Everything you Ever Needed (or Wanted) to know about Cleaning Your Automotive Windows
window cleaning, originally uploaded by mk30
The Cleaner Itself
Your first obstacle when attempting to clean your automotive windows would seem to be the easiest and most obvious, but it is not. Most people think that a glass cleaner is a glass cleaner, but that just isn’t true. Most all cleaners contain enough ingredients to remove grease and grime, so what becomes the real key to attaining a spot-free and streak-free shine, is its concentration.
The best way to a streak-free shine, is to use as diluted a cleaning solution as possible. The reasoning behind this, is it is usually the detergent and excess ingredients that cause it to streak. For this reason, you may want to dilute your cleaner by as much as half. You will still get great results, while saving a bit of money in the process.
What to Clean With
There was a time when newspapers were the hot tip when cleaning windows. This is actually still a pretty good method, considering that it is a relatively plentiful (many households have an abundance of newspaper lying around), relatively absorbent, and fundamentally lint-free. The problem however is that one of the key elements to how well newspaper worked is no longer available… kerosene ink.
Newspaper used to be printed with kerosene ink. The cleaning properties of the kerosene itself made it an excellent cleaner. Today, since Kerosene is no longer used, it has lost some of its effectiveness. The other problem with newspaper is since you have to crumble the surface in order to absorb the most cleaner, the bumpy surface texture tends to miss spots. You will need to be go over the glass surface several times in order to get it completely clean and streak-free.
The best applicator for your cleaner today is a 100% cotton surgical towel. These are both absorbent and lint-free making it far better than using paper towels (lint, spread dirt), t-shirts (lint), or tissue (major amounts of lint). To finish off the job and get a streak free shine, most professional’s recommend buffing the final finish with a microfiber towel. The reason that they do not use the microfiber from the beginning, is these towels are generally not as absorbent and therefore tend to spread the cleaner around, rather than soak it up.
Technique
Before you even set to wiping, it is important to know that you must spray the cleaner onto your towel and not the window first. The reason behind this, is that you will have a much easier time saturating the towel completely with cleaner, than the window. In other words, if you spray the window and miss a few spots (which is inevitable, unless you spray an overabundance of cleaner), when you wipe it down with the semi-damp cloth, there is a good chance you will not lift all the dirt, thereby leaving streaks.
If you spray the towel each time, you can be sure that you are wetting the entire area of the glass with cleaner each time you wipe. Also by spraying the cleaner on the towel, you are soaking the towels fibers which can easily transfer the cleaner to the glass. If you do the opposite and spray the cleaner onto the window first, the dirt will tend to soak-up the cleaner, leaving you with less cleaner to work with.
You should always fold your towel several times so that it is no more than an 8 inches square. Never clean where the entire towel drags down from your hand. This reduces the amount of cleaner it can hold, as well as allows dirt on the towel to transfer to other areas of the vehicle. Take your time while wiping. Losing your patients will only cause you to miss dirt. This will leave streaks that will become most noticeable during the evening.
The Final Word
Cleaning your windows the right way only takes a few minutes and it provides greater visibility and less glare, especially during evening commuting. Who put this much thought and effort into the science of such a trivial chore you may wonder? We don’t know. They did, they are right, who cares, just take advantage of it!
