answers to common myths (long post)

[phalse]

hi. im a detailing freek. im the asshole who burns up his sunday putting on that 4th coat of something on my hood. and yes you can see your own eyebrows and the little holes in the buttons on your shirt in my hood, on a cloudy day. never said i wasnt a nerd =D

in no particular order, some things that you might wanna know are..

towels are still a very good way to dry a car. you have to have towels at least big enough for a normal person to dry off with after a shower. keep the towel folded into quarters, and flip it around to this or that side/quarter from time to time. unlike a shammy, a wet towel will absorb NO more water. it may seem like it does but whats happening is called wicking.. the towel picks up some water but is also leaving some behind, as you smear that wet thing back and forth across your trunk. always use 100% cotton, the so-called microfibers (micro doesnt mean, so small/fine that they wont scratch) will just contribue to spiderwebbing. ANYthing can scratch clearcoat if you rub hard enough. this includes cotton, silk, a piece of brand new claybar.. whatever. use WHITE towels only so you can SEE whats going on. how do you know if your towel just got gooked up with something if its black, or dark grey, or a medium red or green or blue color? your car doesnt care. white white white. if you wanna be serious about it, buy EXPENSIVE towels for this (only gotta do it once) with a thread count of at least 150 and wash/dry them a few times before using them. towel fuzz sucks.

go to walmart and buy a shammy, and a waterblade. a waterblade is a pure silicone long flat thing about the size of your forearm that will NOT scratch clearcoat IF used properly. just dont be a nazi with it and it will NOT scratch your car. the product found at most walmarts known as the California Waterblade does not have a hard plastic handle; this object can be 'bent' around a bodyline or into a contour etc. runs about 20 bux at walmart, worth every penny. try to get rid of 60-80% of the water off your car with the waterblade (if youre good you can get 95) then whip out the shammy real quick to get it all, spot free, and ta da. wring out the shammy as soon as it soaks up enough water for you to notice the increase in weight. it can only hold so much. i usually wring, wipe, wipe, wring, wipe.. etc. one important note; the 'blade' of the waterblade MUST be clear or its not pure silicone. if the part that touches your car is colored/white, bail and wait til you find a good one.

no one can find a cause for spiderwebbing scratches because EVERYthing causes spiderwebbing. BASF puts cars in windtunnels fed by 'dirty' air then takes 'pictures' of the front end using a refractometer. the pics look like LSD trips. particles of crap in the air are sandblasting your hood when you drive to work. those long 'all-cloth' strips of some sort of dense foam rubber covered with some kinda fuzz at your local car wash spiderweb the hell out of your car. most ppl dont realize that basically nothing about a car, or at least its cosmetics, was designed to stay pretty for very long.. only to look sharp sitting at the dealership so that ppl will buy. clearcoat protects your paint very well, yes, but it sacrifices itself to do so. the best fix for spiderwebbing is to machine buff your car. nothing brings back the sexiness like a dewalt buffer, a couple stickit pads and a bottle of 3M extra-cut. never learn how to buff on your own car. finding a shop that buffs properly is like anything else.. you ask to see their work before they touch YOUR property. look at it out in the sun. then throw 2 coats of zainos on it followed by a spray wax.

you CAN use steel wool on glass. some ppl think you should never use any sort of metal object, razor blade or whatever, on the inside of the glass cuz any car with AC automatically gets glass that has about 2% tint, else solar radiation would kill the cold air from the AC right away. i dunno about that one but better safe than sorry. outside of the glass tho is fair game.. especially those hard to clean edges all around the windshield. get some good fine steel wool, 00 or finer. you can do it dry but it sometimes uses less elbow grease to do this while the car is still wet and soaped up. be careful. you dont need to press too hard. if you have vin numbers etched in the glass do NOT even touch those areas, use a normal green scrub pad like the one you have sitting around your kitchen sink, made out of some sort of plastic-like material. razorblades and steel wool are the best things for cleaning glass, hands down. forget chemicals which mostly clean your wallet. yes, glass is not a permeable substance BUT the stuff that auto makers treat the glass with IS and thats why you can get stuff 'in' your windshield. to get under the weatherstrip at the bottom of windows, push them down inside with a WOOD ruler. wait a while til all is clean and dry, dont leave your car in the sun during this, then roll the windows all the way down then up and ta da, back up comes your weatherstrip. tint shops do this.

yes you can spiff up the glass too. all you need is a good spray wax, the kind you spray on and wipe off. just be careful where you spray, dont leave drops behind or whatever. i saw this at a carshow once. those freeks actually wax the glass. anything for some shine eh? more power to them.

the best thing to scrub bugs off your car with is nothing. scrubbing is for chumps. anything, including a 'bug pad,' can scratch your car. use a pressure washer, at least 1800 psi. dont get closer than about 2" on factory paint or 3" on an aftermarket paint job. the best are the $200-300 small gas engine powered jobs that push about 2000-2200 psi and can do everything you need where your car is concerned. ive personally held a beefy gas powered pressure washer wand about 1 inch away from the bumper of a jag and stood there, prepared to pay for repairs, just to see what would happen. nada. everything was cool. that job was about paint splash tho.. and the pressure washer took it off the side of her car and from inside the fenderwell with no prob. if you wanna be a freek, take off the wand, the metal tube part.. bring/ship it somewhere where they can mandrel bend a gentle curve to it and use it for the undercarriage and other hard to reach spots. when you get good with one, you can use it for door jambs and such, to get that every-nook-and-cranny clean, like when it was new.

not only can you use steel wool on chrome rims (lightly, carefully, with lots of soapy water) but you can use acid too. hydro-fluoric acid is great stuff. cut it with water, about 2/3rds of the bottle should be water, and spray on your rims AFTER getting your rims and car wet. just go around in a circle then go right behind yourself (with your new pressure washer) and handle it. its like an on/off switch for grime. do that on your tailpipe and some parts of your engine too. carefully. if it all doesnt come off, repeat the process. more is not better. leaving it on longer just means youre more likely to burn the rims. once the finish is off your wheels, youre done, no going back, and they only get worse. yes you can spray wax your rims too. hell, many rims these days are painted. if you have stock brakes, then who cares. if you have fancy aftermarket brakes or you painted your brakes and they actually look good, then, pussyfoot as appropriate so you dont toast your hardware. acid is awesome stuff but it CAN bite you in the ass. used correctly, it can work wonders and save you LOTS of time. i havent physically scrubbed a wheel since i was a teenager =D

enough for now.. more later like how to REALLY get all that crud out of little cracks and tight interior spaces, etc. theres a simple way to get ALL of it. and how to clean seats/carpet without using an extractor and this and that.

[Dave88]

, I appreciate the post and all but no way i'm reading all of that. Maybe during one of my lectures.

[LUNAR]

I actually took the time to read it and it was pretty informative. I would have never known that you could use steel wool on glass and it wouldnt scratch it. I have however used the acid stuff on chrome rims before. It does work wonders but you have to be careful like you said. If left on too long it will eat away at the finish!

[phalse]

yeah, it has to be steel wool for industrial use tho, the kind sold in clumps or a long spindle of it, clearly marked with a designation telling how fine or coarse it is. you need #00 or finer. works wonders. if you dont wanna use it on your chrome tho.. get some aluminum foil, and wad it up into a tight ball about the size of a golf ball and use that, with some soapy water.

and now for the cracks and creases between panels and such in your interior; you need a shopvac and a couple good brushes. you can often find 'detail' brushes sold in little sets in stores like autozone but theyre not that great. what you want is paint brushes. get a very small one, and a medium size one. i recommend a 1.5" brush and a small one like 3/4th inch or so, half inch if you can find one. after you find a couple brushes, cut the bristles short to about 1 inch long. this will give some 'strength' in the form of more rigidity. you want them just short enough so that they dont bend and flop around while using the brush to 'sweep' stuff like crumbs or cigarette ashes out of cracks and crevices. then you use your tailored brush to 'scrape' stuff TOWARD you, not away or down. if you do, basically youre brushing that fermented crap out of the nooks and cracks and down INTO your dash, or at least onto your floor. use a scraping motion toward you, so that you shuttle it right into the shop vac. kinda like broom to dustpan, ya know? its awesome =) gets rid of all that gook in places like around the shifter in an automatic, in the little spaces in/on your steering wheel, etc.

for cleaning leather, youre gonna need the high quality cleaner/conditioner product of your choice, a couple clean towels, a bigass bucket of warm water, and a scrub pad. yep, like the plastic-like kitchen scrub pads that ppl often keep at one corner of the kitchen sink, bought in packs of 2 or 8 or whatever at grocery stores. try not to use a new one, break it in first. make sure its at least fairly clean. dont scrub too hard, you never know if you have 'soft' leather like in mid90s maximas or late model lexus 430's. trying to get leather truly clean just by scrubbing it down with a towel loaded up with some shit from a bottle is just gonna rot your seats a bit sooner. leather does NOT dry like cloth does. if you want, use JUST A FEW DROPS of an all purpose cleaner in the warm water and scrub your ass off, youll be amazed. go behind yourself after each square foot or so and wipe the area with a towel. ive done this a thousand times and it works like a charm. this is something you should do before doing most things in your interior so that when the car is done, the seats are partly dry. then condition them with your favorite leather product that does NOT contain silicone, to keep your seats from cracking/wrinkling and generally getting ragged out. less is more. as with everything else, its better to put a couple LIGHT coats of product on your seats, rather than spreading it on like paint heh. this also goes for leather on your steering wheel (be VERY careful, easy does it) and doors and such. just remember, err on the side of caution. if you have no reason to scrub hard, dont.

for cleaning cloth seats, some of us in the biz use something called a whizzy wheel. this is a hand tool that is air powered, so youll need a small compressor that you can get from any of the usual stores like home depot. its shaped more or less like a fat gun, with a 'trigger' and it has a small wooden wheel on it, with plastic bristles about 1 inch long. the wheel is about 6 inches wide and 1 inch thick and the edge of the wooden wheel can burn carpet and scuff vinyl, so be careful. this thing is a miracle that only costs a couple hundred bucks. use your favorite foaming interior cleaner, do about 2 square feet at a time and just 'whiz' it up. great for breaking up dried up food and other protein stains. used along with a shopvac this can wipe out virtually any problem. for funky stains like tea and coffee you might need some shaving cream. dont ask, just try it, sparingly. you should have an air compressor anyway, for blowing dirt out of hard to reach places like between seats and under the dash and blahblah.. air makes things like vacuuming much easier.

the only caveat to this is that sometimes certain stains in floor mats come out easiest with a pressure washer. stay about 6" away with the wand, a 2000 psi wand can put divots in cement. clean your driveway and patio with it too while youre at it =D

now, interior glass. everyones favorite pain in the ass. sometimes when you think you have them CLEAN, they still fog up 2 days later cuz the product you used left a film which facilitates condensation. using newspaper and razor blades and blahblah is overrated. keeping it simple keeps it clean. my way requires 1 large shallow basin (like a 6" deep storage bin of some sort from walmart or target), a plastic jug or other storage container (and funnel), and some towels. just basic white 100% cotton towels, they dont need to be nice ones. wash/dry a few times before using. you clean the glass with a slightly damp towel, then wipe off with a dry towel. use the basin to soak your 'cleaning' window towels in, then ring them out right before you use each one. in a gallon of water i dump in several tablespoons of ammonia and 1 teaspoon of a general purpose degreaser. per customer request sometimes i use lemon juice (not sure about this one) or denatured alcohol instead of the ammonia. never clean a window when its hot from the sun. detailing is a room temperature adventure. you can also buy bulk glass cleaner from your favorite local stores. but at least 99% of them all suck. if you can find a good FOAMING cleaner for glass, go for it. seems like leaks always leak/drip where you dont want leaks to go =D when youre done, use the funnel to pour the cleaner back into your jug/bottle/whatever.

claybar - more fun in the sun. dont claybar your car in the sun. theres nothing really wrong with it but whatever you use for a lubricant will dry much faster on a hot fender and you could possibly sketch out your paint with your own claybar. heh. and never use plain water. it doesnt work out well. there are different weights/grades of claybar, yes.. a more aggressive clay can only be used on light colored cars like white, silver, gold, beige, etc. if your car is dark blue or black or something youd better tread lightly. do 1-2 square foot at a time and every few mins, stretch out the clay in your hands and refold it and generally knead it like you were making bread. if you drop it, hold it in the wash water and wipe it off and LOOK at it to make sure theres nothing serious stuck to it. use too much lubrication, usually the wash water you wash your car with works fine, or you can get products just for that purpose. if you think youre using too much, youre using just enough. AFTER the car is washed, run the clay across your paint in short straight lines, and youll see the gook it pulls off your paint in the clay (rinse a second time).

road tar sucks. if you get some on your car, use anything BUT lacquer thinner. in some cases, everything will turn yellow if you do. sux to be you if that happens on a white car. use peanut butter. if you have no peanut butter but happen to have some enamel reducer (often found at autobody/paint shops) thatll work too. use as little as possible. its generally not as strong a solvent as thinner is, but its still potent stuff. takes blacktop right off, too, no scrubbing and burning up an entire claybar just cuz you splashed your rocker panels with road gunk.

..next time; how to clean whitewalls/raised tire lettering in 2 secs, what to do with rust on carpet caused by coins, and what to use to touch up scratches on your car xD

[tzvier]

Thanks for the info/advice. Just out of curiosity, what do you do for work? You keep mentioning customers, just curious if this is all you do.

[Regulator]

Very informative, repped. Couple questions for you:

Are self serve car washes good for the car? Is the soap they use okay for the clear coat? The sprayer is like a pressure washer so I guess that's a plus.

On a rainy day I drove through a construction site and got a bunch of white shit all over the side and bottom of my car. I scrubbed the shit out of the wheels to get it off with a little Simple Green, and it eventually came off. I was just gonna clay bar the car to get it off the body. Any other suggestions?

[phalse]

self serve car washes, the kind with a bunch of bays and a wash attachment thats basically just like a pressure washer are pretty sweet, usually. theres usually lots of elbow room and decent PSI. theres often also a long handled brush with soft bristles about 8" long, fed by a different hose, for soap and such. these are ok just be careful not to bump or scratch something with the end of the brush head or the handle or whatever. ive done that a couple times and felt like a dolt. i usually have a washmit in my car, which i keep in a big 1gal ziplock bag. the brush is often good but not great.

concerning their chemicals, very good question. i was curious about the chemicals used by one owned by Delta Sonic (regional; northeast, mostly) so when i saw a guy doing some maintenance i asked if there was any packaging around i could look at. the chemicals are mostly generic, general purpose sudsing cleaners with surfactants and such made in places like 'dayton, ohio' and 'boston, ny' etc. the polish though.. just seemed sketchy. some halfass combination of poly-gunk that may or may not make your car look better than it did when it rolled in. pass. use those self serve things to just get it clean, then dry it yourself with a waterblade and call it a day, is my advice. anything fancy like a decent wax or polish product should be taken care of yourself.

concerning the white stuff from the construction site, not sure without knowing just what it is but my guesses are anything from semi-dry paint to dust from concrete related work that got mixed up a bit by rain. enter the pressure washer, again.. i tell ya, its like a magic wand. never bring out the heavy artillery first.. like dont start with a buffer, just try a stiff sponge. if you have to, go back to that site and look around for someone to ask about the crap all over the road. if you know what it is, you can deal with it easier. just pay attention to the way it comes off.. if its chalky in any way then it could scratch things all to hell as you scrub it off, so step lightly at first. also try plastic razor blades, found at most auto parts stores. they do scratch slightly sometimes but often save LOTS of time. after something like this, you should be hand glazing your car anyway =D

i was a detailer at a lexus dealership for quite a while. i quit not long ago to take a temp job while i pursue a possible career in the military.

moving along.. for any sort of raised coloring, such as whitewalls, use a plain cotton (you know what color) cloth around the size of a washcloth (fold it up a bit into a little pad), and some mineral spirits. the dirt and grime and such literally wipe right off. so does the white, in some cases, if you scrub too hard. once you get good at this, you can wipe once around the tire, halfway around then reverse your hand position and continue on around, wiping it perfectly clean in about 2 seconds. be sure to follow the curve of the lettering, dont veer off, thats when the mess can start. you only press just slightly harder than you do when using a stick of butter to butter a hot pan. most ppl use brushes and degreasers and blahblah on white/colored impressions and thats great for making your wife think youre SUCH a hard worker, cuz its the hard way to do it =D normally i do this AFTER spraying down the tire sidewalls with degreaser and pressure washing them clean.

if you find rust on your carpets from coins, or from the seat brackets or anything like that, you can try vacuuming it to get any general debris but stop at that point. best way to lose the rust is to call one of the national carpet cleaning companies and ask them about those little bottles of rust remover that they use. it works. they squirt a spot down, wait a moment, then run over it as normal with their steam wand thing. ive seen it myself and forget every damn time to ask for an extra bottle.. heh. then after, may as well foam it down with your preferred cleaner then shopvac it out, or have your upholstery extracted. tho i would point out that perhaps the most effective overall upholstery cleaning to be had is from those same guys, the carpet cleaners. the better extractors use heated tanks but they dont get as hot as carpet cleaning. the machinery in a carpet cleaners van is powered by the vans engine itself (look in one sometime.. see the driveshaft going between the front seats under the dash area, to the firewall etc?) and produces steam at around 280 degrees. they often have a small hand vac attachment for doing chairs and such. which works fine on a car. =D

for little chips and scratches that are no bigger than the letters on your keyboard, the most consistent and 'quality' method is using a sword brush. youve probly seen those funny finger-brushes used by guys doing the pinstriping on shows like american hot rod and overhauling and such.. those are sword brushes and theyre golden. order matched touchup paint for your car from whoever suits you (based on the paint code on stickers that are usually in the doorjamb somewhere, just write down all the info you see on the sticker if unsure for when you order), and keep it AT HOME. a rule of thumb is to use as little as possible to still get coverage. the great thing about a sword brush is that you can load it up with more paint than you think but still be very precise about delivery. practice on something besides your car.. its almost like the brush is laying or dropping the paint onto the surface. youll know if you have too much cuz the paint wont 'fall' or 'spread' on the spot in question. try to keep things as flat as possible. you can also ask for/buy a bit of clearcoat from any local autobody place. most dont normally do that, but most will sell you a pint can that has a couple ounces of clear in it if you ask. if they ask if you want flex additive in it, say no. we're just talking about little spots here, in which case location doesnt matter.

later, the best way to apply dressing/tireshine to tire sidewalls (and most other areas), how to get dealership decals and name blurbs off, and all the things ppl use on vinyl that you shouldnt. xD

[rywynn_13]

thanks man this is sweet....keep it coming.

does the type of claybar matter? recommendation plz?

[Regulator]

Awesome, thanks for the reply. I'm thinking that it was semi dry paint.

[wdlssm]

I noticed you live in NY ...

I live in MA ... and I kinda suck at this whole washing thing, haha. I'm ok at it, my car doesn't look like complete crap or anything but I could use some tips.

Any chance I could get you to professionally clean and wax my car? I'm serious, of course.

I'll drive up there for you to show me what to do exactly ... and maybe clean my car to the point of me not having to work so hard next time!

Oh, and what do you suggest I do in winter? This is my daily driver ... I was thinking of me running it through the auto carwash once a week or so.

-Sin

[Cam]

Erepped for the simple fact that you took the time to write out all of these little trade secrets.

[phalse]

i suppose i could, but on the (long) way back home, your car would just get trashed again. i think a fishing pole is better than a fish.. some day ill post pics or vids here, providing better instruction on certain tasks. then, anyone can handle things themselves, anywhere =D

concerning winter months in areas that get snow, its not the what as much as the when. the only reason that gunk on your undercarriage can rot your car is cuz ppl leave it there for extended periods of time. even acid wont harm your wheels IF you dont leave it on there very long. so yeah, find a reputable carwash place that offers an underspray function, something that blasts the underside of your car as youre rolling through. ya just gotta wash your ride more often in the winter so that at no point is that salt stuck to your car for very long. theres no way around this. in winter its twice a week, for me. im a bit obsessive.

as for what brand of claybar, it doesnt matter much, its more about your habits. obviously a decent name brand will be a bit (but not much) better than some cheapo stuff out of a catalog, but there are slight differences such as moisture content. never leave your clay sitting around, keep it in the plastic container with the lid screwed/snapped on. once it gets enough crap in it so that you can tell the color is darker from 2 car lengths away, its done, dump it. just make sure to choose a lightweight, or a heavier and more aggressive, version based on the color of your car. dark car = lightweight clay.

right then.. for dressing out your tires, go to stores like walmart, target, autozone, advance auto, or especially kmart and look for a package of 2 black palm sized sponges that have a curve on one side of them, with a yellow backing to them. i see these from time to time and snatch them up when i can, an eagle1 product i think. all this is, is an open-cell foam sponge, with a concave 'curve' along one side that matches the curve of the sidewall on most tires. its PERFECT. whats not perfect is spraying stuff on your tires. use the spray or liquid tire dressing of your choice but spray it INTO the sponge, not ONTO it. meaning, hold the spraygun nozzle directly against the sponge applicator and squeeze a few times. THEN go around the tire. turn it sideways to get right along the edge of the rim. it lets you do it quick, consistently, and perfectly. for that spot where the tire is resting on the ground, you can actually spray that area, hold the bottle nozzle a few inches off the ground and spray a couple times. youll be so 'low' that unless youre getting crazy with it, you wont get anything on the car as you would doing the rest of the tire by spraying. in a car like this you should be running your tires 1 psi under max anyway, so there shouldnt be any fat dip in the tire. what you can get by spraying at the very bottom of the tire where it meets the road is just enough.

concerning decals/vinyl lettering.. any car from a dealership has this crap on the back end somewhere, touting the name of the dealership it came from. normally this is some kind of vinyl product and the myth is that since vinyl is technically a porous material, you can take this off with compound. and you can, if you wanna be farting around in your garage with a buffer for about a week. the thing is, it doesnt matter what you pick it off with.. get on it with a heat gun. soften it up then scrap/peel/pick it off with whatever. i generally use my fingernail or a plastic razorblade. then to make sure everything is kosher, machine buff the area real quick with some low-cut (nothing too aggressive) or just rub it out by hand with some extra-cut compound and a heavy cloth. ta da, like it was never even there.

for the vinyl and plastic in an interior, ppl do all sorts of rain dances to get this stuff clean (its a bitch, vinyl is a porous material and can get 'stained,' absorb odors etc) and they either fail or wind up taking the finish off the vinyl. what you need is one of those foaming 'orange' spray cleaners (bissell makes a good one) and a kitchen scrub pad like the one i mentioned for cleaning leather. in fact, i would often use a new one to CAREFULLY scrub the interior vinyl, and when done, its 'broken in' enough to use on the leather seats. do a little area at a time, spray, scrub, wipe off all the gunk with a towel/rag. go EASY at first. this is something you just need to build experience in to know how aggressive you can be. something like this is GREAT for de-sliming the leather on your steering wheel. dont use thinner or nail polish remover. all thatll do is 'remove' any shine or finish on the surface of the vinyl. not good =D

next time.. the fun stuff. pics on dressing out your tires, 5 most common things you should never use inside your car, and how to wet sand =D

[Elizabeth]

I need to try the leather tricks. So you are saying that I can use my kitchen scrubbie sponge? The yellow one with the green stuff on one side? Used, of course.

[phalse]

yes, that scratchy plastic-like scrub pad stuff is what ive used on about ten thousand leather seats. CAREFULLY. i wad it up in my hands and fold it and just beat it up alot if i feel like i want a more workable piece or if im doing a car known to have 'soft' leather. i would advise against using these woven scrub pad things on any car that has a custom interior done in some funky leather such as lambskin. lambskin has a much finer grain than cowhide. other than that, yeah.. just keep the area wet and scrub it clean, be conservative at first. be sure to get down in the cracks and such. youll see the dirt in the water on the seat, wipe it up with a towel as you go and you leave behind clean leather as you go along. its great =D go very lightly at first. if you see the dirt coming up then you know you dont need to scrub any harder. always be extra super careful around areas where the leather is already cracked or wrinkled from normal wear and tear. and if your leather is to that point, you definitely need a conditioner to get some moisture back into the leather.

[wdlssm]

Well, when you have time sometime, like ... a whole day or something ... hit me up with a date I can come up and have you clean my car!

I know it'll get dirty on the way there ... but I learn a LOT better WATCHING someone do it IN PERSON than reading about it or watching a video. Plus, I can ask questions that way ... ya know? ^_^

Besides, from what I can tell, that zanio stuff will hold until I get home ... and then I can just wash my car and my car will still have a mirror shine! (Which is what I'm looking for.)

-Sin

[Xotic Eclipse]

dont forget mr clean wash kit.

i have a black car.. and will never wash the eclipse without it .. drys on its own.. no waterspots. this is especially good for the nongarage owners out there.. trying to dry a black car in the car w/o waterspots is damn near impossible without taking hours on end to do it.

[phalse]

shrug i never have any probs getting a car dry without spots but ppl should definitely use whatever works for them. im always glad to hear that a product is good.. there are too many bad ones out there.

[tzvier]

Just make sure the filter is in good condition. That's the only time I ever had a problem.

[rywynn_13]

u planning on doing a write up for convertable tops? Black trim?

[HIJACKER]

Since we're talking about tricks, I'll add in that if you buy those small 1" foam brushes for 10 cents each at Home Depot or any arts and crafts place, they're PERFECT for getting the dust of of those small places in the engine bay and ESPECIALLY cleaning out the brake dust around the lugnuts on your wheels.

[phalse]

just like there are some things everyone should have in their garage for taking care of their car.. there are some things you should never use on your interior. the 5 most common are..

5. WD-40 or PB Blaster: bad idea. often great for disolving petroleum based problems but NOT WHEN ITS ON YER CARPETING EH?! smells bad, hard to get rid of, makes you look like a redneck. plastic is a petroleum product. spray too much WD40 on plastic and you win a prize!

4. Windex. terrible idea. by volume, this product costs too much to just clean glass with it. the only reason it halfway works is cuz it contains ammonia which does clean organic compounds well, such as fingerprints. but the 25 different other kinds of things that get all over the inside of your glass (things windex isnt meant for) is what causes streaking and hazing etc. find something that works for you that you can buy locally, preferrably a foaming cleaner. remember, you always pwn with foam.

3. leather cleaner. a few of these do work but all are overrated. until the end of time, what works the best will always be elbow grease, which is free =D in an earlier post i talked about a way to literally scrub your leather clean. then you can be sure you get just enough moisture back into the leather using the conditioner product of your choice. if you MUST use a product, then the best i ever used was probly Meguiars, and in some cases Zymol.

2. spray/moistener air fresheners. ick. hanging something from your rear-view mirror in the hopes it makes your car smell good just cuz it bakes in the sun all day just screams 'freshman college girl' =D all those little doodad products in the form of sprays, cups, and ornaments all suck. the best thing for a good smelling car is still a 3 dollar box of dryer sheets, pulled completely open and left on the back deck of your car under the rear glass for a few days at first, then kept under a front seat. find something with a REASONABLE scent, nothing too unusual or strong. or when your girlfriend gets into your car she'll ask you why its like sticking your head in the dryer right after the clothes are done.

1. ArmorAll. because unless youre this guy..


..driving this car:


..you shouldnt be spraying this silly shit all over the inside of your car. save the 'shine' for the paint. the only gloss in my car better be the lipstick on my date this weekend. if you wanna live like its 1982, you know what to do =D

---

about those tire dressing pics i mentioned.. this is a chance to see that curved sponge-thing i mentioned. the pics are sketchy, sorry about that.


above.. hold the product bottle nozzle right against the foam and spray INTO it, instead of on it. load it up from one side to the other. any guesses how i took this pic, since i only have 2 hands and no one helped me?


above: my way is, starting from the 2 o'clock position, go counter clockwise around the tire sidewall. starting near the top helps with drips (cuz you use up most of the product in the sponge) and with the bottom of the tire. since the bottom is harder to work with, youre more likely to smear the rim.. getting rid of the excess product from the sponge by time you get near the bottom helps with this. with practice youll never get a drop of dressing product on your rim.


above: for very low profile tires or with any rim that has an extended lip, turning the applicator sideways is a good way to handle that last bit of work. then for the spot at the very bottom near the ground, just hold the bottle nozzle a couple inches off the ground and spray gently. use the sponge to even it out if needed. ta da, perfect gloss every time, consistently.

concerning wet sanding, i should probly hold off on that. if it were me, id wanna see pics and such..

[phalse]

uh, gonna be a while on the wetsanding pics, this nonsense about trying to join the military sketches out my free time..

[tzvier]

youd be surpised how much of your time the recruiter can actually take up. Then meps is a pain in the ass as well.

[wanted-A-GT]

This is an awesome post, really helps out a lot. I wash my car everyday, and this stuff will save me so much time. Oh, and take your time with that recruiter guy, he has a monthly quota he needs to fill. Make sure you get what "you"! want, not what the military can give you right now. Don't take that, "we don't have anything else" bullshit. I did and was screwed royaly. They need you 100 times more than you need them. Just walk out and come back later.

[phalse]

yeah, ive done my homework.. if i go 91W then i need the M6 LPN training or i walk. if i go 25B then i want the airborne training (dont ask) or i walk. and so on.. 89 asvab, no line scores lower than 123 so theyre up my ass

more detailing disasters to be posted tonite, my goal is to build up this thread so that it becomes sort of a modern-day reference. the stupid shit ppl used to do in the 70s to get cars clean no longer applies =D

[Regulator]

Sticky perhaps?

[phalse]

if you have a drop top, you love me.. cuz im gonna tell you a good way to clean them. what you need is nothing but the stuff you normally wash your car with, and a soft or medium plastic scrub brush. the ones i like are the smaller ones you find in the isle with dishsoap and stuff, in supermarkets. especially those oldskewl ones where the brush is a rectangle with sort of a point at the front, and a handle over the top of it. the bristles are plastic, not too soft, not too stiff. you dont wanna take the chance of scratching anything up. thats it. scrub your ass off and get in the cracks and around joints and seams. you can RINSE with a pressure washer but stay 3 to 4 feet away with it. dont use strong cleaners on a convertible top cuz you never know if itll stain or mess up the color. no simple green, no castrol 'purple' superclean, etc. sometimes you can use those products and its all good but dont take the chance. for funky stains like bird droppings, which suck, try baking soda. if you do something to neutralise the strong chemicals found in birdshit, it comes off easier.

black trim is one of the best examples of this rule; if you dont LET bad things happen then you wont have to fix them. the plastic at the bottom of our windshield under the wipers seems bad for this. dont let it fade. use the product of your choice BUT use a cloth rag to apply it. instead of a sponge, you wanna use a cloth/towel of some sort so you can rub it in kinda hard, like you were waxing boots or something. of course, wash the car first, the plastic has to be clean. theres not much difference between products, but the black trim gook that i like is made by Mothers.

doing engines with a pressure washer is perfect. like cake and icecream. like imports and turbos. like me and your girlfriend. but if all you have is a hose, then at least get a kickass variable nozzle attachment from home depot, and use the shower/spritz setting;

for a fairly clean engine, do it with the car off. an engine thats fairly clean you dont need to get all hardcore about, so shouldnt need to cover the fuses or alternator. just dont spray directly at the juice and youll be fine. all you need is a strong kickass degreaser/emulsifier mixed half/half in a spray bottle with water. spray the whole engine down including the underside of the hood, the top of your radiator, etc. but not the alternator or fuse box, or near the fenders. make sure to get the bad spots like behind the usual obstructions and the tops of all the caps, like brake fluid resorvior. scrub with a long handled brush which you can get from anywhere. rinse and repeat as necessary. im pretty sure this is a coil-on-plug car, with no distributor cap, so there should never be any instances of your car not starting. ive never had a problem. if so, just give it an hour with the hood up to dry out, or use a spray product for displacing water.. but not wd40. im sure this will never be a problem unless you POURED water down places water shouldnt go.

for a dirty engine.. you suck. hang your head in shame. then start the car. prop open the hood and think about new ways to live a cleaner life, while your car warms up. once its warm (be CAREFUL around the fan and such, dont wear long sleeves etc), spray it down as above but with full strength degreaser. be careful not to spray directly on anything important like fuse relays. go easy on it. of course, you shouldnt scrub. heat from the engine will help the degreaser get the gunk off. rinse off and take it easy while you do, and dont let the full strength degreaser sit too long. it could discolor plastic or hoses, but its tops for taking the slime off your engine block. you only have to really worry if you let it sit for 15+ mins. castrol superclean is badass, it took the finish off the side of the case on my old motorcycle back in the day. you should not be in a rush doing this. repeat if needed. if youre not comfortable doing engines with the car running, just do it cold. means you gotta scrub but no shame in that. everything looks and runs better when its clean =)

[00TampaBlueGS]

Originally Posted by Regulator

Sticky perhaps?

c'mon, mods... this guys providing some PRICELESS info!

[NoQuarter]

I asked this in another post, but I'll repeat it here:

The unpainted metal surfaces in my engine bay- bolt heads, transmission, brackets, block, etc are all covered with a whitish, powdery, speckled, corrosion looking stuff.

If I actually rub/wipe the entire surface I can get it to look nice, but doing that for all the nooks will be very difficult. Is there a chemical solution that will desolve this stuff?

[phalse]

...that sucks. yeah, its probly corrosion but if its the white stuff that flakes, that makes me think of electrolisis related problems. ever seen the negative battery terminal on someones car all gooked up with a white powdery stuff, looking like an ant hill? you may have a short somewhere (though im not an advanced mechanic, i cant think of a condition where your entire engine bay, block, and trans would be affected), check your grounds.

as for cleaning it, any general cleaner will do cuz along with the white stuff, theres always other crap on there which was attracted by the white stuff. if you wanna be smooth tho, you can try looking around for one of the so-called pH-balanced cleansers that ppl sometimes use on boats and such. a halfass way of killing 2 birds with one stone, sort-of. get it as clean as you can.. you may as well. if you do a good job, youll only have to do this once. scrub the major areas with a scour pad from a grocery store (finally checked to see what those are called). park in the sun with the hood up, and after it dries cut open some large garbage bags, along just one side so that you get a bigass sheet. in detailing, this is the poor man's tarp (for when you run out of 2mil plastic sheeting, again, and look around and see nothing but garbage bags) that you just lay over your engine and other internals, no need to tape it down or whatever. then spray down the stuff you just cleaned with any decent primer. IMHO, black is probly best; pop the hood and you should notice the engine, not the engine bay. =D

the only time i ever come across this mysterious white stuff is on batteries. i always scrub, then resurface with a wire brush and coat with vaseline. probly dumb to lube up your entire engine bay and transmission though, so just prime it =)

more to come soon.. seems like everything i think of is something that should have pics =P

[mclarenf12003]

you love to type dont you...hahaha, jk

good info though

[perna00]

How about my problem. My back interior tan peices are all glazed white from fading and the sun (convertible). I've tried cleaning and wiping them but it seems like the fade is too far to bring back. It's almost like there is no color left in the plastic anymore. Any advice?

[phalse]

if youre talking about the plastic interior pieces in the rear like by the back seats and in the trunk area, then yeah theyre probly too far gone.

you could try wiping a spot clean, about the size of your hand, then apply the dressing product you prefer to see if throwing a little gloss on the area is 'enough' to make it look tan again. if that doesnt work, pull it all out and sand/prime/paint it would be the only other option

[rywynn_13]

man phalse its been awhile, when is the next update?

[phalse]

soon. =D

[phalse]

heres a quickie.. this was on my mind earlier cuz a friend called me asking about a couple things. the last item crossed my mind a couple days ago cuz the roommates cats fuzzed up my favorite blazer AGAIN..

pen ink: if its not that silly metallic gel ink stuff, use hair spray with NO scent. lightly spray some unscented hairspray on a clean cloth and blot the stain a couple times, then rub gently to pick up the ink. work at it as long as you have to but if it starts to feel 'sticky' to your bare fingers, then stop and blot with water and wipe with a dry cloth, then keep going. you dont have to scrub hard, and you should never do so.

salt: this sucks. this is basically just for ppl living up north (per the winter roads) or ppl living near a beach. always try to clean this ASAP, sodium has been known to stain carpet. all you need is burning blazing superhot water. if it burns your hand its not hot enough. take the mats out of your car and hang them up on something, like with a heavy clamp that you would use to press together wood parts that you glue together. hang on a wall and hose it down til no more salt comes up when youre spraying at full blast from about 4 feet away. it usually takes a while. if you think youre done, youre not, stop the water for about 15 secs to let the mat drip, then blast it hard again from about 4feet, youll see a bit more white stuff sometimes. youre not done til you see clear water. for interior carpet, if you want to get them done with a heated extractor, fine, but youre probly reading this because you dont have an extractor. disconnect your washing machine and connect your garden hose. roll up a few towels and stuff them between your dash and the pedals.. if the towels are big enough they will 'sit' on top of your pedals and stop any water from hitting your dash. with practice you can do this with a pressure washer with no towels. i used to do jeep interiors (for ppl that actually take them offroad) all the time for mold and stuff. take turns spraying it down real quick (not full blast, about halfway) then shopvac'ing it out. definitely need a shopvac for this tho.

pet hair: this is another long time myth, that you can vacuum this stuff up just because a wet/dry vac is so powerful. and you can, about 40-60% of it. if you get it wet by spraying it down lightly with a foaming fabric cleaner, its easier to get a bit more. but if you wanna be a pimp, go get a bigass roll of duct tape and use it like a lint roller. wind up a piece around your hand (sticky side out) and lay your hand down, then 'roll' your hand away, this works better than if you lift your hand straight up. takes a minute to learn the way of it, dont do this if your interior is very hot from warm weather parked out in the sun all day. the adhesive from the tape COULD, but very rarely does, leave little dots on your seats. not hard to get that off either but dont be foolish. if it was 94 degrees today and your cars been parked in the street/driveway/whatever allllll day, wait a little while before lunch, next sunday.

fun stuff like wet sanding, polishing your headlights and so on, coming soon. my work schedule is a drag.

[Regulator]

Hey phalse, my Depos are in the very early stages of peeling, how can I protect them?

[phalse]

dunno about that one in specific but my guess would be a product such as the 3M or BASF poly sealants.. or clearcoat.

[FLiPMaRC]

Originally Posted by Regulator

Hey phalse, my Depos are in the very early stages of peeling, how can I protect them?

Do a search, but I don't know for what ...sorry I just remembered someone posting that they wet sanded their stock headlights because it was peeling. Then I think he covered it with clear coat.

[phalse]

youll have to be damn careful if you do that. if you dont know how to use a buffer, get a decent one which is the random orbit type, its harder to mess things up. dont use an aggressive compound unless you can find out specifics on the plastic the lights are made of. unless theyre very tough stuff, use a normal straight-cut abrasive, nothing that says 'extra cut' or whatever.

[BakersvilleGT]

Well my friends thought they would be funny and use a car marker all over my car that was suppose to be used on WINDOWS ONLY. Well I got all of it off except my front bumper. I used a tar and sap remover and that didn't help. Any advice?
Thanks

[phalse]

just dont use goo-b-gone, terrible product cuz it often works but is unpredictable.

try thinner, but go easy on it. use a clean cloth and enough to make a spot on the cloth the size of a large spoon, and rub. follow it up with a cloth wet with water, cant just let it sit like that, has to be wetted and dried. if that doesnt wipe it off with some light rubbing, then buff it. the key is to not let it sit around for weeks or whatever, even if you have to roll up to a shop and say hey would it be bout 30-40 bux to buff my front end, just get it done before its too late =D

another common myth in detailing is that EVERYthing comes clean. i wish that were true. sometimes, a problem just cant be fixed.

hm one more thought.. in a pinch id try some enamel reducer, which you might be able to hit someone up for, at a paint/body shop.

any advice on how to clean the interior carpet. ive steamed it and just can not find a great way

[phalse]

what color carpet, worn down how much (like scale of 1-10 1=brand new) and stained by what?

and what did you 'steam' it with?

its black carpet, i used my moms carpet steamer and the carpet is pretty good but it has sand stuck in it and I jus cant get it out. It shows with my neons

[phalse]

often takes forever to get sand out. the problem is, sand is a heavy, high friction, non-permeable material. so its a pain in the ass. agitation sometimes helps (scrubbing with light to medium plastic bristle brush). the best way to go is usually a professional extractor, at a detail shop. its gonna be more powerful than the portable steamer thing your parents have. ive used things like that, theyre only good enough for inbetween cleanings, not the heavy duty stuff.

if you cant hook that up, use a wet/dry vac such as those kickass orange ridgid vacs from home depot, and a FOAMING carpet cleaner. the foaming lifts/pushes the sand up, to a degree.. rather than you just grinding on and on trying to just pull it out with suction.

thanx man Ima try all these tomorrow

[BakersvilleGT]

Thanks
I'll try my best to get it off but if not just another excuse to upgrade to the 03 front.

[Ryder]

Great thread, just stumbled on it today. Wealth of useful information, I just got a 7 layer paintjob and it has alot of spider webbing/swirls...I ordered a goodie basket of zaino and I am going to try some of your tips. Thanks

[phalse]

just dont use zainos to fix swirls unless you ever have to cover something up at the last minute. fix swirls the right way, with some swirl remover from 3M or maguiars and a buffer, or several high quality white towels and some elbow grease

[heynoww]

Wow excellent info !

Do you have any inexpensive suggestions on one of these "pressure cleaners" ? I was actually checking them out on amazon, what do you think of this one:

http://www.amazon.com/Neiko-Ultra-Pr...4?ie=UTF8&s=hi

[phalse]

i have limited experience with electrics, models with 1750 psi and such, but they all seem to suck. the hp vs psi on that unit doesnt add up. that one probly achieves that psi only on direct stream (a skinny pinpoint stream of water) which shouldnt be used on a car. what you want is gas powered. theyre not hard to take care of. you want 2000psi or more, powered by briggs and stratton, honda, etcetc. no real need for more than about 3k psi.

units like the ones i suggest can be as cheap as 200 bux, so, not much more than the one you were looking at anyway. ive used electrics made by companies like husky and they were nothing but trouble. i saw a decent briggs/stratton-powered pressure washer for under 300 at walmart not long ago. since theres so much other stuff you can do with a pressure washer besides your car, they practically pay for themselves. dont buy a new grill, just pressure wash it =D

[Kenshin]

My front windshield has a lot of fine scratches and very small minor knicks (from every day driving I assume).

Is there any way of making this go away or improve it somehow? I read somewhere once (I think from Mark) that Baby Oil works.

[phalse]

theres no way to permanently fix the problem other than replacing the windshield. probly the overall best workaround would be that rain-x stuff that you apply to the glass, to help water bead off. all those water repellant products work sort of like a sealant, it bonds to the glass and is hard to get off, which is why it lasts for a while before you have to reapply. itll fill in SOME of the lightest scratches, just dont make it out to be other than what it is, it wont be a miracle fix. i could think of a couple other things to do but theyre kinda silly.

[phalse]

hm, suddenly i feel kinda sticky, woot.

gonna try to get wetsanding pics up tonite, im gonna swing by the old shop this evening

[Zrocks04]

only thing i do not agree with is the use of the brush thing at a car wash. you never know who used the thing before you and who knows what is caught up in the brush. that is just asking for scratched paint, no matter how light you use it.

[phalse]

shrug just gotta pay attention i guess. whenever i use one of those bay carwashes the first thing i hit with that bigass brush is the rims/tires. i keep a washmit and a waterblade in a bag in my trunk anyway so i dont really use them on my car.

[tzvier]

What do you recommend for cleaning window tint?

[phalse]

anything that says its safe for tinted windows. itll usually say on the container. you cant use ammonia on tint, bad things happen.

[Audiboy]

Originally Posted by phalse

towels are still a very good way to dry a car. you have to have towels at least big enough for a normal person to dry off with after a shower. keep the towel folded into quarters, and flip it around to this or that side/quarter from time to time. unlike a shammy, a wet towel will absorb NO more water. it may seem like it does but whats happening is called wicking.. the towel picks up some water but is also leaving some behind, as you smear that wet thing back and forth across your trunk. always use 100% cotton, the so-called microfibers (micro doesnt mean, so small/fine that they wont scratch) will just contribue to spiderwebbing. ANYthing can scratch clearcoat if you rub hard enough. this includes cotton, silk, a piece of brand new claybar.. whatever. use WHITE towels only so you can SEE whats going on. how do you know if your towel just got gooked up with something if its black, or dark grey, or a medium red or green or blue color? your car doesnt care. white white white. if you wanna be serious about it, buy EXPENSIVE towels for this (only gotta do it once) with a thread count of at least 150 and wash/dry them a few times before using them. towel fuzz sucks.

This is actually pretty horrible advice. Microfiber towels are the best for drying and contact should be limited. The microfibers take any contaminants and pull them into the towell to keep it away from your finish. This doesn't mean that you should still use them once you notice the towel is dirty, but it will limit the amount of scratches that a normal towel won't. The best drying towels are waffle weave microfiber towels. 99% of professional detailers will tell you the same.