How To Get Rid Of Hard Water Marks From Windows

[Kujotk]

well you know how after it rains on a hot day and your glass has dirt droplets after the rain droplets have dried up.... well from certain angles or if the light is right all you see is this..... even if the car has been scrubbed, i've used windex, soaps, wd40 (because i'm getting desperate and trying different solutions) vinegar, alcohol wipes and the marks still don't go away..... i'm assuming its cause by rain drops drying on the glass over time but i'm not sure.....

anyone got any ideas how to get rid of these annoying ugly marks...????

[(OO)SKYLINE(OO)]

Methylated Spirits.

It actualy specifies its a cleaning solution for windows on the front sticker when you buy a bottle from a super market or auto barn.

It is also streak free.

[**RB2530**]

A window tinter told me one day (I have tried and it works well) that to make your windows look darker, you polish the glass to make it more reflective. It works too!! I am certain this would also remove the water marks as well...

The way you do this is to buy some cheap toothpaste and some 000 or 0000 steelwool from Bunnings. NB it must be be fine steelwool with out the soap...thats what the 000 and 0000 means. the more zero's the finner it is and the better..

You wet the glass down and put some toothpaste on a wad of steel wool and polish the glass with it...Do a small area at a time...It takes off all the oxidation and other crap on the glass...its messy but works well..you can see the difference...Oh yeah, don't do this to the inside of the window unless you dont like your current window tint...

[.:: GimpS-R34 ::.]

wd40.. i'm sorry but LOL...

and yeah i agree with the metho

[GTR-N1]

When I did pharmacy, we used to sell Acetone to the detailers down the street to clean ingrained stains on glass. It's used in laboratories to clean microscope slides too.

Bit more expensive than methylated spirits but a great Plan B.

Fine steel wool with a polish or fine abrasive (such as toothpaste) is a good Plan C. This is also used to take fine scratches off watch faces or perspex dashboard faces.

[bwebbie1]

it take it it is on the outside??? its called acid rain dont know why its called that but hey, i use 3m rubbing compound and window cleaner,so spray the window cleaner on the window then get the rubbing coumpound and rub it in like your polishing the window, make sure the window is always wet otherwise it will scratch the window and dont get it on the panels, then spray the window cleaner back on the clean it off, get an air compressor and blow of all the left over rubbing compound off. hope this helps

[PsYLoR]

Scrape it with a new razor blade, that might help. If not try the polishing maybe?

[Kujotk]

thanks guys, there should be something that works out of all this.... i have actually heard about the toothpaste technique about 10 years ago on burkes backyard but for some reason i didnt think of it untill i read your post, acetone is good for me, i work in a pathology lab and we get the stuff ordered by the barrels lol...

Metho sounds good aswell.....

if these fail i'll give the others a go, i might leave the razor blade till last, sounds like that would take a while

[(OO)SKYLINE(OO)]

^^

Its all good man, just stick to Metho and a clean cloth.

[skybarge]

just bear in mind when you use toothpaste it'll take ages

I used it on some glass here too, brasso and autosol metal polish also works and comes pretty cheap from bunnings

If you have a rotary buffer, put it on low speed, foam pad with autosol and it'll take about 30 minutes each window, it won't remove large scratches or stone chips, but it'll get your windows looking amazingly clean

[PM-R33]

Depending how bad it is most of those wont work (trust me i tried everything). My car had very bad acid rain marks from Japan on the side glass and after months of not being able to get rid of them i gave up. Couple of years later a friend of mine that worked at a windscreen place told me to try some Aluminium cleaner on it but to be very careful with it because it would eat away the paint. So i gave it a shot and bingo it took them all away. I recommended this as a last option, try the others first (i even ordered in Meguiars most harsh cutting compound and tried that, it worked ok but didnt get rid of it all).

[ellie]

just bear in mind when you use toothpaste it'll take ages

I used it on some glass here too, brasso and autosol metal polish also works and comes pretty cheap from bunnings

If you have a rotary buffer, put it on low speed, foam pad with autosol and it'll take about 30 minutes each window, it won't remove large scratches or stone chips, but it'll get your windows looking amazingly clean

Bingo. I had water marks on every window of my car for years and a detailer friend of mine said to buff the glass. Now please read my whole post!

Apparently glass has a nasty habit of cracking if it is unevenly heated (buffing in one spot for to long!). You have to use a rotary buff and a fairly coarse compound like G10. Make like you are buffing a badly scratched panel = put a few dabs of compound on, liberal amounts of water where you are buffing and buff in the normal sweep motion not sitting in one spot. EASY! Give it a real good wash to get rid of excess sediment and use normal window cleaner for final finish.

The main reason for me doing this - My raer window was so bad, when headlights would hit the acid affected glass, I could't see at all. Looks was a very welcome bonus!

[**RB2530**]

In this country the water marks are actually caused by calcuim and other minerals and metals in the water. They are generally not solvent in much at all so the only way to get rid of the water marks is to mechanically removed them...ie polishing...

Pure water doesn't leave any marks btw. Acid rain is caused by sulfur and other elements in the air combining with the rain water as it falls. Our atmosphere is generally very good and clean compared to other countries so acid rain is not a big problem here. The big issue with acid rain is that the acids chemically attack the glass and erode it...If this happens the surface finish of the glass is affected...you need to do a shit load of polishing to fix it...Glass has a very high hardness (but it is brittle though) and for anything to be a polish, it must be harder than what you are polishing. So most polishes take a fair bit of work to make a difference on glass. Many dont work at all..Thats life!!

[Tyson 1990]

Wow i thought just my windscreen had marks on it. Mine are very minor so i'm going to try the methylated spirits method on mine.

Thanks for making the thread otherwise i probably would've just spent hours cleaning my windows, wasting money on lots of different window cleaning products and yet still wondering why they weren't clean lol.

[1R34SON]

Useful thread, couple of my windows have very stubborn marks which did not come off with mspirits. im going to try the other methods probably the polishing one first. will let u guys kno how i go. Ill try post before n after pics also.

[JDogg]

Hi guys,

I'm a professional glass restorer and am constantly removing hard-water stains from car/boat windows, shower screens etc...

For stage 1 glass corrosion (95% of windows will have at least some of this), I use a product called Winsol Crystal Clear 550 (CC550). This usually removes most of the stains with ease. It works by dissolving the mineral build-up and is the quickest and least messy way of completing the job.

For more stubborn water spots (you can do it this way for light stains too), I use cerium oxide powder which is mixed with demineralised water to form a slurry. I then use a felt pad and polishing tool to polish the stains out. My polishing tool is worth over $1500 but for the DIY guys, you can use a felt pad (purchased from your local hardware store) attached to your household drill and remove the stains this way. It's a lot quicker than polishing by hand but if you have to go down that road, use Superfine Steel Wool (0000 gauge). This is abrasive enough to remove the stains but will not scratch the glass. I get all my supplies from these guys as they are the cheapest around http://fcwc.com.au/shop

Once the glass is restored, I apply a product called Sani-Shield which offers a lasting protection for up to 12 months from the hard-water stains forming again. A cheaper option is RainX

To clean the glass/window/shower screen, simply use soapy solution. You don't want to use anything too harsh otherwise you may compromise the protective sealant.

[FineLine]

Auto glym make a glass polish. bit pricey but it does work.

[SS8_Gohan]

-clay bar

-paint polish

whenever i detail the car i always do that on the glass, then of course wax/sealant afterwards - have restored some windows like that but depending how bad it gets, you have to go some of the harder stuff mentioned above.

try clay, then paint polish on machine first and see how you go.

toothpaste will be a major waste of time, don't even bother

[Nanogrip]

SS8_Gohan is correct. I had hard water marks and I used just a clear coat safe polisher (Turtle Wax), hard enough to remove the oxides but not enough to damage glass. Works perfectly for windows, mirrors, glass, etc. One time I mixed vinegar (mild acid) with some of the polisher to remove more stubborn water marks but the results were the same as using without the vinegar.

[RBnub]

Hey guys I'm a qualified glazier and we use all sorts of methods of getting rid of mild and harsh water staining. Another good cheap method for light stains is 'gumption'. It's a very coarse multi purpose cleaner you buy at the supermarkets. Also most companies that sell hardware for glass also sell stain removers of there own. We are supplied by 'CRL' which have there own stain removers In 3 different strengths depending on how bad the stains are.