What a Glass Installer Found on the Inside of My Foggy Windshield

It Started With a Little Fog on Cold Mornings

My name is Frank Novak. I'm 68, and I spent 34 years in a tool-and-die shop in Toledo. For a couple of winters the inside of my windshield had been fogging up on cold mornings. Nothing major at first. A little gray along the bottom of the glass while the defroster was still blowing cold air.

I'd wipe it with the back of my glove and not think about it again.

This fall it came faster and grayer every week. I'd leave for coffee with the guys at 6:40, and by the stop sign at the end of our street the whole windshield was gray. My glove left a smeared arc right where I needed to look, the fog closed back in around it, and every streetlight turned into a fuzzy ball. I drove those three miles leaning over the steering wheel, looking through a clean spot the size of my hand.

Then it was the afternoons. Even on dry days the inside of the glass never looked clean, and when the sun got low it turned milky white.

Then it was the evenings. Our granddaughter plays trumpet in the high school marching band, and the Friday night games start at seven. I stopped driving us after dark. Carol drove, and twice I made an excuse and stayed home.

On Thursdays we visit Carol's sister. That day it was still light when we left, so I drove.

That Thursday on the shoulder was as low as it got.

I could have lived with the glare. What I couldn't get past was Carol's voice. Forty-two years of marriage, and she had never once worried about my driving.

“That windshield had taken my mornings, my granddaughter's games and Carol's trust in my driving.”Frank Novak

I didn't know yet that the answer had been sitting on the inside of the glass the whole time.

Gas-Station Spray, Shaving Cream and a $14 Wand

Here's everything I threw at it first. You've probably tried half of it yourself.

I started with the blue spray from the gas station. Then a $12 bottle of cleaner from the auto parts store. Then vinegar and newspaper, the way my dad did it. Every time, the glass looked fine in the garage. Every time, it was streaky again in two or three days.

I bought a $9 anti-fog spray. It fogged a little less for two days. At night it left a greasy shine that made oncoming headlights worse.

I tried shaving cream, the old trucker's trick. It worked for one morning.

I bought a $14 windshield wand so I could reach the bottom corner by the dashboard without climbing across the seat. My back was grateful. The glass didn't change.

I ran the defroster with the air conditioning on and fresh air coming in, the way the internet says. Once the engine was warm, after ten minutes or so, the fog cleared. The gray haze stayed.

I put $20 worth of moisture-absorbing bags on the dash. They sat there.

Then the eye doctor. Full exam, drops and all. My prescription had barely moved in three years. "Your eyes are fine, Frank," she said. "Whatever you're seeing, it isn't your eyes."

Every bottle on that shelf is made to clean the glass for a day. Not one of them is made to stop what keeps coating it.

By then the truck had 96,000 miles on the original windshield. I figured the glass was worn out, pitted from all those winters. So I called a glass shop.

"About $780 for factory glass," the man said. "Bring it in and I'll take a look first."

And if a new windshield didn't fix it, I'd be out all that money and back on the shoulder.

If it wasn't my eyes and it wasn't the cleaners, was it really the glass?

What Tony Wiped Off My Windshield

The shop is a two-bay place on the north side of town. The owner, Tony, has been putting in windshields for 30 years. He looked at the outside of my glass, then opened the driver's door and sat down in my seat.

He had the quote printed out on his clipboard, but he didn't hand it to me. He pulled a clean white microfiber cloth out of his back pocket and ran it once across the inside of the windshield, right above the dashboard.

Then he held it up. There was a greasy gray stripe across the cloth, the color of the inside of an oven door.

"Frank, can I tell you something most shops won't?" he said. "I could sell you a windshield today. But your glass is fine. That's your dashboard."

"Every dashboard gives off a vapor," he went on. "The door panels too. The sun bakes it, the heater warms it, and it settles on the coldest thing in the cab, which is your windshield. Day after day it builds into a thin, oily film. In the garage you'll never see it."

"The car companies know all about it. They test their dashboards for it in a lab. They even have a name for it. They call it fogging."

Then he said the part that made me mad. "Put in a new windshield, and in a few months the dashboard coats the new one the same way. You'd have paid me $780 to start over."

Why the Fog Went Gray and the Glass Went White

That one film explained everything I'd been fighting.

On clean glass, morning moisture spreads out thin and you can still see through it. On an oily film it beads up into millions of tiny droplets, and every droplet scatters light. That was my gray fog.

When low sun or headlights hit the same film, it glows like frosted glass. That was my white windshield at a quarter to six.

And it kept coming back because the dashboard never stops giving it off.

That's why the cleaners only lasted a few days: they took a little film off and left bare glass for the next coat.

That's why the anti-fog spray and the shaving cream made the headlights worse: they went on top of the film.

That's why my glove and the wand never helped: they just pushed the film around.

That's why the defroster and the moisture bags never fixed it: they dry the air, and the film isn't water.

And that's why a new windshield would have failed too.

"So it was never my eyes," I said.

"Your eyes are fine. Your windshield is fine," Tony said. "You've been looking through a dashboard's worth of grease."

What I Found When I Looked It Up That Night

That night I sat down at the computer and looked up what Tony had told me.

It turns out this is old news to the car companies. In 1972 one of them sent a service bulletin to its dealers about a haze on the inside of windshields. It said the haze comes out of the plastic parts in the car, settles on the cooler glass, and that cleaning it off is normal maintenance.

Today interior plastics get tested for it. Under standards called DIN 75201 and SAE J1756, labs heat a sample of the material and measure how much of a light-scattering film it leaves on a plate of glass. The industry's word for the result is fogging.

And in 1992, researchers at the University of Michigan tested how drivers see through dirty windshields at night, facing oncoming headlights. The light scattered by the dirty glass made faint objects on the road practically invisible to the drivers.

Which left one question: how do you get it off and keep it off?

The 10-Minute Fix Tony Uses on His Own Truck

The next morning, a Saturday, I drove back to Tony's shop and asked him exactly that.

He went out to his truck and came back with a green applicator about the size of his hand, with a sponge pad on one side. ClearVision.

"Same stuff I put on the outside of customers' glass," he said. "Almost nobody thinks to do the inside."

He explained it in two steps.

Step one dissolves the film. Not just the dust sitting on top, the oily layer that's baked onto the glass. A regular glass cleaner can't do that part.

Step two bonds a thin, clear layer to the bare glass. That layer keeps the film from building back up, it's anti-fog and streak-free, and one application lasts up to 3 months.

"Only both steps work," Tony said. "If you just clean it, the film is back in a week. If you spray anti-fog over it, you're smearing grease. You have to take the film off and then protect the glass."

On the inside you don't rinse anything. You work it on in small overlapping circles, one section at a time, and wipe it off right away with a clean, dry microfiber cloth before it dries. A second dry cloth for the last pass. The same applicator does the outside of the windshield.

Then he handed me the applicator, and the printed quote with it. "Try this before you spend $780 on me," he said. "Ten minutes, inside and out. If it works, order your own. If it doesn't, you know where I am."

Sunday Morning, My Glove Stayed on the Wheel

I'd already wasted $55 and a month of mornings on things that didn't work. What were ten more minutes?

I did the inside and the outside that afternoon in our garage. It took me about ten minutes.

When I was done, I wasn't impressed. It just looked like a clean windshield, and I had cleaned that windshield a hundred times.

Sunday morning it was 29 degrees. I started the truck at 6:40, the same as always, and backed down the driveway.

At the stop sign I realized my glove was still on the steering wheel. There was a little mist along the very bottom edge of the glass while the engine warmed up. It stayed thin and clear instead of turning into that gray layer, and by the end of the next block it was gone. I never touched it. The streetlights on our corner were sharp points again, and I drove to coffee sitting back in my seat.

Tuesday was wet and cold, and the side windows fogged up the way they always had. I hadn't done them yet. The windshield stayed clear. That afternoon I did the side windows too.

Thursday was the real test. Same road home from her sister's, same time, sun low in the west, Carol in the passenger seat.

The windshield stayed clear. I could read the license plate on the car ahead of us. Carol watched the road for a while and then looked over at me.

"Well," she said. "I guess I owe your eyes an apology."

Friday I drove us to the game at seven and home again after dark, and we stayed for the halftime show and right to the final whistle. Our granddaughter found us in the parking lot, still in her band uniform, and stopped. "Grandpa drove?"

The $780 quote is still in my glove box.

My mornings, her games, Carol's trust in my driving. A white cloth and ten minutes in the garage gave all of it back.

If your windshield has been taking your evenings too, this is where to get what Tony gave me.

What Other Drivers Say About It

The Questions I Had, and What I Found Out

Why the Shelf Never Fixed It

Tony put it this way: everything on that shelf treats the glass. Nothing on it deals with the dashboard.

When the film comes off, the morning fog stops going gray.

When the glass is protected, the film can't build back up.

And when the film is gone, low sun and headlights go straight through the glass instead of lighting it up.

One afternoon, and you're set for up to 3 months.

How I Use It Now

I do the inside and the outside. Most people only ever do the outside, and the inside is where the fog lives.

I'll do it again about every 3 months, because the dashboard never stops and neither does the film. That's why there's a second applicator in my glove box for the next round.

And I'm doing every car in the family. Carol's car got it the same week. Our son drives the grandkids around in a minivan that's older than our truck, and his is next.

What It Cost Me Before, and What It Costs Now

Before I found the real problem, I'd spent $12 on cleaner, $9 on anti-fog spray, $14 on a wand, $20 on moisture bags and a co-pay at the eye doctor. And I was one phone call away from $780 for a windshield that would have fogged up the same way by spring.

ClearVision costs a fraction of that windshield quote. Right now it's up to 60% off, with free shipping.

I didn't write this to save anybody money. I wrote it because a few weeks ago I sat on the shoulder with the hazards blinking while Carol quietly offered to take over the driving.

If your kids or your parents drive in the dark too, the bigger packs are the better deal, and they ship free as well.

There's one catch. Demand jumps every fall when the cold mornings start, and stock keeps selling out. If the offer below is still live, you got here in time.

Takes the dashboard film off the inside of your windshield and leaves the glass anti-fog and streak-free for up to 3 months.

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Try It Through the Whole Winter

You have 90 days. Drive it through the cold mornings and the trips home at sunset, and if you're not happy with what you see, you get your money back.

If it doesn't work on your windshield, you're out nothing but an afternoon.

If you're still on the fence, do the white cloth test first. If the cloth comes back gray, you already know what you're dealing with.

Two Ways This Winter Can Go

If it doesn't work, it goes back. The cold mornings won't wait for you to decide, and neither will the dashboard.

Frank Novak, Toledo, Ohio

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Ten minutes this weekend, inside and out, before the coldest mornings of the year.

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P.S. I keep Tony's cloth in my glove box, gray stripe and all, right next to the $780 quote. Every Sunday I wipe a fresh paper towel across the inside of the windshield. So far it comes back white.

P.P.S. Next month Carol and I are driving up to Grand Rapids to see her brother. Four hours each way, and I'm doing all of it, including the part after dark.

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