Sweet! I am reminded of a tip I found somewhere that actually does work, along the lines of what you tried, and that was to coat the clear parts in Vaseline with a cotton bud or brush. You can heat vaseline up (carefully) and it turns almost into a liquid for application. And oddly enough in that state it is self leveling. Then once you are done painting it wipes off easily! Coat the windows with future first I would suggest.