or Kaywos cloths work great for not linting and keeping excellent traction on the glass and in your hand. Often, I find a towel frustrating to use due to unwanted friction characteristics between the towel, glass, and my hand. Secondly, they can only use water and work well that way when your windshield isn`t unreasonably dirty. The Rag Co makes a towel similar to this, but they are not the same. Not sure if that matters. The idea is that they don`t lint--at all. I`ve heard other manufacturers say that before and not agreed with their statement, but these two towels (they are the same towel, just different names) live up to their claims.
The guitar pick shaped device works well; I use that, and usually end up using my triceps, where my body is facing the middle-to-rear of the car but my hand is facing away from me wiping the windshield. Hopefully that makes sense.
I am much more picky with glass and the idea of working clean through every step of the process, than I am with paint. I keep glass supplies seperate, in a zipped bag, and I wear gloves most of the time when I do it. I have this down well enough that I`m pretty sure there won`t be any streaks.
Other guys, who swear by no streaks, use small squeegee. I`ve been thinking about experimenting with those, but these cloths have been working so well.
 
Go up and down on the outside glass and across on the inside glass, this will give you a good idea which side is still dirty/smeary. Plus I use Nextzett glass cleaner and it’s the best I have found at cutting through all types of crud.
 
Soak a microfiber with distilled water, wring it out, leaving it damp but not dripping. Proceed to clean the windshield with the wet towel, wiping the surface thoroughly, this will leave the window wet. Use a separate clean dry microfiber to dry/buff the window to a streak free surface. This works for me 99% of the time, cleaning 2-3 cars/day.
 
The question I always ask clients with the same issue is, how do you maintain your towels? I hate windows, so this is what I do. Griot’s window cleaner with 2 towels. One glass microfiber and one waffle weave. Soak the glass towel and wipe twice, dry with the waffle weave. For hard to reach areas I use a paint stir.
 
I have the most luck using one of those mini squeegees, like a small version of the gas station squeegees to first get most of the film off. I use lots of Meguiars glass cleaner and don`t care if it drips off everywhere. Then I go in with either the Stoners tool or just a plain glass MF cloth and basically polish the glass (technically I smear around the lines left by the squeegee and get the corners where it didn`t fit).
 
My method is to clean the glass with my chosen glass cleaner. Then my trick is hit the glass with a light mist of distilled water and wipe clean with a fresh cloth. 99% of the time I get all the streaks out that way. Quick and simple for me. Works great after applying RainX too.
 
Thanks for all the inputs everyone.

One of my biggest problems has always been trying to contort myself in a way to wipe down the glass and do it evenly. Getting into the areas around the glass was another challenge. I seem to do pretty well on our SUV with a larger, more upright windshield, but my car which is small and a more reclined angle really difficult. I`ll try out one of those tools to see if it helps.

I also appreciate the tips on products and techniques with the towels. I`ll start trying them out to see what works best for me.
 
EXPDetailing- Heh heh, since what you`re doing now works so well for you, I dunno if I`d consider changing it ;)

rlmccarty2000- I wonder how the Nextzett would compare with my Zep40 (my long-term go-to for nasty glass).

ShaneB- I`m envious that you can get by with just Distilled Water!

Mike lambert- I`m a little surprised you don`t use the Griot`s Polypropylene Window Wipes...gee, sounds like I`m still the only guy here who does use `em. Hope GG doesn`t discontinue those...

Any linting from the PFM for Glass towels yet? I *think* one of mine has started to lint, but I`m not sure (might`ve come from another MF, wasn`t paying close attention :o ).

And I agree about the linting! Sooner or later, *all* of my MFs end up linting to some extent, no matter what. Sounds like the Zap/Kaywos do *NOT* end up linting, so I`ll try to keep those in mind a little better this time, thanks for mentioning them again.

Dan- That`s how I do it on the house windows (see the thread about household windows), I too still need to follow up with some kind of towel.

Coleroad- Your Distilled Water follow-up seems about the same as my fog-with-breath approach.
 
I used them for a final buff but still got streaking. I’m assuming it may have to do with the humid air here most of the year. I’m on the hunt for another cloth to use. I have MF, WW, cotton terry, and huck towels. I think I’ll try PFM glass towels next.
 
I use the Sonax Glass Cleaner on the inside of the windows. It has that clinging ability from it that is awesome and also if your mf towel has picked up the dirt it evaporate clean and streak free. Good on nicotine and the outgased stuff from the dashboard.

First it`s very important to have a clean mf glass towel. And as soon as you any residue left behind it`s time to fold or switch towel. The dirtier glass the often it`s needed to be refolded or switched. Also to have the dedicated mf glass towels that are made for glass is to wash them separately. As the mf glass towel is made with a more aggressive nap it can and in most cases will be ripping the other WW and mf towels naps apart. Then you have lint on the mf glass towel that`s released on the glass. So I`m very carefull to separate different kind of mf towels when washing them.

The glass cleaning tools is awesome to reach the hard places to get to. And for the last wipe off I wrap a mf glass towel around it to get the dirt off. The Stoner version seems quite big so maybe not a problem. But the problem is it`s often gets loaded with dirt and start to leave dirt residue aka streaking. So have a lot of them to switch out on the glass cleaning tool. I useally use this only on the hard to reach to areas because of that.

A good way to be more ergonomics pleasant. Is to reach over to the side you don`t sitt on and use the hand that`s up to the roof and work it upside down if that makes sense. It has been mentioned before in this thread.

Also as rlmccarty mentioned to clean with different directions on the inside vs outside of the glass it`s easier to see where you have missed.

On the outside windows the Angelwax Vision glass cleaner is awesome. Even the Sonax Glass Cleaner works great on the outside too. And is awesome if you don`t want overspray.

At last have many of the mf glass towels that you like at hand. So they don`t get saturated with dirt and you have enough towels to switch to.
 
I`ll use Nextzett for the exterior. Works great, (and I have that 5 liter jug). I`ll use those blue waffle-weave towels that I`ve had forever.

I use the CarPro glass towels that you run under hot water, wring them out and then wipe. I`ll follow up with a clean, dry one immediately, just in case I missed a spot.

Works like a champ and they last forever. I haven`t used glass cleaner on the interior side since. No need to.
 
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