My Lexus has had these water spots on all the windows but especially the sunroof for a while now, and they simply won't come off no matter what you do. I tried windex, alcohol, soap, wax, polishing by hand -- No luck.

So I ended up ordering a 2 1/4 Backing plate and 4 inch pads for my UDM. I also ordered some window restorer 'polish'. It is designated for 'machine use' so it says.

Here is the UDM with the backingplate and I used a grey finishing pad for the work.



Have the polish spread randomly on the pad and worked it in.

--As you can see I did the Sunroof first.. it isn't easy getting up there with a machine... so I laid a MF towel out to the side so I wouldn't be laying the machine down on the side of the car bare.

I smeared it in like normal polish, then worked it over at setting 1 -- Then moved it up to about 4. Anything faster and this particular polish will splatter very, very quickly. Directions say no more than '3000 rpms' .

I was pleased with the results... It got about 95% of the marks out, and there were alot -- With relative ease and speed.

Here are some pictures of the etchings I am talking about -- It was near impossible to get my camera to get a shot of them (they are really all over the glass.. but for some reason with the lighting , etc, the camera just doesn't pick it up like our human eyes do. Though I managed to get some shots of a few spots.

**Note: These are higher quality, because I had to shift it up for the camera to pick the etchings up. Sorry for sizing issues in the thread.**









You get the idea ..

After said and done here is the sunroof -- **These pictures are of low quality, but reflect the finish, it is the best the glass has ever looked.



I decided to go ahead and do all the windows on the car while I was at it.

So here is a side view of the passenger windows.



The product I used was:

DP-515 16 oz. DP High Performance Glass Restorer -- Got it off autogeek.

Just thought some of you with water-etchings that are stubborn that want an 'easy' way to get rid of them might be interested.

If there is any easier way, then ignore this.. this is the best I could come up with for decade old spots

 

Looks very nice but did you know that there could be a potential downside of this approach.

Just a comment to those considering this approach to glass polishing. Beginning in 2003, Lexus has been manufacturing vehicles with water-repelling glass on the front driver and passenger side windows and according to published reports, some vehicles also included the windshield. It is quite a hard coating and yet with abrasive polish you can remove it. The coating functions like RainX or Aquapel but it is a hard coating that is permanent. This water-repelling coating is not unique to Lexus vehicles but I have not researched other manufacturers.

You may still wish to do this polishing anyway but just be aware that your vehicle might not be the same after the removal of this coating.

 

Good tip -- Never heard of any coating on the 'outside' of windows from manufacturers.

Nonetheless this says on the bottle 'non abrasive' - Though I find that hard to believe when you can feel a little grit in it .. heh. It should be 'minor or light abrasive'.

It works,.. I would say 90% , and 100% if you work a while at it with more cut.

 

Have you tried the samples yet?