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My car isn't too shabby-looking right now, but it is a daily driver and winter is never kind to cars. I'd like to keep it looking nice, without being an outright showcar. The interior is pretty much as mint as it's going to get in a car that's actively being used, so no worries there. But I was wondering about the exterior. I have no idea what's actually been done to it before I bought it and I've been washing it in an automatic car wash (shock and horror!). A well-maintained car wash, mind you, but not a brushless. I'd like to treat it really well, especially before the winter. The paint is good, plenty thick and allegedly double clearcoated. I have access to a heated garage. My plan is to clean, claybar, polish, top coat and wax. Is this too much effort to spend on a car that will be daily driven in the winter? I want it too look nice and last as long as possible, but I'm too lazy to repeat the whole process every month. Clean and wax, possibly, but not the whole shebang. And are Turtle Wax products any good? I have a bottle of the good old hard shell shine (the seafoam green stuff) that I've been using on my bike with good results, and a local store is having a firesale on their top coat sealer. KozmoNaut fucked around with this message at 11:58 on Oct 14, 2012 |
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Oct 14, 2012 11:55
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Scott808 posted:I don't know exactly what you mean in your steps, but when you say polish I'm interpreting that as removing defects with an abrasive product. You shouldn't have to repeat the process of polishing the car every month. You can't really do that anyway; if you did, you'd be eating away unnecessary amounts of clear coat anyway. If you remove the majority of paint defects and then keep up with good wash technique then you can keep your car looking nice and that in turn keeps the polishing to a minimum. What I meant was that I'd wash it well, claybar it, polish it to take out the superficial scratches it's picked up, then some kind of wax and/or protective top coat. Obviously, this would be to prepare it for winter, not every month. The monthly treatment after that would be more like wash+wax. Due to time restraints, there will probably be more automated car washes in its future, but I'd like to at least build up a good base layer of protection on the paint.
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Oct 17, 2012 16:27
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Yeah, a quick wash with a sponge and then a rinse shouldn't take more than 15-20 minutes, it's a midsize sedan. I dunno, I've always just used the car wash because I'm lazy.Gorillian Dollars posted:If you live in an area where they spread salt on the roads against ice it might be worth going to the carwash, the bottom of your car can gather up deposits of salt which isn't exactly good for metal, and cleaning that by hand is tricky to say the least. They spray more salt on the roads here than... I dunno, I can't even come up with an analogy. They absolutely drench the roads in some kind of salt slurry. The car has been given anti-rust treatments by the previous owner, and I have an appointment in a couple of weeks to have it refreshed, including the wear layer on the bottom of the car. So hopefully, it should be relatively safe from underbody corrosion. I already have a silicone product for the door-rubbers, based on previous experience. Tearing the rubbers apart because everything is frozen and you need to get inside your car NOW sucks rear end. It was only later I heard about the warm water trick (which is also a godsend for frozen windshields).
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Oct 17, 2012 16:57
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este posted:You really need to be careful with using warm water on your glass - too much of a temperature differential, and you can easily crack it from the sudden expansion. If you're going to do it, use the least-warm water you can without it just freezing up and making it worse. But if you can help it, don't do it at all. I've done it for years with no ill effects, it's not like I use boiling water straight from the kettle, or even straight from the hot tap. Just warm water, not so hot I couldn't put my hands in it. It clears ice from the windshield instantly and prevents fogging. And it beats scraping the hell out of my windshield with an ice scraper or killing the engine by idling it warm to defrost the windshield. KozmoNaut fucked around with this message at 20:20 on Oct 18, 2012 |
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Oct 18, 2012 20:17
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I was wondering about leather interiors, specifically what to do if it doesn't seem to take to leather cleaning and treatment products very well (and it is indeed leather, not vinyl or synthetic). I've been using http://www.furnitureclinic.co.uk/'s products as they're compatible with modern pigmented and sealed leathers, like in car interiors. It's working wonders on the seats and door panels, they look like new all over again. But the top of the steering wheel seems to be flaking slightly as I've cleaned and treated it. It's not the leather itself, but rather the sealing lacquer that seems to have become tacky and starts flaking off into tiny particles when cleaned. My theory is that due to hand grease, friction, sunlight and age, the lacquer has deteriorated in such a way that it will no longer stand up to much of anything. Is this correct, and is there anything I can do about it? I've cleaned it as gently as I can and applied a generous layer of leather cream. I'm going to let it sit for an hour or so in the hope that it'll soak in a bit. EDIT: Turns out I didn't quite understand how to properly use the leather cream. It needs to be applied and then left alone until it is completely absorbed and the leather is dry to the touch, then given a quick buff with a dry cloth. It looks completely new now, apart from a couple of small scratches made by the PO's rings. Furniture Clinic's leather treatment products are seriously magic, I can't recommend them enough. You just need to disregard the "apply sparingly" and "buff after 10 minutes" instructions on the leather cream for leather than has had little to no treatment before. It needs to be applied liberally and allowed to completely absorb before you buff it. KozmoNaut fucked around with this message at 18:09 on Oct 26, 2012 |
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Oct 26, 2012 16:44
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DJExile posted:I apologize if there's a better thread to use now, but this was the closest I could find. I got a new car and the leather seats are... I guess "textured" is the word. Basically not a smooth, perforated leather. What I'd like is something that keeps the leather cleaned and well cared for, but I don't want it having that really slippery/shiny feeling like some of Armor-All's stuff seemed to do on my old Jeep. I'm going to disagree with Motronic here. Do not use saddle soap, beeswax, leather oil or similar products on your car interior. They are meant for bare leather only, such as saddles, shoes and so on. Only really old (or very bespoke ordered) cars have bare leather interiors. Modern furniture and car interiors are made from leather that is painted and sealed with a polyurethane lacquer. This means that oil- and wax-based products will not reach the leather. You would be putting wax on plastic and wiping it off again, for no benefit at all. What you need are a cleaner and a conditioner, both water-based. I like this stuff from Furniture Clinic. It strengthens the protective lacquer and maintains the leather's supple non-shiny surface, and it's good for bare leather products as well. It did absolute wonders for the interior in my car, the steering wheel in particular was all dried out, now it's nice and soft and feels durable again.
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Dec 11, 2012 17:35
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DJExile posted:What about something like the Griot's Leather care? From the descriptions, it sounds a lot like the stuff I linked. Remember to follow the instructions, if you forget to buff it afterwards, it'll be a bit sticky. And if it smells just half as nice as the stuff I use, your car will smell amazing afterwards, like a well cared for Chesterfield sofa.
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Dec 11, 2012 18:36
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DJExile posted:Awesome, I liked what you linked, i just don't live in the UK Neither do I, but I haven't been able to find anything like it here in Denmark. Plus it lasts a long time. Based on my usage, I'll be getting about 12-15 treatments out of a bottle. bung posted:Are there any DIY kits out there for repairing gouges in alloy wheels? My wife's Camaro has the polished alloys with a clear coat. Two of them have deep scratches/gouges that I'd like to repair. What I'm looking for is a kit to repair the gouge and the clear coat. Mighty Car Mods did a video on using bondo and spray paint to repair gouged and curb-rashed alloy wheels, but I'm not sure if you can do anything to polished wheels yourself. I guess you could polish it back to a shine, but you can't add lost material back.
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Dec 11, 2012 21:00
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Indeed it is! I spent my Sunday afternoon spring cleaning and detailing my car. Washed it with dish soap, clay barred it all over including the windows, washed it again with clean hot water and gave it a healthy coat of good ol' turtle wax. Oh yeah, and autosol on the chrome exhaust tip, of course  I have to say, I was actually surprised at how well the clay worked. It's a 12 year old car and I don't think it had ever even been waxed before I got it. 12 years of dirt and gunk embedded into the paint feels like sandpaper when you start claying, but now the paint feels amazingly smooth, especially now that it's got a healthy layer of wax on it again. I did want to polish it as well, there are a bunch of washing scratches from machine washes, but I'd forgotten to get polish and all the stores were closed. Ah well, next time, I guess. Next up are the exterior black plastics. I think I've heard something about peanut butter working well to rejuvenate those?
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Apr 9, 2013 08:44
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General_Failure posted:I'm happy with that advice. Where do I find clay bars? I'm assuming it's a special sort for auto detailing. I've just never seen it before in person. But then I've never actually looked because it's only recently after reading threads like this I even heard of it. Just about any auto store that carries auto shampoo, polishes and waxes should carry at least a basic clay kit. I bought a real basic kit at a local budget autostore, store brand and everything. It worked perfectly on my car and I only paid like ~35AUD for it. I know Meguiar's make a kit too, you should be able to find it. Mine had the clay, a spray bottle with clay lube (probably just water with some auto shampoo in it), wax, a microfiber towel and obviously a set of instructions. It's really easy and it's fun feeling how the clay just peels off the stuck dirt. The wax wasn't anything special, probably OK, but I used my bottle of lovely mint-green Turtle Wax instead. One tip that you should remember: split the clay in two and only use half of it. You will drop it on the ground and once you do, it's straight to the bin. Do not try to clean and reuse it. Throw it out and use the other half.
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Apr 14, 2013 00:03
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ratbert90 posted:This is most excellent advice that I always forget to give. I remembered it right as I was about to start claying. Half way through, I dropped the clay on the ground, even though I was concentrating hard on not dropping it. On a sunday evening when all the stores were closed. It was such a relief to be able to just go over and pick up the unused half and keep going.
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Apr 14, 2013 00:13
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I've been wondering, this may just be a crazy idea, but hear me out. Some of you guys use garden hose-powered foam guns for your cars. Unfortunately I don't have that option, as I live in an apartment. Well, technically I could drag a hose to the gas station across the street, but I think they'd disapprove. Instead, what if I bought one of those pressurized weed sprayers, say a 5-6L model, filled it with hot water and soap, and used that to spray instead? Have any of you tried this? They're extremely cheap at my local hardware store, ~$10 for a 5L model. It even says in the description that it can be used for cleaning products. KozmoNaut fucked around with this message at 20:06 on Jul 5, 2013 |
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Jul 5, 2013 20:04
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Scott808 posted:At some point the guys on Detailing World were going nuts about buying hand pump pressure sprayers. I think they were using them to spray on pre-wash, but I don't know if they were using them without hoses to rinse. I'm quite sure some people use them to pre-treat when using ONR and the like. My plan is to use it for pre-wash, to get a layer of foam on there to soften everything before I wash. So foam->let sit for 2-3 minutes->rinse->foam->two-bucket wash->rinse, I guess.
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Jul 6, 2013 06:58
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RE: The hand pump pressure sprayer for foamin' up cars, this is pretty much what I was thinking of: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tS7yhtPfDjs I don't know how different that nozzle is to the standard one, though.
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Jul 7, 2013 14:41
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Thanks for testing it out! I wonder if a simply DIY mod could be made to make it aerate better. It's certainly cheap enough that I'd want to give it a shot. E: Something like this. KozmoNaut fucked around with this message at 20:22 on Jul 7, 2013 |
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Jul 7, 2013 20:20
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I decided to forgo buying the el-cheapo pump sprayer and buy an actual pump foam sprayer, I'm pretty satisfied with it so far. It's a Gloria Foam Master FM10, and it's actually a really nice piece of kit. Nice thick plastic, solid pump mechanism, feels like it could last years of frequent use, you can tell it was made for industrial use. There's a bigger FM50 model too, with 5-liter capacity, pressure indicator and a schrader valve so it can be charged using a tire pump. Kinda expensive and overkill for my use. About half a liter of water and ~10ml shampoo is more than enough to do my bike. It's not the ridiculously thick foam that you see with a real foam lance, but I suspect that's partly down to the cheap auto shampoo I'm using and partly down to the mineral-heavy tap water where I live. However, it sticks pretty well and will sit for a couple of minutes, I suspect I'll get better results with a more foamy shampoo. Can't argue with the results, the bike is so clean now, ready for my sales ad photos  E: Tried it on my car with a different brand of car shampoo and got thicker foam. I'll have to try with some actual foam shampoo and see what happens. KozmoNaut fucked around with this message at 20:53 on Jul 14, 2013 |
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Jul 14, 2013 19:40
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