No matter what I use (I’ve tried many many products) my windshield is never as clean as I would like it to be. Years ago I used a small amount of toothpaste and a lot of water to clean an old car windshield and it seemed to work well. Is there any reason not to do this again on a newer car? Anyone have any idea of a good product if toothpaste gets the thumbs down?
I use windex, and it works really well… seeing as it was made to clean glass and leave a streak-free shine.
[b]What I’ve found that really cleans a windshield is either BonAmi in the yellow can or Brasso metal polish. The manufacturer of Trico windshield wipers uses the BonAmi to clean windshields prior to running tests of their wiper blades.
I’ve never tried toothpaste to clean a windshield. But most have some sort of polishing quality. So, I could see how it could be effective.
Tester[/b]
So are you talking about just regular dirt or “this car has been sitting in a cow pasture for 10 years” stuff? Toothpaste would work on that. Plus you might get a real sparkle going on. ;0)
I use a window cleaner by ZEP that I bought at Home Depot. I use newspaper instead of paper towels, that seems to eliminate streaks.
Boy! That must have been some job.
How many toothbrushes did you go through? He he he.
As Tester wrote BonAmi in the Yellow can is the stuff. Don’t use the stuff in the gold can, it can damage the glass. The yellow stuff is the original formula and is harder to find. I understand that is the stuff test labs use.
I’ve used Invisible Glass and it seemed to work as well as windex or better.
I use newspaper instead of paper towels,…
I agree. Newspaper (with only black & white print, no color) does a much better job at reducing streaking and smearing than paper towels.
Joe Mario
Invisible Glass aerosol with micro-fiber towel on interior usually does well. Exterior seems bon ami gets the vote but I haven’t tried.
If you are talking about the inside, wax it. Toothpaste should do the outside alright if you liked it in the past. We are talking about streaks here I guess. In the hot sun I had good luck cleaning the windshield with Parsons sudsing ammonia. There were a lot of bugs and they came right off the bumper with the stuff so I went right to the windshield with it. I used it full strength on a paper towel by holding the paper towel to the open top and tipping the bottle. It didn’t seem to hurt the paint on the two year old 1976 LTD. (large trash dispenser)
I would not use ammonia or any product containing ammonia in it on a modern windshield. It will damage many of the new coatings.
Personally, I like Rain-X. It improves forward visibility in the rain by a large margin, though it may appear slightly cloudy when first applied.