As you can see, my Supra has a good amount of water spots on the various glass surfaces. Now that the side windows and rear windshield are tinted, the water spots just stick out and are super noticeable. I have to do something about it and have decided to approach this problem by polishing the glass.
Normally, this can just be done with regular compound but while prepping for the project, I discovered that Griot’s Garage developed a glass specific polishing products. So, I picked up the Fine Glass Polish and Glass Polishing Pads and I’m going to share with you my experiences with these products.
If you’re interested in any products used, there will be links to everything below.
To start off, I would suggest taping up the edges of the windows. I attempted to do this but the tape just would not stick to my window trim so I gave up on the idea. I would suggest to do this from the start because it’ll save you on clean up time. I went back and got things figured out later but again, it's better to tape up the edges from the start.
Prior to polishing, it’s important to do the necessary cleaning prep because if not, we may pick up contaminants while polishing, smear it around and cause even more damage.
Let’s first clean the glass to get rid of any obvious dirt and debris. To do this, I’m using Meguiar’s Perfect Clarity Glass Cleaner. Instead of spraying directly on the glass, I like to spray into a microfiber towel and then spread the glass cleaner on. This helps to prevent overspray on other surfaces. I’m just going to wipe on, then flip the towel to a dry section and wipe off any excess.
Next, we’re going to work to remove the contaminants that we can’t necessarily see by claying the glass. I’ll be using Meguiar’s Mild Professional Detailing Clay and Last Touch Spray Detailer as a lubricant. I’m going to first spray the glass down with the spray detailer. We want enough lubricant for the clay to move but still offer some tactile feel. If you put too much lubricant down, the clay will just glide over everything and won’t be too effective at picking up contaminants. When claying, only light pressure is needed. Move it back and forth, making sure to cover all surfaces. If your windows are heavily contaminated, you’ll be able to hear and feel the substance, even under the clay. Normally, once the surface is clean it’ll be smooth to the touch but water spots themselves can provide a feedback that claying won’t remove.
Now, we are ready to polish the glass. Because Griot’s advertises that their glass polishing products as being good for both hand and machine polishing, I decided to first give hand polishing a try. Griot’s manufactures the glass polishing pad in a 3 and 6-inch size. I personally picked up the 6” because it was cheaper and the all-around better deal. The 3” will likely fit in the hand more comfortably for hand polishing and will more easily fit in smaller sections of glass but I can realistically trim the 6” pad down and get more bang for the buck. These pads are intended to be used with a machine polisher but Griot’s also recommends them for hand polishing glass so we’ll see how they do. To start off, I’m just going to put a few pea-sized dots of Fine Glass Polish on the pad to test the combo out and see what it can do. If you’re trying this out for yourself, know that every case is going to be different. My water spots are not going to be the same as yours so you’ll have to do your own testing. For a project like this, hand polishing is usually going to take a lot more time and effort than using a polisher. You’re likely going to have to do a lot of scrubbing and likely over multiple attempts. When it comes to actually polishing, I’m just going at it. Up and down, side to side, circles, whatever. I’m just trying to hit everything. Luckily, glass has a very hard surface so it’s pretty difficult to mess this up. Polishing paint is different so don’t take what you’re seeing here and transfer it to paint. One advantage of hand polishing is the ability to go right up to the edge. Even if I were to use a polisher, it’s very likely that I would have to still go back and hand polish the sections that the machine can’t get. Once the polish is expended, it’ll become more transparent and at this point, we can wipe it off and check the work.
For me, there was still a good amount of water spots around the edges but once we move towards the middle, where most of the scrubbing was done, the glass looks clear and spot-free, at least on camera. In-person, the glass still has some very minor lines from the edges of the water spots.
After a few passes, I would say that the water spots are greatly reduced but I wasn’t able to get rid of everything. I could’ve but at this point, I just decided that it would take too long to remove all my water spots by hand. I’ve been at it for about half an hour and I’m not even done with one window so you can only imagine how long it would take to do all the glass surfaces by hand.
At this point, it’s time to pull out the polisher. If there’s one thing that hand polishing has shown, it’s that the water spots can definitely be removed. If hand polishing can do it, the machine should clear things up in no time.
Flat out, the polisher is going to take care of the water spots. There was never really a doubt in my mind about that. It’s a great and fast way to approach water spots but there are two negatives in my mind. First, is of course the cost. If you don’t have a polisher then you’ll have to buy one or get one somehow. Second, the polisher is most helpful when you’re able to use multiple sized pads. For this project, I only used a 6” pad on a dual action polisher. This worked well on the rear windshield where there was a lot of space to cover, but I struggled on the side windows. For these smaller sections, a 3” pad would’ve been nice. I would’ve been able to get closer to the edges and get a lot more done with the polisher. Because I didn’t have the smaller pads, I ended up having to go back and hand polish the edges and small corners.
So, what do I think about Griot’s Fine Glass Polish and Glass Polishing Pads? At the end of the day, I was able to significantly reduce my water spot problem. I got rid of them in the main center sections of the glass and just have to go back and hand polish out some edges. Do these products work? Yes, but I don’t think they are the most efficient. When Griot’s advertises the polish as fine, they really mean it. It just doesn’t have a lot of cutting power and I feel the same about the glass polishing pads. It just doesn’t cut very well. The label of the polish says “removes mild water marks” but what does that mean? I would guess that it’s only for water spots that are fairly new. Those that have been sitting just long enough that all the chemical water spots removers can’t remove. For the average person, I would assume that this type of water spot is going to be uncommon. People who have water spots are likely those who didn’t care before and are going to have spots that have been baked on for months or years. The Supra shown in this video was only 4 months old at the time and I would say that the glass polish and pads struggled a bit. Both can be more aggressive. When it comes to the Glass Polishing Pads, I realized that it didn’t provide enough cut when I went back and hand polished the corners. I switched it up and used a felt applicator pad that I had lying around. This thing cuts the water spots so much faster than the glass polishing pads. This tells me that with a proper pad, the glass polish will be even more effective with a polisher.
To summarize, the Griot’s glass polishing products are more so intended for light water spots. They can remove heavily baked-on water spots but it’s going to take more effort and more attempts. If you’re willing to put in the work then I can definitely recommend these products.
