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blk posted:Neither vinegar nor magic eraser did much good with the glass water spots. What's next? I've used Glass Scub before to take off years old water spots off glass. Takes quite a bit of elbow grease, though. I'm almost certain that BarKeeper's Friend could be substituted for it. CarPro makes a product called Spotless for removing water spots. Most reviews I've seen of it are positive, but there have been the odd cases of people who have managed to etch their glass or something with it. There's also something called MX-7; I think they make one product for paint and one for glass. Never tried it myself, but I've read good things about it. Lord of Garbagemen posted:On a scale of 1 to 10 (ten being u must have, dont touch that orbital) where does the thickness gauge measure to do light to medium correction work (swirls, spiderweb, hazing) I think most hobbyists don't have a PTG. If you decide to get one they have Chinese ones on Ebay that are probably made by the OEM that makes the Highline meters. See this review - http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum/product-reviews/61505-cm8801fn-paint-thickness-gauge-affordable-everyone.html
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Sep 29, 2015 06:31
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Everybody, calm down. Clay the window with warm water and mild soap. You're welcome.
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Sep 29, 2015 17:25
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So stop me if I'm making too many logical jumps here. Chemical Guy's pad conditioner is just their clay luber repackaged. ONR is a good clay luber in a 2oz to 1 gallon concentration. Therefore, I should be able to use my ONR as a pad conditioner.
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Oct 6, 2015 18:44
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How do you deal with washing with very hard water? I have a black car, even with a towel there were white streaks everywhere. Waxing cleared it up, but I don't want to wax every time I wash.Mat_Drinks posted:Straight strokes, plenty of lube. Mods, please change the thread title.
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Oct 12, 2015 00:16
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FogHelmut posted:
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Oct 12, 2015 13:26
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So this happened...      After they finished detailing the car, I noticed that they had closed the hood but didn't really think too much about it. The above pics are what I found 3 weeks later when I went to change the oil before going to a car show. I about blew a gasket when I first saw it. Dudes response when I called him out about what the gently caress he used to "detail" the engine bay. quote:I used a general degreaser. I did notice that but I figured it was like that since nothing like that has happened before. However it is fixable. I can get a stainless still polish polish for that finish I think he may be Ray Charles, because this is what it looked like a few months before he raped my baby  Anyway, he's coming over this Saturday to fix it, but I don't know if I want him within 100 feet of my car lest he tries to detail it with paint thinner. Edit: WTF imgur, I swear to god I'm not trying to break tables, but those images are appearing huge even with the timg tag.
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Oct 13, 2015 04:20
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Yowch. You've got to be really careful with polished aluminum, because you can haze/cloud/pit it very easily with the wrong chemicals. He used the wrong chemicals. Sadly, it probably would have been fine with a quick water rinse, but once it got heated up... well, you're where you're at now. Is he going to fix the problem (stainless wool won't do it and, if he chooses grit incorrectly, he can make it worse)?
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Oct 13, 2015 14:27
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EVERYWHERE 
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If something like Simple Green was used (the regular Simple Green), it can mess aluminum up. The active ingredient, 2-butoxyethanol, is fairly common in APCs and degreasers. It's also found in tint safe glass cleaners in a very low concentration.quote:Aluminum - Is it safe to use Simple Green All-Purpose Cleaner on aluminum?
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Oct 14, 2015 09:38
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So update on water spots: Claying did nothing, vinegar did nothing. I ordered Griot's glass pads for my Porter Cable buffer and three products http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004UQQNZG?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o08_s00 http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0007IJR1I?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o08_s00 http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0021YZER2?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o06_s00%5C They are listed here in order of aggression. My glass shower door has hella waterspots from the PO who never loving cleaned it so I took to that as a test bed of sorts, trying each product by hand and with the buffer. The Griot's was 0% effective. The Duragloss was 20% effective. The Driven was maaaaaaaaaaaybe 40% effective. I stuck at it with the Driven for another hour or two before reading the label again and seeing their recommendation for 0000 Ultrafine steel wool. Picked some of that up and it was more effective than Griot's pad, but left a few scratches. Fortunately it was at the bottom of the shower door by my feet at that point. Most of the opaque calcification has vanished from the door but if you look closely you can still see the etchings. I turned to the car today and started with the Griots on the buffer. It did OK and got rid of most of the spots on the windshield and driver's side. There are still a few etch marks. I took it over to the passenger side and it didn't make a dent in the water spots. It was at that point that I realized the water spots on the passenger side where from the sprinkler at my previous house, whereas the driver's side spots, which came off easier, were from the rain. I'm out of good pads at this point so I'm going to try again with Griot's more aggressive polish and a griot's pad on the passenger side when I get more. I also noticed a few scratches in my hear hatch after trying to buff there, but I think it's from something being caught under the rear wiper blade earlier. blk fucked around with this message at 06:35 on Oct 16, 2015 |
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Oct 16, 2015 06:32
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I had water spots from a sprinkler. Or I would call it a layer of minerals coating my car. It was days of sitting under a sprinkler that I assume was unfiltered groundwater. The only thing that got it off both the paint and the glass was Meguiars Swirl X and a lot of elbow grease.
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Oct 16, 2015 15:16
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Gonna have some pics this weekend (even though I'm not doing the hard work and Mazdas poo poo is orange peel as hell). Any tips for dealing with hard water? I think I've seen a few hose attachments that might help, but can't remember specifics.
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Oct 16, 2015 17:58
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What's a good way to get dried compound/polish/wax off black exterior plastic?
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Oct 18, 2015 21:45
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opengl128 posted:What's a good way to get dried compound/polish/wax off black exterior plastic? That's a tough one that I've struggled with. Some bug and tar removers work. Some "back to black" products work, but some of them only work short-term and let the wax show through. I've seen some people suggest peanut butter, but haven't tried that myself. How much dried wax / how long has it been on?
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Oct 18, 2015 23:15
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Just got done putting klasse High Gloss Protective Sealant, and then topped it with Souveran wax and jesus the car looks good.
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Oct 19, 2015 01:03
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Are there any special considerations for cars with glass tops? My DD is a Scion tC and I assume that I wouldn't want to use something like this all over, or it'd at least make the glass cleaning step harder. Does it make an appreciable difference? Edit: Also, while we're at it, what about the vinyl top on my Maverick? It's new and I'd like to keep it that way as long as possible. H2SO4 fucked around with this message at 22:02 on Oct 19, 2015 |
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Oct 19, 2015 01:22
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If everything works out I'll have a new-to-me BMW in a few days. It's been sitting in a garage for over a year and needs a good cleaning inside and out. The immediate plan is to wash, clay and seal the exterior since winter is coming, but I'm wondering if a glaze like this would have any real benefits in addition to the sealant, mainly in terms of physical protection from road salt? I do want to polish it eventually, but that's something for the spring. Second, the interior was regularly vacuumed and wiped down but never really thoroughly cleaned and the black carpets have some salt stains. Any tips besides shampooing, gently scrubbing and using the extractor until the stains come out?
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Oct 19, 2015 15:45
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Factory/dealer installed: And fixed: 
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Oct 19, 2015 22:24
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Phone posted:Factory/dealer installed: That's  What did you use? I'm defaulting to cheap stuff for my spiffy Aztec flip -- Simple Green wipe down, regular Zymol auto wash, clay, Meg's UC, then going straight to Griot's Best of Class wax (it's not very good, but I've got a lot of it on the shelf, so welp.) With that, I went from a buy-here-pay-here type trashed finish to: 
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Oct 19, 2015 22:37
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gently caress, that's clean; UC is some next level OTS magic. I didn't bother like I kinda hinted at in the PM I sent you; I took it to a pro who takes care of significantly more expensive hardware than a $30k Miata near Charlotte. He charged me less than he quoted me for, but the car came out looking great, and the coating is good for 3-5 years (probably). I didn't trust myself with a new car and only having 6.5" pads. His meter was reading in the mid 70s for paint thickness basically everywhere on the car. The fenders and trunk deck got up to to the low 90s, but it was definitely thin all over.
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Oct 19, 2015 22:44
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meatpimp posted:I'm defaulting to cheap stuff for my spiffy Aztec flip You bought a Pontiac Aztek?
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Oct 19, 2015 23:07
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It's obvious who has and hasn't been to the
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Oct 19, 2015 23:22
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blk posted:water spots I read the other day that barely moistened dryer sheets can help on shower doors. I haven't tried it yet and wouldn't go buy any just to try, but if you already have some it may be worth trying. But that said, yours may be bad enough that it doesn't matter. Time to buy some cerium oxide powder? Just be careful that poo poo gets everywhere.
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Oct 20, 2015 02:50
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Phone posted:gently caress, that's clean; UC is some next level OTS magic.  That's a five minute quickie on a car that has been sat parked up untouched for the best part of five years, and on which I've been wetsanding.
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Oct 20, 2015 18:40
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I want to do a deep cleaning of my wife's paint because her car looks like crap, is cleaner wax worth messing with? I have a clay bar and all the usual accessories, but I've accumulated a number of bottles of cleaner wax that came free with something else over the years. If it's worth using, do you do it before or after claying?
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Oct 20, 2015 18:54
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Meguiar's cleaner wax? That comes free with their clay kit. While not as good as a proper compound/polish/wax routine, I've found it pretty reasonable, may as well have a crack at a smaller panel and see what you think. Use it after claying.
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Oct 20, 2015 19:01
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InitialDave posted:Meguiar's cleaner wax? That comes free with their clay kit. I used to use Meguiars Cleaner Wax paste, back in the '90s. It was pretty good, but recently I just use it for wheel waxing. It has some type of petroleum base that seems to get wheel crap off, but for finish stuff, there is much better.
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Oct 20, 2015 20:05
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I'm going to be polishing anyway, I just wanted to find the best way to get really dirty paint clean. I'll try it on a panel and see how it does, unless there's something else I should use after claying.
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Oct 20, 2015 20:29
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MomJeans420 posted:I'm going to be polishing anyway, I just wanted to find the best way to get really dirty paint clean. I'll try it on a panel and see how it does, unless there's something else I should use after claying. Meguiar's Ultimate Compound is worth going out to get. Are you using hand or machine to polish? Either way, UC is some kind of magic liquid that really is cheating.
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Oct 20, 2015 20:53
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Yeah, if you want to do a good job, UC. The purpose of the cleaner wax is really as a multi-function jack-of-all-trades "one hit" product. When viewed as that and set against things like Turtle Wax's "coloured" waxes and so on, it's pretty decent, but to clean paint in the sense the term's normally used in detailing? It's not that kind of thing. Clay bar followed by UC prior to polishing should give you a very good result.
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Oct 20, 2015 21:42
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Phone posted:I took it to a pro who takes care of significantly more expensive hardware than a $30k Miata near Charlotte. He charged me less than he quoted me for, but the car came out looking great, and the coating is good for 3-5 years (probably). I didn't trust myself with a new car and only having 6.5" pads. Can you elaborate on this / what it cost? I'm very much in the low-effort paint care camp myself - the C10's paint barely loving sticks to the truck, the WJ is covered in scratches and gets more every time I go in the desert, and even the CR-V has a scuff from a parking lot hit-and-run. However, I've got a thing where I really hate the idea of sunburnt paint and wouldn't mind paying someone to throw something on at least the CR-V to ward that off for a few more years than I'd otherwise get.
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Oct 20, 2015 22:34
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meatpimp posted:Meguiar's Ultimate Compound is worth going out to get. Are you using hand or machine to polish? Either way, UC is some kind of magic liquid that really is cheating. I have a PC (or some variation, I think it's the ultimate detailing machine or something like that) and a decent pad collection, but I haven't touched it in roughly 6 years so I forgot what pads colors do what (I can look that up though). However, I still have: Sonus SFX-1, SFX-2, and SFX-3 Meguiar's Mirror Glaze #2 fine cut cleaner, along with 105 and 205 Menzerna Super Intensive Polish and Super Finish XMT Series 3 intermediate swirl remover I forgot what worked best, I think I ended up preferring the Meguiar's 105 and 205. Is it still worth getting ultimate compound? It's only $10 on amazon, and for the time involved $10 may be worth it. I'm not sure if the polishes are still good, but it probably never got below 40 in the garage.
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Oct 20, 2015 22:55
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If you want to up the game of UC (while reducing the effort) and you have a PC, get Meg's microfiber system It's magic.
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Oct 20, 2015 22:57
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MomJeans420 posted:I have a PC (or some variation, I think it's the ultimate detailing machine or something like that) and a decent pad collection, but I haven't touched it in roughly 6 years so I forgot what pads colors do what (I can look that up though). However, I still have: I've got a lot of that, plus a lot of Zymol stuff, plus some Chemical Guys stuff on my shelf. The Ultimate Compound is absolutely the best for bad-to-intermediate-to-fairly-good finishes. It really does go cross-spectrum like that. I have used it to bring the MR2's absolutely dead single-stage paint back from the dead, the '07 Cadillac STS' black finish that had seen nothing but mechanical car washes back to absolutely presentable, to this weekend's Buick that went from the back of the buy-here-pay-here outdoor lot to the reflection I posted above... Meguiars Ultimate Compound is like cheating. The way it works in an aggressive, but not punishing fashion evades me, but it utterly works. I have a lot of product that sits on my shelf, unused, including 105 and 205 that are supposed to be the "professional" line... UC works better and is more forgiving.
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Oct 20, 2015 23:03
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opengl128 posted:What's a good way to get dried compound/polish/wax off black exterior plastic? This:  Last time I got some wax on my plastics 10 seconds with an eraser and then some back to black and you're good as new.
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Oct 21, 2015 00:11
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IOwnCalculus posted:Can you elaborate on this / what it cost? I'm very much in the low-effort paint care camp myself - the C10's paint barely loving sticks to the truck, the WJ is covered in scratches and gets more every time I go in the desert, and even the CR-V has a scuff from a parking lot hit-and-run. However, I've got a thing where I really hate the idea of sunburnt paint and wouldn't mind paying someone to throw something on at least the CR-V to ward that off for a few more years than I'd otherwise get. The thing I got is some nano machines, Metal Gear marketing bullshit called CQuartz Finest. It's a different brand of the same idea as Optiguard. A 2-3µm thick coating that's hydrophobic and dust doesn't stick too well to it. It's only available to licensed detailers, but you see a lot of high end cars with something similar on it. Figure you're going to pay around $1000+ for a detail/polish and application of the coating.
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Oct 21, 2015 01:36
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You guys forced me to buy Meguiar's Ultimate Compound and one of those ForeverOzone machines. The ozone machine is pretty awesome. I put it inside a Honda Civic that reeked of mildew, and an hour later it smells like a lightning storm, which is a huge improvement. I put it in my musty smelling Jeep along with a couple pairs of stinky shoes, and it eliminated all odors there, too. I used the Ultimate Compound on the hood of my 1995 SC400. The paint on the hood was in pretty rough shape. The UC removed some of the dullness, but there is still a lot of texture in the paint. I was using a foam finishing pad (the only pad I had), so that might be part of the problem. I ordered a couple of Meg's microfiber cutting pads to have another go at it. If that doesn't work, I might try some wet sanding.
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Oct 23, 2015 00:18
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Phone posted:The thing I got is some nano machines, Metal Gear marketing bullshit called CQuartz Finest. It's a different brand of the same idea as Optiguard. A 2-3µm thick coating that's hydrophobic and dust doesn't stick too well to it. It's only available to licensed detailers, but you see a lot of high end cars with something similar on it. Figure you're going to pay around $1000+ for a detail/polish and application of the coating. I have cquartz uk on my fiat, It really does work. any small road debri (dust, tar, mud etc) wipes away with just your finger compared to using a microfiber towel and detailer spray before. I paid $350 for my application which included two stage paint correction.
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Oct 23, 2015 03:34
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So those self-wash places with the provided water/soap/foam etc. Are they any good? Product wise? I have well water at home and using distilled or getting the water post-house filter seems wasteful.
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Oct 25, 2015 06:42
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Depends on the place. I used to work at a car wash in my teenage years. The product is fine, but the problem lies in the brush and the water. The brushes are not cleaned nearly often enough so they'll scratch the gently caress out of your paint. The water we used was reclaimed water - which essentially just means water used on previous washes that is "cleaned up" and put in a tank for use again. If the car wash has a decent reclaim system it's not as bad as it sounds. The problem is a lot of places have lovely reclaim systems because they're cheap and they don't do the required maintenance on time since it's a pain in the rear end. The worst is in the winter time though. If you don't have an effective reclaim system, everyone who uses your wash is bathing their car in salt water. Git Mah Belt Son fucked around with this message at 14:46 on Oct 25, 2015 |
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Oct 25, 2015 14:42
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Collinite 845 on some fresh paint.
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Oct 25, 2015 14:56
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