How To Clean Anything

This question was received from Nellie: How do you remove cooked on egg off of the front of a car? Sorry that this has taken so incredibley long, but we don’t often use our vehicles as griddles for cooking omlettes, so the pro’s we consulted had never really come accross anything like this.

So, we took an egg, cracked it, (beat it a little) and poured it on one of our cars and sat it under a 500 watt halogen construction light for a couple hours. Are we dedicated or what? We didn’t let it sit for days on end in 100 degree heat, but it did get pretty cooked on. Brushes didn’t work as effectively as we thought they might, but we eventually took a heavy terry wash towel and soaked it in a 50/50 mixture of warm water and white vinegar. We put the towel over the scrambled egg remains, and let it sit for about 10 minutes.

With that the egg scraped off easily with a finger nail, and then a brush. You may want to let the vinegar mixture sit longer. As well the car we did it to was waxed a few months back, and still has a very smooth, shiney finish on it. This may have made it a bit easier to remove.

General Information:
Exterior automotive windows are subject to many foul byproducts of travel. Emmissions, dirt, grime from other vehicles, bugs, small animals all leave a film that detracts from the overall apperance of the vehicle and is a safety consideration.

Tools & Technique
To clean exterior automotive windows use a regular commercially available window cleaner and cotton rags. Old cloth diapers are the best, but any thick cotton cloth that has been previously washed will clean without leaving lint.
The secret is to wash the window twice. The first wash will remove dust, dirt, and road grime. On the second washing use only a limited amount of spray, and polish the window until all of the streaks are gone.

Tips:
There are also a number of excellent products available that will treat the windows so water will sheet off. These products need reapplying as often as monthly, depending on the amount of driving you do in the rain. Although inexpensive, the treatments take time to apply, but the added safety and convenience are worth while for many drivers.

Here is a question from Panda.

How can I clean dried on, very hard water from windows, both house and car ?

The professional auto detailer on our forum suggests that you use super fine steel wool and water to remove the stain itself, and then clean the window as you normally would with glass cleaner.

Hard water stains are removed using acidic cleaners as well.  CLR® or products sold as soap scum or rust removers are typically acidic.

Here are a few home remedies to try:

Use pure white vinegar in a spray bottle to work on hard water stains on glass doors. Many people use vinegar to clean coffee makers

Cut a lemon in half, or use pure lemon juice to remove hard water stains.