misc. car care facts

[Oz]

I used to work for a car detailing place/mechanic attatched. Heres some small tips for the actual washing:

-Use side to side stroked instead of swirl/round and round strokes. Covers a greater surface area quicker and gives a better finish.

-Make sure the car is thoroughly wet (soaking!) in water before you put any soap on it.

-Use the entire surface area of your chamoix along the entire section of car (eg. one stroke from engine to boot) then squeeze out and repeat.

-Go over your rims in a soft, white cloth to get any gunk off after cleaning and to dry. Apply some armor-all or tyre silicon with another rag to the entire visible section of the tyre.

-Use the chamoix and a clean white cloth to clean any glass - press hard with a s lightly damp chamoix to clean, use a razor blade for any stuck on c@rp and go over with clean white cloth.

More later when brain has had coffee.

[eckoman_pdx]

Microfiber cloths work very well for cleaning windows, and removing sudges or lines is you left any while cleaning.

Keep a microfiber cloth inside the car near the drivers seat, when haze starts to build up on the windsheild and other windows, softly wipe it off witht he cloth. Removes the haze, leaves no smudges.

Microfiber is also exellent for removing wax and polish when waxing or polishing a car.

When waxing your car, after cleaning your headlights and tailights, wax them.

When using a cutting compound, always start with the least aggerssive and work up if needed. automagic's blue clay works great (best clay I found) for removing bonded continates. Use a bottle of a quick detailer type product (like mcguires quick detailer), spray it on the car, and the take the clay bar to the sprayed area (rubbing) Wipe clean with microfiber. This will help resore your finish to that smooth as glass feeling (if not using a buffer with a cutting compound, some of these will remove bonded contamians too, don't use a rotory bufer unless familer with one's usage). If you drop the clay on the ground, dump it and get a new peice.

Wax your rims, especially the painted/power coated once like racing hearts bronze rims. Not only does this give them a nice, reflective shine, the wax helps protect them as well.

Automagic's Special Cleaner Concetrate is a great product to keep on hand. Delute it to desired level and use. Among it's uses (at various levles of delution) Engine Degreaser, Wheel Cleaner (spray off with water) interior cleaning, carpet cleaning, cleaning vinyl, leather. Cleaning off wax/polish residue/splatter off of trim.

To aviod spraying tire shine onto wheels, tire gels with a foam applicator work well. For low-profiel tires, just flip the appilcator to horizontal instead of using vertically.

Thats all I can think of at the moment.