I know this has been covered before here but Im looking more for peoples opinion on what I should do in my particular case. Anyways I have a 07 tC and I have some horrible water spots on my sunroof, back of the glass of the hatch, and even a little on the bottom of the windshield. Ive tried everything to get em off, even bought some Griots windows wax that didnt even do anything :?, so I heard some people use 000 steel wool and a window cleaning product and that gets them off. But I was holding off on that becuase it seems a little risky that it will scratch the glass. So if anybody has any ideas or anything id gladly take em to consideration lol my OCDness is killing me with these engraved water spots.

 

steel wool and soapy water or rubbing compound and a buffer wheel are your options

 

hmm yeah, I was thinking about going out and getting a buffer. I think ill leave steel wool to my last resort though if buffing it doesn't work. I dont know how these spots got so bad, I guess the previous owner left the car in the rain because i have a garage haha.

 

hard water is the reason. the water in my area is terrible. i have bad water spots too.

 

It really sucks, everyone compliments me on how clean my car is but only I really know if you get really really close to my sunroof you see spots... :o haha but im going to try the steel wool soon.

 

Some people use a light glass stripper, claybar, or regular white toothpaste.

 

When I use to work @ a honda dealer, we went thorough a supplier by the name of Ardex. They sell a kinda thick solution called MSR. "Mineral spirit remover". Water spots come off with easy using this and a magic eraser. Google the company name, they should sell it to everyday ppl.

 

Oh ok yeah im going to Google it, and to jnaval I tried all kinds of products, including toothpaste.. I even took a toothbrush to it and gently scrubbed to see if that would help haha, but it didnt.

 

i have the issue with mine , have u try anything yet?

 

Heres all the things i've tried (note that my particular case might be pretty bad and that some of these might work for you) I tried regular different glass cleaners (stoners, armor all, etc.), a 50/50 mixture of water and vinegar, i bought Griots glass cleaning wax, I used toothpaste, and lastly I bought some CLR that you'd find in grocery stores. None of these methods worked for me though.

 

i use this brand called "Granitize" water spot remover works great and is easy to use

 

Where do you get it from? and do you think it would work in a severe water spot case like mine?

 

Wassup guys, so I been on the hunt for a good product (locally, I didnt feel like wasting anymore time ordering stuff online that didnt work) so I went to my local O'reillys and searched around for a bit. I found this stuff called "glass scrub" (I know right how generic) by Glass science. I bought it and thought id give it a shot, so I was so curious I went out in the dark lol just a minute ago and started applying it. It seemed like I could feel the glass softening, and took the spots off. Now it is dark and I only did a little section but it took the spots off. Im going outside tomorrow to do my whole sunroof and back glass so I'll be sure to let yall know the results. I got excited thats why im typing this lol.

 

Here just a little update if anyone is following or wondering.. anyways that product didnt work either. It seemed to help a little bit around my windshield where I first tested it, but it didnt really seem to do anything on those hard water spots. So im kind of discouraged with the whole thing, so im thinking about just taking it to a local auto detailer and telling them to do work on it haha. It might cost some $$ but at this point I just want them dumb spots gone.

 

A little bit of information regarding the water spots

What is a water spot,? it is a calcium deposit left when the water evaporates. Now this calcium has a tendency to etch into whatever surface it is on, be it clear-coat, glass, etc. Left long enough, it will go very deep into the clear-coat or glass, many times so deep they cannot be taken out, they are all the way through the clear-coat..

Now, a clay bar many times will take out a lot of them if they aren't too deep, some that are a little deeper, can be taken out with a R/A and swirl mark remover or even a light cut compound, ones that are a little deeper can be taken out with a high speed, light cut and then go back over with a R/O and take out the buffer marks. In some cases, you must color sand, then buff to take some of the very bad ones out.

How to prevent the water spots:

Starting with a clean non-spotted surface, you must put some kind of protectant on the surface that the calcium will not penetrate. Not many products on the market do this.Neither of these products by themselves will take out calcium deposits but they will prevent them, especially if a good regular program of use is put in practice.

Of course the ideal thing would be to never let the automobile never be subjected to in climate weather or regular water systems, but let's deal with reality and provide a solution for it.

 

I had the same problems but griots glass polish and a lot of elbow grease did the trick. A buffer with the polish made it easy. It took me many hours to do all my glass, but here's a couple pics to show before and after.


The second pic is before I got the edges of the glass by hand. Hard water is such a pita. Best of luck to you on removing it

 

I might have to try that glass polish. My spots arent horribly bad, most people probably dont even notice them... but i do lol. I saw through reading a magazine that mothers came out with a new water spot remover so i was thinking of trying that first, if i can find it locally. I started using steel wool along with various other window cleaners. It seemed like it worked but it kinda of looked like it was leaving scratches when you looked at the glass in the sun so i stopped. Glad to see you had good results getting them gone... water spots suck 😒haha

 

Even i have corolla and had to face similar water spot problem.. I can help you with glass spots.Hard water stains on glass and shower doors are often mistaken for soap scum. Unfortunately, soap scum removers will not remove hard water stains. The high concentrate in hard water of dissolved minerals such as calcium and magnesium are not something that can be sprayed away with your average cleaner. Hard water actually makes your favorite cleaners less effective. You need to attack the hard water stains with acid-based cleaners. You can try to clean the stains naturally without using harsh chemicals by using vinegar and baking soda. If you are lucky this will solve the problem.
Just follow this steps...
1.Combine a paste of vinegar and baking soda. This natural solution is the cheapest formula to remove hard water stains from glass.

 

Thanks for the info. I may have to whip up a concoction and try that.