"The Best Thing For Cleaning" Thread

[MTI]

Just to get a jump on Spring cleaning and the end of rain and snow for you lucky folks, I've started this thread about interior and exterior cleaning tips and tricks.

Please post your best finds for products and/or procedures to keeping the cars looking good.

My contribution is for interior spiffing is



Although I wouldn't recommend it for leather interior cars, it's great on MB-Tex, plastic, headliner, virtually all the interior surfaces. One sponge will easily do the insides of anything short of a junkyard dirty car.

The best feature is that it manages to get the oil and dirt out of the fake grain in the MB-Tex door panels, like where the arm rest and grab handle is for the door and shifter knob, and removes scuffs from the kick panels.

[Cdn190er]

Originally Posted by MTI

also works very well with cleaning up your rims.

[krazyfiend]

they are on sale @ Kroger's if you have those in your area... funny you mention them, I just picked up 2 pks.

[sev]

for exterior cleaning tips, I highly recommend using Meguiar's Clay Bar in conjunction with Meguiar's Paint Cleaner.





They should be used in this order:
1. wash
2. clay bar
3. paint cleaner
4. wash again (to get the marks from paint cleaner off)
5. polish (optional at this point)
6. wax

There is an entire article on using clay bars on the Benzworld site but it's buried in their detailing forum somewhere.

Paint cleaner is used like wax. Do small 2'x2' areas at a time and have two applicator terry cloths and four removal.

Remember to follow Miyagi San's teachings for step 7

[CDTGaticaW201]

Works wonders when it comes to cleaning your wheel wells, engine bay, and underbody. It's honestly just a great APC.

You wouldn't believe how much gunk it got out of my wheel wells after the winter....I think I painted the driveway black with the dirt.

[benz_racer]

simple green will clean ANYTHING

when i ran a horse ranch in hawaii, guess what cleaned the tack, kitchen, and bathroom :D

[BabyHands]

Originally Posted by CDTGaticaW201

Works wonders when it comes to cleaning your wheel wells, engine bay, and underbody. It's honestly just a great APC.

You wouldn't believe how much gunk it got out of my wheel wells after the winter....I think I painted the driveway black with the dirt.

Hmmmmmm, I've been looking for something to clean my wheel wells.

[CDTGaticaW201]

Originally Posted by BabyHands

Hmmmmmm, I've been looking for something to clean my wheel wells.

It's only about 4 bucks over at Autozone. I sprayed that stuff into my wheel wells, scrubbed away for a bit, then rinsed...Holy crap, black water just poured out of the wells. I was impressed.

**You might need to do it more than once to get rid of all the crap, but make sure not to leave it on too long ( >10 minutes) or it might eat away the metal and never use it on paint.**

[BabyHands]

Well it's been raining for 26 days straight. As soon as its nice out looks like I'll have to give it a try. My car wants washed so baddly.

[benz_racer]

Originally Posted by CDTGaticaW201

It's only about 4 bucks over at Autozone. I sprayed that stuff into my wheel wells, scrubbed away for a bit, then rinsed...Holy crap, black water just poured out of the wells. I was impressed.

**You might need to do it more than once to get rid of all the crap, but make sure not to leave it on too long ( >10 minutes) or it might eat away the metal and never use it on paint.**

or get the 6-10 dollar one that makes several gallons

[P1MP1N J]

mine: live in washington rain cleans everything all the time i have never waxed my car or anything and when it stops raining it shiny as hell lol :D

[steve88m3]

Originally Posted by CDTGaticaW201

It's only about 4 bucks over at Autozone. I sprayed that stuff into my wheel wells, scrubbed away for a bit, then rinsed...Holy crap, black water just poured out of the wells. I was impressed.

**You might need to do it more than once to get rid of all the crap, but make sure not to leave it on too long ( >10 minutes) or it might eat away the metal and never use it on paint.**

Think of the weight savings!

[sev]

Usually when you wash a car you're using a garden hose, which is generally not attached to a soft water filter, such as the ones commonly put on the indoor water or washing machine. If possible, run your hose through your washing machine faucet, if it is soft water. The difference is that soft water filters remove calcium, among other unnecessary/undesirable minerals from the water. The detriment of hard water is the spots that are left on your paint are basically primarily calcium deposits that dried before you got a chance to dry them off with a terry cloth.

If you don't have a filter at your house (or a self-serve car wash in your area), you can buy this portable soft water filter meant for car washes, by Mr. Clean.



It's been well-reviewed by Epinions, and I may pick it up in the future. It's only about $20 at Kragen. You switch it to soft water during the final rinse and you don't have to dry your car, besides driving it on the freeway for five minutes.

[CDTGaticaW201]

I'd be careful with that Sev. Before I got into detailing, I picked one of the PRO (or whatever) series Autodry kits because I absolutely HATED drying. I used it and was utterly amazed. It literally took me about 20-30 minutes just to wash the car. The only downside I immediately noticed is that it leaked, but nothing some teflon tape couldn't fix.

However, as time went on, it began to leave this really nasty reddish residue everywhere. Even when I changed the filter, the residue still showed up after it dried no matter how many times I rewashed the area. I tried e-mailing their Customer Support, but was only told to keep rewashing.

I tried washing without it....and voila, no residue.