I see Spots... No Really, spots in glass

[jonnyques]

I have a dealer that sold an 2006 escape. The people are complaining of spots in or on the windshield. When dry, the glass is perfect.
When there is a slight drizzle and the wipers are going, after they dry the glass, there are spots. These are like leopard spots, a distortion that looks like its on the outside of the glass.
They are not on the inside, not a turn on the defrost situation.
I thought it could be a glass treatment that was breaking down, or something that may have been sprayed on the glass. I can assure you it has been cleaned SEVERAL times with everything. As a last resort I buffed the complete windshield with IPS's glass compound. I figured this would remove anything that could be on the glass. Well the spots are still there.
I thought of the laminet, but then it would be present all the time.
Could there be some kind of defect in the glass itself? anyone ever seen this?
Just looking for an answer for the dealer and myself.
Thanks

[GLASSTIME]

Jonnyques,

From my 12 plus years in the automotive world and automotive detailing business.
I have seen this same distortion myself. Most of the time its polluted air, airborne fallout ect.
Another reasoning for the spotting would be, someone has applied or oversprayed a harsh chemical
which has came in contact with the glass.

Sometimes in this case it will only appear when the glass is dry, yet when wet, it dissapears.

I would at least make this effort!
Try "Meguairs" #3, use a clean "Terry" applicator pad
Apply in circular motion. Wipe Clean and see if this helps!

Warning! DO NOT Apply In Direct Sunlight!

[Glasseye]

The only type of contamination, I know of, that is similar to what you are seeing was caused by the plastic bags the manufacturers placed the new windscreens. If they became wet, during storage, there was some form of chemical leeching from the plastic onto the glass, resulting in various patterns on the glass which are difficult to remove. Normally, this contamination wears off over a period of time, but in extreme cases, the windscreen had to be replaced as well as the wipers.

[Brent Deines]

We have a very good water spot remover for spots you can see on dry glass, but for the spots that only seem to appear when the glass is wet I have found a medium fine pumice to work quite well. It's also pretty inexpensive. I don't normally sell it, but I do have enough to last me a lifetime or two, so if you are interested I would sell you a pound (enough to last you a very long time) for $5 plus the actual shipping charge. This grade of pumice is used by glass fabricators to clean stains from glass and will not scratch.

[jonnyques]

Having aggressively buffing it with IPS glass polish, I don't think the pumice or other cleaning products will work. I have removed many wiper scratches with the IPS system, so I know any surface contamination would be gone. The info about the plastic wrap adhesive sounds feasible.
Thanks for the input, Ill pass it along.

[Brent Deines]

Scratches are different than stains, and I have found the pumice to take off stains better than polishes used to remove scratches, and have found that pumice does not work very well for removing scratches. They are different problems, and sometimes require different solutions. You may be right, but I thought it might be worth a shot being as how inexpensive it would be to try. If you do decide to try pumice you may be able to find a local glass shop that would give you a free sample to try. It's so cheap I used to give away free samples all the time, and most of the time the customer came back to buy more.

I have only had one time where I could not get spots off the windows of a car and ended up replacing all the glass. I don't know what was on it but the spots seemed to be deeply etched into the glass. It ended up being a money maker for me but the dealer was not too happy about it.

[jonnyques]

Ya they don't seem to like it when we get a money maker do they! lol