Best way to clean plexiglass: free

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dmccormack said:
I've been using the Sontara wipes and while they feel like paper, they seem to be non-scratching. But they were a gift and as soon as they are used up it will be back to microfiber cloths from Wally World.
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Dan,
There are at least 2 types of Sontara. One is for plexiglass and feels like cloth. The other feels like paper and is - will scratch the crap out of windows. :nono: Looks OK until you look really close in the sun and see almost a sheen of very fine scratches. Had to rub out my whole canopy again after I figured it out. The damn shop had them labeled for plexi cleaning. Now that box is used for wipe down with solvents prior to paint and I got the right ones again for the canopy though I mostly use old t-shirts and wash them a lot. Do a little googling and you'll see what I mean. This below is from the DuPont site:

DuPont™ Sontara® Aerospace Grade Wipes meet the tough specifications required for this industry. Our Sontara® Window Wipes and Sontara® Aerospace Grade Wipes are exceptionally clean, leaving no binders, metal particles, or rag marks that can streak windshields and scratch surfaces, leading to costly re-working.

DuPont™ Sontara® wipes are specially engineered for aviation manufacturing and maintenance. Uses include:

Surface preparation before coating, sealant, or adhesive applicationWeapon systems maintenanceLaboratories and production areasAerospace vehicle production, Composites manufacturing and Heavy equipment maintenance
 
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Re: Back to the Subject.....

Goofy said:
Dan,
There are at least 2 types of Sontara. One is for plexiglass and feels like cloth. The other feels like paper and is - will scratch the crap out of windows. :nono: Looks OK until you look really close in the sun and see almost a sheen of very fine scratches. Had to rub out my whole canopy again after I figured it out. The damn shop had them labeled for plexi cleaning. Now that box is used for wipe down with solvents prior to paint and I got the right ones again for the canopy though I mostly use old t-shirts and wash them a lot. Do a little googling and you'll see what I mean. This below is from the DuPont site:

DuPont™ Sontara® Aerospace Grade Wipes meet the tough specifications required for this industry. Our Sontara® Window Wipes and Sontara® Aerospace Grade Wipes are exceptionally clean, leaving no binders, metal particles, or rag marks that can streak windshields and scratch surfaces, leading to costly re-working.

DuPont™ Sontara® wipes are specially engineered for aviation manufacturing and maintenance. Uses include:

Surface preparation before coating, sealant, or adhesive applicationWeapon systems maintenanceLaboratories and production areasAerospace vehicle production, Composites manufacturing and Heavy equipment maintenance
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Good and necessary distinction!!!

We went through reams and reams of KimWipes in the USAF.
 
Henning said:
Of course, water works on everything, it's the universal solvent. It breaks down everything given enough time.
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Seems to have very little ability to break down PVC and some other plastics. BTW, I could swear that some of the bugs that committed suicide on my windshield were made from that material.
 
Water will break down hydrophobic deposits (like the insides of kamikaze bugs) over a geologic time frame. Same for oil spills. If you want hydrophobic (oily) stuff off your airplane or windshield, best apply an emulsifier, like soap.

Aircraft plexi is damned expensive. I'll be damned if I'm going to use Pledge or any of it's relatives on it. Henning says the polish he uses is perfect. Henning says lots of things.

The stuff I use says "airplane" on it. I probably pay too much for it. But the $2 too much I spend on it is pocket change compared to what it costs to replace any of this stuff. And really, at the end of the day what is your piece of mind worth to you?
 
Pledge is wax. Nothing more. Nothing less.

When you go to the car wash you can get a spray wax coat. That goes in the glass too. And gives a bit of a coating that makes it easier to get stuff off. Pledge is not much different in that regard than a wax coat or putting rain-x on a windscreen.
 
So what do we think about this stuff?

http://www.skygeek.com/ak-8oz.html

Me, I'm sold on it as a bug innards remover and use it after every flight during the summer, applying and then wiping it off with Sontara window wipes. It has one disadvantage in that you have to let it dry pretty thoroughly before wiping it off for best results, and during the winter it takes forever to dry. But during the winter there aren't too many bugs around here anyway.
 
DaleB said:
I didn't say squat about paint either. I was kvetching about the "paint protection" scam, which ranks right up there with dealer-applied rustproofing on the wasted money scale.
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The dealer applied paint protectant is a really good polymer wax. It is a huge profit center for the dealership, but to call it a scam is a bit strong. You'd have a hell of a time doing it yourself without some knowhow, and I'm not even certain you can buy the stuff. But yeah, you can skip the $700 and wax your car. Isn't quite as good, but not a thousand times worse either.
 
steingar said:
The dealer applied paint protectant is a really good polymer wax. It is a huge profit center for the dealership, but to call it a scam is a bit strong. You'd have a hell of a time doing it yourself without some knowhow, and I'm not even certain you can buy the stuff. But yeah, you can skip the $700 and wax your car. Isn't quite as good, but not a thousand times worse either.
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I agree that it's a good polymer wax... and I disagree that it's not a scam, at the very least in how it's sold. :) The literature and the sales people will claim it's some magical permanent shield that will protect your car's finish for years and years. Utter nonsense. What they're selling you is a nice wax job that will last a few months, and a sucker-bet insurance policy against the extremely remote possibility that your extremely high quality, factory applied multi-stage base/clearcoat finish will degrade significantly before you sell the car. When's the last time you saw a vehicle less than 10 years old with paint issues?

Anything the dealer puts on, you can buy and apply yourself -- if it's even needed. With vehicles of fairly recent manufacture, most of it's not even needed.
 
DaleB said:
Anything the dealer puts on, you can buy and apply yourself -- if it's even needed. With vehicles of fairly recent manufacture, most of it's not even needed.
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I think the stuff they use is no longer sold to private individuals, who have a habit of mucking up the application and ruining their paint jobs. I see plenty of cars with awful finishes out there, so I don't think there is anything magic about car paint. New cars have nice finishes because they're new.

However, applying a decent polymer was to your new car is certainly sufficient to keep stuff off the paint for a long time.
 
steingar said:
New cars have nice finishes because they're new.
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New cars have nice finishes because automotive paint has come a long, long way since the 1980s. A modern factory applied, cured base/clear coat paint job will far outlast the old Centari enamel crap we grew up with. All you need to do is take reasonable care of it over time -- wash it a few times a year, maybe apply some wax if you want the real shine. There are numerous long-chain polymer waxes out there that do an excellent job, and will last at least as long as the dealer rip-off "paint protection" stuff.

Yes, waxing will keep your paint looking better, longer. No, paying several hundred dollars to let the dealer put wax on your new car -- even really, really nice wax -- is not a good deal, and nowhere remotely close to the magical everlasting cure-all they claim it to be. I'll go so far as to amend my original statement to replace the term "scam" with "blatant rip-off". It's not completely without benefit, and won't hurt anything -- but it's worth about 5-10% of what they charge for it, and they sell it as being much, much more than it really is.
 
steingar said:
I think the stuff they use is no longer sold to private individuals, who have a habit of mucking up the application and ruining their paint jobs. I see plenty of cars with awful finishes out there, so I don't think there is anything magic about car paint. New cars have nice finishes because they're new.

However, applying a decent polymer was to your new car is certainly sufficient to keep stuff off the paint for a long time.
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My first job in 1976 Was as "lot boy" for a car dealer, did all the applications, know all the processess as I haven't quit dealing with them since. The dealer applied product first off is sold under a different name for $20 a bottle at stores all over. The application of Polyglycoat, the scam that began that particular industry IIRC, was done with a wet sponge and then buffed off with a towel. It was a complete joke and was gone 2 months later which was less time than straight carnauba, but it was way easier to do.
 
Y'all gotta understand, the front end of a new car dealership isn't making the dealer a hell of a lot of money from the new car sales. It's the back end like the finance and insurance and other dealer add ons that get tacked on after the closer hands you off to the F&I guy. It's not until you get in his office that you change your mind and put down cash for the sale (unless of course you qualify for the factory 0% deals which very few people do) because if they think you're financing through them they'll negotiate with back end numbers in their head.

It's used cars where new car dealers make their gravy margin and it's parts and service that are the bread and butter.
 
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Henning said:
(unless of course you qualify for the factory 0% deals which very few people do)
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We always qualify, but I have yet to see a 0% finance deal that wasn't insanely bad. Every instance I have seen where they offered dirt-cheap or 0% financing it has meant giving up several thousand in incentives and discounts... hey, almost exactly equal to the interest you'd have paid. In reality, 0% financing usually seems to mean, "Interest prepaid for the full term of the loan".
 
Chrysler/Jeep had a few automotive 0% deals that were legit, but not when I was buying. A friend did, and it worked out for him. I was many years from getting rid of my Jeep at that point in our lives.

John Deere also ran some good ones when they were in serious fiscal trouble many years ago, but those are also long-gone. Lots of tractor sales saved their bacon.

The true 0% financing deals are very few and far-between. Most, as you say, are loaded up with fees and what-not that are at least worth several percentage points against the value of the vehicle. Or whatever's being financed.

It helps to strike when the iron's hot and the company is in dire straights and needs to sell a lot of product to make up short-falls. Especially works well if the reason for the short-falls isn't really the quality of the product but a failure of fiscal management of the company.

Of course, that can backfire too... lots of orphaned Saturns on the roads now.

I've also struck two very good deals at car dealerships who were getting kick-backs from local businesses for financing. They had to beat my insanely low financing I had in-writing and in-hand from my CU.

Price was already haggled, they just said they wanted a chance to beat my CU's rates... feel free, no funny business, no fees. I'm willing to use the financing I brought in the door with me.

Right now, there's tons of local dealerships with 2011's stacked like chord-wood on their lots around here. If we were in the market for a brand new vehicle, it's certainly a buyer's market.

I'm not sure they're desperate enough yet, and suspect the dealerships just aren't dealing.

Otherwise those things wouldn't be sitting there.

Another factor is that while we could do another new vehicle, we've done two in our lives, and had one great one (Honda Civic) and one total lemon (VW Jetta TDI), so I'm definitely not sold on new being "better". Too many good used vehicles out there for half the price. Just like airplanes...
 
DaleB said:
We always qualify, but I have yet to see a 0% finance deal that wasn't insanely bad. Every instance I have seen where they offered dirt-cheap or 0% financing it has meant giving up several thousand in incentives and discounts... hey, almost exactly equal to the interest you'd have paid. In reality, 0% financing usually seems to mean, "Interest prepaid for the full term of the loan".
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That's because there is such a low margin for the dealer on new cars to begin with, new cars are the factories money, not the dealers. The dealer gets his everywhere but. I never saw a good deal on 0% financing nor a "lease" type deal as most of them aren't leases and aren't deals.
 
Henning said:
That's because there is such a low margin for the dealer on new cars to begin with, new cars are the factories money, not the dealers. The dealer gets his everywhere but. I never saw a good deal on 0% financing nor a "lease" type deal as most of them aren't leases and aren't deals.
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Please don't get me started on leases.

The zero-percent financing is sucker bait. It appeals to the people who buy based on what their monthly payment will be -- it's a mindset that people really need to shake, that a monthly car payment is just one of those facts of life that you have to live with. Nonsense. A car payment is a millstone around your neck, sucking the money from your bank account and keeping you from doing the things you really need and want to do. Not that you should never finance a car -- that's a little unrealistic for most people. But, stretching put payments over 5, 6, or 7 years is nuts. We go for whatever loan will get us the lowest interest, and usually have it paid off well in advance. Makes a huge difference, not having those car payments every month. Now I'm working on doing the same with the mortgage, I should have that knocked out in another 5 years or less.
 
There are real 0% deals from time to time,


My dad got a liberty for 0% for 72 months. He had walked ready to pay the cash he'd saved not having had a car payment for nearly a decade, but when they offered the above financing deal with out taking away any incentives he took it and ran. Figgured he could put the money in a savings account and come out ahead.
 
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