I was wondering how to remove all the scratches and pits in my windshield and I stumbled accross this idea from the Corvette guys.....
I went to the grocery store and bought a can of Bon Ami cleaning powder. It's similar to Comet cleanser but it's scratch-free. I did the following:
1. Wet the windshield down with water (the outside, obviously!)
2. Dampen a sponge and shake some of the Bon Ami stuff onto the sponge.
3. Scrub the windshield like crazy (it'll change from a pasty mixture to a foamy mixture once you work the water in enough.... probably 10 seconds or so).
4. Once you've scrubbed the entire windshield, hose it off again with water.
This stuff works awesome! My windshield is much clearer and I did the rest of the windows as well and they look brand new! The best part of this is that the Bon Ami stuff cost me 79 cents!
I'm going to do this to my new old 86 Jeep Grand Wagoneer this weekend. That should make the glass look brand new!
Good luck!

interesting idea to say the least....... Who else wants to do it before I do, then take pics? ( I'm a chicken Sh*t :p )

I just did the minivan....
 

I just did this trick to my wife's Caravan (yes, it is HER Caravan) and it worked great. Her car is a 99 with the original windshield and it is amazing. It's super sunny here in Massachusetts right now and the clarity through the glass is totally amazing. I'm stoked!

Picture of the Max
 

Check out the section over the steering wheel.... it looks like the windshield isn't even there (there are some water spots where I missed with the squeegee).I used a sponge to apply the Bon Ami stuff....

If you have rainX this is what you use to strip it. Labortories use bon ami as well to clean their tubes, lenses, etc. How do you clean the inside of the window?

That looks mint! You can't even tell if the glass is there!!

What does the packaging of Bon Ami look like? I may have to try it out this weekend!

I'm not sure exactly what this stuff is, but it sounds good

would it cause any problems if you hosed it off and got it on the paint?

I use 409 glass cleaner on the inside
 

I've tried the Armor All Glass cleaner and I didn't like it. I use the 409 glass cleaner with the blue shop paper towels.... it works pretty well.
You can find more info about the Bon Ami stuff from their website (click on the second can from the left in the first row) at http://www.bonami.com/Products.asp

Damn it looks like there's no windshield there.

Basically all you are doing is polishing glass. The stuff in Bon Ami is the same stuff used in glass polish. And it does work. I also advocate polishing your headlights and foglights, if they are glass.

Lovejoy

Wow! That's clean! Thanks for the tip...:)

Great tip! Most importantly of all, it's cheap! :) I'll try it out this weekend. Thanks!

Btw, where you bought the stuff? Supermarket?

I bought it at the supermarket
 

It was in the cleaner isle.....

Bon Ami has been around longer than I have, and has always been an inexpensive, reliable cleanser (and smells better than Comet).

Whether it says it's abrasive or not, rinse it off VERY well, so that no residue remains to damage your clearcoat paint if it gets on the body of the car.

Ill give it a try i have some scratches on my window from when i sanded down some rust. But its pretty deep, u think it will work?

I don't think you have anything to lose. If it were my window, I'd try it.

To clean the inside of the window I use a foaming glass cleaner.
Can't remember the brand, think I got it at a NAPA store...
and I use newspaper - sounds wierd, but it works

Ya, newspaper works the best for cleaning windows.

Nice, I will give it a go tonight. My windows have all kinds of particles stuck to them.

Sounds cool, I hate the glares at night from the windshield, especially when it rains and seeing other cars headlights.

Saw Bon Ami at the store today. There's a warning on the package which specifically says "DO NOT USE ON WINDSHIELDS."

Anyone know why?

I was thinking maybe there's some special coating on the windshield to prevent water beading that the Bon Ami would damage?

Another reason might be cause it'd make the windshield slippery and then your windshield wipers would slip on it and not wipe as cleanly.

Just possibly reasons why.. anyone know for sure?

Here's a response from Bon Ami
 

I found this on a BMW bulletin board:
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Two questions kept coming up on the list after I posted the TSB (bulletin # 61 02 94) on using Bon Ami(R) to clean your windshield (e-mail me directly if you want a copy of the TSB):

I checked my can of Bon Ami(R) and there's no warning against using it on glass. So, I went down to my local grocery store and saw that it's been relabled. There's now a warning on the new cans.

I called Bon Ami and spoke with a lab tech about this. She said that they got a couple of complaints of it scratching glass and wanted to cover thier butts. But, she personally has tested it on glass and mirrors with out any scratching and uses it herself on glass (as do the others in the lab). She was guessing that in the cases where people thought it scratched, that it cleaned the windshield so well that nicks and scratches were then more visible or that they used an abrasive pad (like the ones to clean pots and pans). Those abrasive pads can easily scratch your glass.

When using Bon Ami you should use a soft cloth or sponge.

When I cleaned my BMW windshield, I saw many more small stone chips that were not clearly visible before. Also, windshields can be scratched over the years by your wiper blades. The windshield on my '67 Mustang had been scratched so badly over the years by the wipers that at night, it was like a rainbow with oncoming cars headlights shining through the glass.

I also called BMW NA and my local dealer (Allison BMW in Mtn View) and asked them about it. They had no complaints come in about Bon Ami(R) scratching or damaging windshields.
------------------------------
Bon Ami(R) did not scratch either of my windshields (98 Maxima, 99 Caravan).

Cool, thanks for the info Itchy.

Have you used your wipers in rain since then?
Any slippage?

It rained a few nights ago....
 

It rained like crazy here in MA on Wednesday night and my wipers worked perfectly. They are replacement Bosch MicroEdge blades and they worked like new. My wifes van also had it's wipers working perfectly. No problems here!

where'd you get the addco rsb for 90$ ? thx