Well water, soap, and age had left a permanent fog on the shower doors. There was also a cruddy hard substance at the bottoms of each door. Nothing would remove this cement-like crud. Nothing would remove the fog. As a last ditch effort before purchasing new doors I tried something I've not found anyone mention.
First I removed the doors to the yard and leaned them up against a wall. I sprayed them with WD40 and let em sit. An hour later I rinsed. There was a gooey fatty substance on the glass now. But the cement crud was releasing it's hold. With help of a razor blade I got it off.
Now I needed to deal with the goo on the glass. You must have gloves for this step. I laid down the door on the tailgate of my truck. I took liquid Cascade dishwasher detergent and a 000 piece of steel wool (non-soap kind). I added generous amounts of Cascade to the glass and scrubbed. The soap will turn yucky the more you scrub. I added a little water as needed. I let it sit for about 3 minutes then I rinsed and turned over the doors repeating the process. As they dried I could now see what I had missed so I repeated the process and armed with the razor blade was able to get the remaining stuck on crud on the edges off.
They look beautiful. I saved myself the cost of new doors. It probably cost me five dollars all together in product and took a couple hours of work. It was well worth the effort.
By Jeannie from New Mexico
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I am glad you did this outside. I think the smell of WD-40 is not too good to breathe in. It made me violently ill when I sprayed the hinges on a metal ironing board in the house. I believe WD-40 is made of petroleum distillate, so people need to ventilate or do outside.
Loved reading your post. However if you ever need to remove tough soap scum in the future you might try a product called "the works" it is sold at WalMart and many other places. There is nothing it will not remove.
To prevent all this hard work for yourself in the future, keep a spray bottle filled with regular vinegar and water in the shower. (I use 2/3 parts vinegar to 1 part water). After your shower, simply spray the doors, the shower walls, your faucets...everything! You'll be amazed how much easier it'll be for you to clean them next time. I, too, live in an area with extremely hard water. The vinegar/water solution has saved me countless hours scrubbing those mineral deposits! A benefit: vinegar is a "natural" way to clean...no chemicals to deal with, hence, better for the earth! Also, after scrubbing those shower doors, you may want to WAX them with car wax. That repels the water from staying on the glass to begin with. Good luck!
I shaved the built up soap scum off my shower stalls by inserting a rasor blade in one of the devices that holds a straight edge rasor blade. My family no longer uses bar soap when bathing/showering; liquid soap does not form a scum like the bars.
I don't know about that WD-40 or the razor blade, both seem unsafe to me. I spray my shower with shower clear stuff I get at the dollar store regularly - and then I have a spray bottle with SKin So Soft and water 2 parts SSS 1 part water and spray that on and let it sit, then walla, a hot water rinse and wash cloth and it's all off. Another thing that works just fine with rust if you have well water is Snow-Bol. I tell you you won't have to scrub period. Try it it's amazing.
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