Official Spring Cleaning/Detailing thread!

[Rotorflyr]

I'm not a big fan of the Mr.Clean system, it's ok for a quick rinse but it doesn't clean well, not enough pressure or something (which iirc was supposedly changed in the "new and improved" ones) compared to using just a hose with a sprayer on it.
I'll stick to using good ole' fashion elbow grease to wash and wax with the occasional trip to a touchless car wash or to a place that had pressure washers, and on rare occasion might use the MrC to "dust" off the car.


And since we are talking "detailing and cleaning" and maybe this should be/is in it's own thread (but Im to lazy to search right now) Has anyone out there dyed the worn leather on the seat bolster and/or steering wheel? If so, how good was the match and who's dye did you use??

[Darksied-X]

Originally Posted by Rotorflyr

I'm not a big fan of the Mr.Clean system, it's ok for a quick rinse but it doesn't clean well, not enough pressure or something (which iirc was supposedly changed in the "new and improved" ones) compared to using just a hose with a sprayer on it.
I'll stick to using good ole' fashion elbow grease to wash and wax with the occasional trip to a touchless car wash or to a place that had pressure washers, and on rare occasion might use the MrC to "dust" off the car.

Hmmm...could be the reason I like mine. I don't use just the sprayer, I still give it a little scrub with a terry cloth while it's soaped up.

[Rotorflyr]

The problem isn't that I want the MrC to do all the work, but a hose alone or with a sprayer does a better job getting stuff off prior to using the cloth on it, where as the MrC "cleaning" setting doesn't do jackieish (like I said the spot free rinse is ok, but I still prefer the old fashion way when I have the time)

[intellibomb]

yup,

old fashion washing is the best, but the spot free feature is what makes it good at all (mr clean that is)

[Ron Mummert]

Originally Posted by Rotorflyr

The problem isn't that I want the MrC to do all the work, but a hose alone or with a sprayer does a better job getting stuff off prior to using the cloth on it, where as the MrC "cleaning" setting doesn't do jackieish (like I said the spot free rinse is ok, but I still prefer the old fashion way when I have the time)

Hey, Roto - are you sure you're following the instructions? After soaping the car you still gotta' use a wash mitt & manual labor to scrub it. Then rinse, & then "ionize".
I can do two cars in the time I used to do one, & no dirty wash bucket to spill on your Gucci's!

Ron (dirty mind in a clean body).

[wynndi]

I used the color turtlestuff and scratch filler on my 96 Red. I was happy at first, until I got it in the sun. Bigtime swirling. I use it on my front bumper, but it is forbidden from the rest of the car.

The fill-in "lipstick" didn't last too long.

[SVX_MY_BABY]

Mother's 3 phase is great, but takes a loooong time. Wonder if their FX line is any good. http://www.mothers.com/detailguide/

Anyone know a way to bring back "Dead, Snuburned clear coat" from a bad paint job? (Read "Don't use BASF paint") My driver's door got keyed a number of years ago, was repainted and looked great, but has now lost it's colour life as compared to the OEM paint. I was told by a paint shop that the clear coat didn't have enough UV protectant in it.

[Rotorflyr]

Originally Posted by Ron Mummert

Hey, Roto - are you sure you're following the instructions? After soaping the car you still gotta' use a wash mitt & manual labor to scrub it. Then rinse, & then "ionize".
I can do two cars in the time I used to do one, & no dirty wash bucket to spill on your Gucci's!

Ron (dirty mind in a clean body).

Ron, my point on the MrC was the intial wash feature has no ballzz, there's no point in using it, I can accomplish the same thing quicker using a plain ole' hose nozzel and wash mitt and the ionize feature isn't that great.
Besides, if Im in that much of a hurry, I'll go thru a touch free car wash.

[Ron Mummert]

Originally Posted by Rotorflyr

Ron, my point on the MrC was the intial wash feature has no ballzz, there's no point in using it, I can accomplish the same thing quicker using a plain ole' hose nozzel and wash mitt and the ionize feature isn't that great.
Besides, if Im in that much of a hurry, I'll go thru a touch free car wash.

I thought the "initial wash feature" is simply the "get the car wet & rinse off the big chunks" stage, like any garden hose would do. Then spray on the "special" Mr. C soap, scrub, rince again, then ionize. I like the ionizer. It's fun to watch the little beads, & you get spend money on new filters. It's the American Capitalist Dream in action

Happy wiping!

Ron.

[SVX10]

Another clearcoat question...kinda. My clearcoat is absolutely gone on many of my plastic body panels (sunroof, rear quarter garnish, top of rear bumper). No amount of waxing or polishing can hide it for more than a day or two. As a matter of fact, they usually worsen the situation. So, my next thought is wet sanding the clearcoat completely off and replacing with a sprayed on clearcoat. I would start on the sunroof since I can replace that if it all goes south. Anyway, anybody have experience with wet sanding outside of doing the headlight lenses? Is that too aggressive of an approach? Any other ideas for me? Here's my sunroof:

The white spots are where the clearcoat is flaking off. Those have all grown to about 2x their size, and there is now exposed black paint.

Sorry for the long post...any ideas outside of paying for a new paint job?

Mat

[Rotorflyr]

Originally Posted by Ron Mummert

I thought the "initial wash feature" is simply the "get the car wet & rinse off the big chunks" stage, like any garden hose would do. Then spray on the "special" Mr. C soap, scrub, rince again, then ionize. I like the ionizer. It's fun to watch the little beads, & you get spend money on new filters. It's the American Capitalist Dream in action
Happy wiping!

Ron.

Yeah but that's the problem, the initial was doesn't "get the big chunks off"
My garden hose with a spray nozzle does a better job of it.
The ionizer is kinda cool to watch but Im not sure I'd say fun.....

MrC is a product that "RipEmOff" products shoulda sold!

[Rotorflyr]

Originally Posted by SVX10

I would start on the sunroof since I can replace that if it all goes south. Anyway, anybody have experience with wet sanding outside of doing the headlight lenses?
Mat

Sorry Mat,
I don't have any experiance with wet sanding, but like ya said, worse case senerio is you have to replace the sun-roof pannel, which isn't a huge deal.

[Weebitob]

Well in order for touch up and prepping my, I have used 1 and a half bottles of factory touch up out of the 4 I bought for some paint gaps (not chips but total gaps where it went down below the black prep stuff to the fiber glass itself) on the spoiler where on some there was also paint peeling. So my dad told me to take a hobby knife with a brand new blade and cut off the peeling parts and over a couple of days to about a week apply about 2-3 coats. I also while I was at it apply some to some tiny stone chips in the front and bumper. Then while driving in town, my friend told me to watch out as I was pulling into a curb, unfortunately I went it too much and scraped paint off the way front bottom right part where it links with the plastic underbelly. Even though you can hardly see being the perfectionist as I am I put the rest of the bottles worth and some more putting some coats on that as well. However before that when I was looking over my car during the beginning of spring I found something I either did not see or was not even there during winter, a rust spot. Somehow there was a small spot where the paint peeled and there were loll and behold some rust streaks there, not to mention a tiny bit of paint bubbling. So I took the hobby knife and some touch up and about two weeks and 4 coats later I covered it up. This is also among other things as using WD40 on the door hinges, applying silicon grease there and on the moonroof track. After the paint coats I used two types of sand paper to smooth the coat spot and then a day later used a Turtlewax Rubbing Compound to further the process. Of I didn't do all of this one after another, it more liked spanned out in a month or a bit more.

The main question is I stupidly forgot to apply WD40 on the rust spot on the driver's side door. Is there a danger of rust spreading throughout the car under the paint causing it to bubble or do you think it is sealed enough or perhaps the zinc galvanized coating on the SVX's metal sheeting goes deep enough to protect it?

[ensteele]

I have seen other spots that are starting to rust spread as time goes on. It would be better to take care of it now when it is small.

[Speedklix]

I used to use the auto dry to clean up all my cars at the dealership, never used it as the initial wash though. Just to keep em looking clean. I found it to be an amazing, and easy system. But if your water pressure is not that great it really sucks. I found that out the hard way when they were working on the lines.