Windshield washer fluid is an excellent way to help keep a windshield clean, but it does have a few nasty side effects.  It contains chemicals that cause corrosive effects from methanol, ethanol, and other components on paint, rubber, car wax, and plastics.  Regular car wax cannot withstand the corrosive effects and thus it breaks down the protection that regular car wax provides.  Many times the solvent is so corrosive that it eats into the vehicles clear coat.  Using a sealant is a much better way to help protect against windshield washer solvent.  We came upon the hood of the vehicle above and today we are going to show you how we go about removing the solvent stains from the paint that a regular car wash can’t do.

 

To remove the windshield washer fluid paint stain on this particular car we used a Meguiars Microfiber 5 inch Cutting Disc along with a Porter Cable 7424xp dual action polisher.  Porter-Cable offers a great tool for light cutting and polishing.  We use a dual action polisher because it makes it nearly impossible to add swirls to the clear coat.

 

The polish that we use with the Meguiars Microfiber Cutting Disc is their D300 compound.  It’s designed specifically for the microfiber pad.  Along with its pink color, it also has a cinnamon scent!  But that’s not what makes the product so great, it’s the result it creates.  The photo above shows that the disc is primed and ready to go.  An equal amount of polish has been spread over the pad to ensure an even cut.

 

With the speed setting between 4 and 5, we polished the affected area being very careful not to let the pad reach the windshield washer fluid housing.  Going over the area with three or four passes in a side to side and up and down motion really did the trick.  It was not necessary to add more product to the pad for this small area.  The total time that we polished this area was around 1 to 2 minutes.  Not much time, but remember, it was a very small area.

 

Above is the finished product.  Regular car washes cannot remove the solvent stains because, obviously, they do not offer any professional polishing services.  With the knowledge, equipment, product, and time, this can be easily done.  Thank you for reading!