Glass Polishing... deep cleaning

[CELL]

Oh ok...I didnt realize you were answering the question about scratch-x directly in that reply. I was looking for a quoted answer, or atleast an answer citing the name of the product in question.
Also, I wanted to say with impressed enthusiasm that the previous steps used to clean a a bathrooms shower door with 8 years of hard water build up is amazing. Seriously.
I wanted to see what youre talking about with "water spots" on a windshield, so I walked outside and found one on my windshield....I wasnt able to test anything because well...I wiped it off with my finger.
Who would of thought...
I'm not sure what exactly a shower door in a bathroom under low light conditions has to do with a cars windshield in real life scenarios, in natural light...?
I believe my idea of what #4 does is a bit skewed. I was under the impression that it was a polish. My sincerest apologies if I was wrong. So...that being said, it made sense that you wouldnt want to slap a layer of polish onto glass. Wouldnt you agree?
Sure, itll clean surface contaminants, but it will also leave a reflective layer that might be distracting to a driver.
Oh and thanks for the link to a spell checker. Im not sure where I mispelled something, but id be happy to made aware of it.
I didnt know we were being judged by spelling here anyways.
....People still use IE?

[Mike Phillips]

Sometimes everything makes more sense when you've actually used a product to accomplish a goal, especially after the normal methods or products have not worked.

I lived in Oregon for most of my life and because of the amount of rain the Northwest gets, water spots on glass, (and on paint), were a real issue.

Spray on glass cleaners don't work to remove films that have built-up over time.

Something with some bite to it, in a way that won't scratch glass does.

This is where Meguiar's diminishing abrasives come into play. They cut or clean off the offending film without scratching the glass in a way that a spray-on glass cleaner cannot remove.

I've written all the information in this thread not from conjecture, but from years of hands-on experience.


As far as spelling goes, I use both Firefox and IE and IE Spell doesn't work in Firefox, also Firefox provides only a little window to type in on forums and I like the bigger message box in IE.

Whenever I reply to the forum I always spell check my text, if I quote someone, it will also spell-check their text. When I spell checked my replies to you with your quoted text, it picked up a lot of miss-spelled words. So while no one is judging you or anyone else on spelling ability, I included the link to assist you, but if you're using something beside IE, then you'll have to find a work-around.


If you like, I will send you a bottle of M04 to play with, just send me your shipping address.

[CELL]

Well, like I said.
I'll be contacting ADS later today to place an order.
Ive used glass cleaners for years and have cleaned plenty of windshields.
The products in my arsenal are currently Stoners Invisible glass and Megs NXT glass cleaner.
Ive never run into problems with removing film with either of these products.
2 coats...maybe 3 and things look good to me.
Now, im not sure if I should order a gallon of the glass concentrate this afternoon or just stick with the 2 products Ive been using and keep a bottle of #4 on hand for ultra tough situations.
What if theirs a ton of build up inside the car..? Would you recommend using #4 by hand?

[Mike Phillips]

Originally posted by CELL


I believe my idea of what #4 does is a bit skewed. I was under the impression that it was a polish.

M04 Heavy Cut Cleaner is a paint cleaner.



If you were to shake a bottle of it up, and then pour some out into your hand and then feel it between your fingers, you will be able to feel the diminishing abrasives as they are large enough to feel unlike our microscopic diminishing abrasive products.

It is this larger size that enables these types of diminishing abrasives to cut into the film on a peice of glass and remove it without scratching it.

[CELL]

Right On.
Please be patient as im still trying to learn the product #'s of Megs line. I mustve gotten it confused with something else.
I was up late last night burning the midnight oil, studying Megs 2006 Pro catalog and perhaps in my weariness, I got some products confused.

[Mike Phillips]

Originally posted by CELL

What if theirs a ton of build up inside the car..? Would you recommend using #4 by hand?

No.

The type of film build-up you get on the inside of a car will wipe off with a spray on cleaner. Plus you have to be careful of tinted windows because a product like #4 would scratch this type of film.

It is generally, only the outside of glass that when exposed to the outdoors for extended periods of time that will get some kind of build-up on the surface. Sometimes a spray on glass cleaner will remove this, but in severe cases it will not.

Just like paint gets built-up contaminants that actually bond to the surface and we remove these with clay, glass can also have contaminants build-up on the surface. If you think about it, both the glass and the paint on a car are exposed to the same environment, so if the paint is getting dirty, or having contaminants build-up on it, then it only makes sense that any surface or component on the car could have contaminants build-up on the surface.

Claying will remove some contaminants off glass, but I doubt claying would have fixed Brian's shower doors. He tired spray on cleaners with aggressive applicator materials and that didn't even work.

When he used the diminishing abrasives in one of our paint cleaners, it cut right to the problem...

[Mike Phillips]

Originally posted by CELL
Right On.
Please be patient as I'm still trying to learn the product #'s of Megs line. I mustve gotten it confused with something else.
I was up late last night burning the midnight oil, studying Megs 2006 Pro catalog and perhaps in my weariness, I got some products confused.

Send me your shipping address and I'll have a bottle of $04 sent to you today.

mphillips@meguiars.com


I've really got to leave this thread as I have a top priority project to finish before noon.

[CELL]

When you explain it in terms of the outside of the glass being exposed to the same exact elements as the paint, then cleaning it the same way makes perfect sense.

[Monk]

Originally posted by Mike Phillips
Next time try this by hand with a piece of terry cloth or by machine with a W=7006 foam cutting pad.

#4 Heavy Cut Cleaner




It will work so much better than either of the two product you tried because of the type of diminishing abrasive this product uses. Next time you're around a bottle of #4 Heavy Cut Cleaner, shake up the bottle and pour a little into your fingers and then rub your fingers back and forth. You will easily feel the diminishing abrasives, (if you continue to rub your fingers together your will feel the diminishing abrasives breakdown and disappear).

Now, feel any of the products in the 80's series, such as the #84 Compound Power Cleaner in the same way and it will feel like you're rubbing a soft, smooth hand lotion between your fingers.

The difference is the 80's series uses microscopic diminishing abrasives while the traditional Mirror Glaze products use for lack of a better term, macroscopic diminishing abrasives.

It is this larger size diminishing abrasive particle that cuts, or slices through the film that has built up on the surface of your glass and polishes it off.

Liquid glass cleaners don't offer this polishing effect. When ever I detail a customers car, I'll almost always machine polish their glass with this system so that the glass is a glossy and shiny as the paint. When you do this and you've detailed the car correctly, the finished look jumps out at you! because everything on the car is gleaming.

In Oregon and Washington, I ran into a lot of people with horrendous water spots on their glass, as such, I have a lot of experience polishing glass.

Mike

Well, so, anyway, now that all of that is hopefully over, what would the speed be for the rotary. I bought the 04, an extra W7006 and I have a rotary. I'm ready to fire it up as soon as I hang sheets all over the car and the garage! Tape off the molding, I suppose.

Should I lay out a bead, work right to left and pick it up at 10 O'Clock?

[Mike Phillips]

Originally posted by Monk
Well, so, anyway, now that all of that is hopefully over, what would the speed be for the rotary.

#1300rpm to 1500rpm

Should I lay out a bead, work right to left and pick it up at 10 O'Clock?

That's how I would do it.

When machine cleaning glass, you can't really get into the edges/corners of each window because the sides of the foam pad will make contact with the frame of the window before it gets completely into the glass in the corner, for these areas you can either live with them or do them by hand using a peice of terry cloth towel.

[Monk]

Thanks. BTW--do you prefer that people not post a "thanks" because it is one more post that shows up for you to process?

[tzemeng]

Hi Mike

ok, finally in the forums
Here are my questions:

1. The the product everyone refers to as #4 or M04, is this the same product with the code M0416 on your web site ? The description looks the same but the picture of the bottle doesn't match the one in this thread.

2. Do you have a distributor or reseller in Malaysia I can buy it from?

3. If I buy it online do you ship to Malaysia?

4. From this forum it looks like hand application is fine but if I wish to use my power drill with a buffer, what kind should I look for?

Thanks in advance

regards

Meng

[gofastman]

Greetings! i tryed using #4 on the windshield of a car and it compleaty cleaned the water spots and build up off, however, it left behind white resedue in all the little pits in the glass (old windshield) how can i remove this, glass cleaner did very little, i think i may need a pressure washer to blast the stuff out. any ideas?

[Mike Phillips]

Re: Glass Polishing... deep cleaning

***Bump***

TTT or To The Top!

[saleenman607]

Re: Glass Polishing... deep cleaning

What works best for removing any kind of water deposits or gunk that has built-up on the outside of your cars glass is a rotary buffer with either a foam cutting pad or a wool cutting pad. That's only because the machine takes all the work out of it.

If you don't have a rotary buffer then the next best approach is to use a piece of terry cloth by hand with some enthusiasm. The nap, (the little cotton loops), act as a gentle form of an abrasive together with the diminishing abrasives to help you cut through the layer of gunk and expose the glass surface.

The oscillating action of the dual action polisher with a foam pad doesn't work. That's because the dual action polisher is typically to gentle to be effective, that is, you can probably be more effective and work faster by hand than with the dual action polisher for this procedure.

Mike

Just to clarify and not to undermine the above stated " a DA doesn't work " , I just bought and used #4 with a PC 7424 with superb results on my 5 year old scum/hard water stained shower glass. Started out with a terry cloth and using my hands to very very slow results and hurting hands. Went to the DA with awesome results.
Thanks to all for the suggestions....especially Mr. Phillips