Red Car
Thursday, August 9, 2007
Tuesday, August 7, 2007
Friday, August 3, 2007
Windows and Clear Plastic
Your "window" to the world is through your glass and dash gauges, here's how to make them sparkle.
Super Tip:
Avoid dry dusting dash gauge lenses at shows, this will put fine scratches in them faster than anything. Use a clay product (sometimes called "Quick Detailer" sprays) lightly on a soft cloth (don't spray the lens directly, it could run down into the gauge).
Glass and clear plastic
These are two completely different problems, so let's break them down:
Glass: 
We have all fought with re-appearing streaks and fog on the inside and outside of the glass in our car (and home). The problem most of the time is the type of cloth/paper we wipe the windows with. Typical paper towels just don't work for this type of job. Cloth is even worse, what a smeared mess!
What you need is the detailers secret (and almost totally free) method. Newspaper. Here is how I get a clean window. Use a good cleaner. I make my own from distilled water, a bit of ammonia and denatured alcohol. Use them in a 10-1 ratio of water to alcohol with just a splash of ammonia per gallon. Put it in a trigger spray bottle and coat the glass well. Then use a good paper towel. I like the blue paper "shop towels" that are in most discount stores. Wipe the windows down but not dry!
Next take a wadded up newspaper page and dry the window. Start by going around the edges, then wipe over the whole widow and repeat till gleaming. Do it again if you still see streaks and use a new newspaper. Remember to do both the inside and outside.
NOTE: Do not use the newspaper trick on aftermarket plastic widow tint, or on soft plastic windows or gauge/lens covers. It could leave fine scratches in the surface. It won't hurt glass.
A rubber squeegee works well outside, but makes a mess inside, and leaves water dribbling over the outside too, so the above newspaper trick works the best from what I have found.
What you need is the detailers secret (and almost totally free) method. Newspaper. Here is how I get a clean window. Use a good cleaner. I make my own from distilled water, a bit of ammonia and denatured alcohol. Use them in a 10-1 ratio of water to alcohol with just a splash of ammonia per gallon. Put it in a trigger spray bottle and coat the glass well. Then use a good paper towel. I like the blue paper "shop towels" that are in most discount stores. Wipe the windows down but not dry!
Next take a wadded up newspaper page and dry the window. Start by going around the edges, then wipe over the whole widow and repeat till gleaming. Do it again if you still see streaks and use a new newspaper. Remember to do both the inside and outside.
NOTE: Do not use the newspaper trick on aftermarket plastic widow tint, or on soft plastic windows or gauge/lens covers. It could leave fine scratches in the surface. It won't hurt glass.
A rubber squeegee works well outside, but makes a mess inside, and leaves water dribbling over the outside too, so the above newspaper trick works the best from what I have found.
Plastic gauges and plastic windows:
Here you do NOT want to use paper towels or newspaper. Treat these items like a fresh clear coat paint job. Use your softest polishing towels. Ones completely clean (remember never use or wash final polishing cloths with those used to compound or wash dirt off your car, keep the two types of shop "rags" separated, more on shop rags in the near future).
Meguires makes an excellent clear plastic polish that is an extremely fine cut polish. Used with care with a soft cotton polish rag like our 100% cotton polishing cloths, you will keep lenses looking like new for years. This product also works with taillight lenses and plastic headlights. Do NOT put products meant for vinyl on hard clear plastic.
Here you do NOT want to use paper towels or newspaper. Treat these items like a fresh clear coat paint job. Use your softest polishing towels. Ones completely clean (remember never use or wash final polishing cloths with those used to compound or wash dirt off your car, keep the two types of shop "rags" separated, more on shop rags in the near future).
Meguires makes an excellent clear plastic polish that is an extremely fine cut polish. Used with care with a soft cotton polish rag like our 100% cotton polishing cloths, you will keep lenses looking like new for years. This product also works with taillight lenses and plastic headlights. Do NOT put products meant for vinyl on hard clear plastic.
Super Tip:
Avoid dry dusting dash gauge lenses at shows, this will put fine scratches in them faster than anything. Use a clay product (sometimes called "Quick Detailer" sprays) lightly on a soft cloth (don't spray the lens directly, it could run down into the gauge).
Wednesday, August 1, 2007
How to Get Smells Out of Your Car
You have to think like a smell to get rid of them!
Last time I mentioned that one of the big no-no's in detailing is to use buckets of hot soapy water on your interior. That is one of the biggest creators of a sour smelling interior and it makes getting the smell out super hard. So, how do you think like a smell? People that are good at porting racing heads like to say they "think like air" when grinding and filling ports to make horsepower. They know that air moves in a certain way. Air moves in a car interior too. Smells come from one basic thing...moisture. Moisture creates mold and mildew. Spilled mustard is wet and, if it could only totally dry, it wouldn't smell, but there is always some humidity in the air, and that is why the smell keeps coming back. That is why you don't use lots of water on an interior. A bad smell like pet urine soaks into your carpet. If you use hot soapy water on it, you dilute the problem, but spread it over a larger area. Once the smell is bad, then it coats everything inside the interior. The dash, seats, carpet, (and here is where you have to think like a smell) even under the seats, dash and on the headliner! Yes, that smell may be coming from above your head! You must also determine how deep the smell is. Smells on the headliner will be surface only unless it has gotten wet somehow. But smells on a carpet can be down past the padding underneath. If the smell producing problem is on the surface, don't make it worse by soaking the entire area and spreading to deeper and wider. Use your carpet cleaner in a small area and if the smell is deep, soak only that area with something to kill mold/mildew and neutralize smells. The stain from most spills is just nap deep, the smells can be much deeper.
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