Car Detailing Best Practices. Part 6: Window Cleaning
Dec 12, 2024
2 min read
Proper maintenance of our vehicles involves a little bit of science and careful consideration to achieve the best results. Shine Plus offers some valuable tips on car detailing best practices here on our blog.
In our first three blog posts on best practices, we covered some general topics to keep in mind when caring for your vehicle. The remainder of the best practices series will be a bit more specific and start discussing the proper technique for cleaning specific parts of your vehicle. Today's blog will be on how to properly clean your vehicle's windows.
One thing that I have learned as a professional detailer is that you can clean an entire vehicle extremely well, but if you leave streaks or dirt on the windows, it sours the whole job. Another thing I have learned is that cleaning the windows to a professional level is not as easy as you may think, as windows can be very unforgiving and everything shows. Luckily, I am here today to teach you what I have learned so that you can get the best results on your car.
Here are the steps to take to get the best results:
Wash the vehicle with your preferred wash method. Please read Part 5 of the Best Practices blog for information on washing the vehicle.
Dry the vehicle with a high-quality microfiber towel and make sure you do this quickly so that the water doesn't evaporate. This step is very important. If the towel is low quality, it will leave behind small amounts of water on the window, and this will lead to streaks. Also, if the water evaporates, it will leave behind any dirt that was suspended in the water.
Use a waffle weave towel and a window cleaner product. Less is more when it comes to using the product, so use only as much as you need. Use the box method when you are wiping off the window cleaner. The box method is to first wipe around the edges in the shape of a box and then remove the product inside the box. I recommend using vertical wipes to remove the window cleaner on the exterior of the vehicle and horizontal wipes on the interior of the vehicle. This way, if streaks can be seen at your final check, you will know where the streaks are.
On the interior of the vehicle, use the same waffle weave towel, window cleaner product, and the box method. For the interior of the vehicle, make sure your cleaner does not contain ammonia or any other chemical which can damage window tint. A product made specifically for car windows is best. For windshields and back windows, there are products available on the market where a towel is attached to the end of a wand in order to make reaching the hard-to-reach areas easier.
Inspect your work. As stated, windows show everything, so they are unforgiving when you make a mistake.
Special cases of reasons why a window might not get fully clean despite taking all of these steps include water spots and hard water staining. These special conditions will be covered in a future blog.
So that's it, those are all the steps to achieve professional car window cleaning!
