Team-BHP - A superb Car cleaning, polishing & detailing guide

Quote:

Originally Posted by sagarpadaki (Post 2541229)

You have many options...Since its alloy wheels,you can use WD40/Zorrik88 .First wash the alloy.Spray on a small part of tar.Allow it to stand for half a minute and use a scrub to rub it off.Later you should rinse the alloy with generous soap water so that all the solvent residue is removed.
You can also use diesel .Cheaper option.

Or if you have some used clay left from your previous detailing session you can use it with a quick detailer too too

Quote:

Originally Posted by S_U_N (Post 2541250)

I am in a similar situation. I tried WD40 since I had it at home, however it didn't help much. I have now purchased a Bug and Tar remover and tried it on the alloy and it did a much better job than WD40. This solution has got kerosene in it and an afterthought was to get kerosene directly and use it if this is cheaper.

Although I was expecting this to be a spray and wipe operation, turns out it is still an effort to get rid of the tar and I still need to scrub even after applying the tar remover solution. I will experiment more, when I have more time at hand.

Quote:

Originally Posted by sagarpadaki (Post 2541352)

Yes,the tar spots on the alloys need more work to be removed mainly because they take the direct hit from the road.One more effective solution is the wheel cleaner.What i have learnt is if i use wheel cleaner on the spots and leave it for a minute and then scrub the alloy with a brush,it removes most of the tar spots.Even if it does not remove all the spots,it certainly weakens the remaining ones which can be then easily removed using WD40/Zorrik88/Diesel/Kerosine.

I use Formula 1 wheel gold,which i find is pretty decent at cleaning the wheels.

Thanks alot people for the suggestions.Took some diesel on a cloth and wiped all four of the alloys and all the spots were gone.
Later washed all 4 Wheels with Formula 1 Shampoo.

Folks ,
I know that cleaning cars with sponge has alot of negatives but i am totally using this
for cleaning wheels and the underneath running boards seperately and make sure my hand dont go any where else on the car.

Offlate i have used it and find it good but the Question is it how to clean the sponge most effectively after its done ??
not to mention it attracts Max DIRT & Road Girm and visibily seen them
sitting on top of it when my hand came outta rinsing bucket!

what i have done is gave it a thorough rinsing by hand, held it near the faucet & squeezed the hell outta it & set it to dry, it looked clean but i am not sure if theres any other method/procedure to ensure the cleaning is topnotch with no contaminents trapped inside??

tried researching elsewhere but mostly people get these sponges for kitchen cleaning in a microwave for 30 secs, some do use bleach + warm water + microwave it, etc etc but in my understanding these are divided opinions & are related to sponges for kitchen cleaning only - not car washing !

hope to see some ingenious feedbacks here :thumbs up

Quote:

Originally Posted by torqueyTND (Post 2545260)

what i have done is gave it a thorough rinsing by hand, held it near the faucet & squeezed the hell outta it & set it to dry, it looked clean but i am not sure if theres any other method/procedure to ensure the cleaning is topnotch with no contaminents trapped inside??

Very sure that you will remove 95% (Guesstimate) of the muck. But sponges by their very nature will permit the deep penetration of finer particles. It may require a scientific analysis to see how much of this is retained and what comes off when washed. Personally, I am a heavy user of microfiber and am very happy with the results. Would recommend that as the equipment of choice.

Quote:

Originally Posted by torqueyTND (Post 2545260)

tried researching elsewhere but mostly people get these sponges for kitchen cleaning in a microwave for 30 secs, some do use bleach + warm water + microwave it, etc etc but in my understanding these are divided opinions & are related to sponges for kitchen cleaning only - not car washing !

Ideal for killing bacteria and their ilk. Not much use for us. An God save us with bleach residue on paint :eek:

Quote:

Originally Posted by fine69 (Post 2560974)

Reason for using Silicone glaze is to get an even better shine.

The real problem with Silicone products comes when you do any form of painting on the car - most paint too is "repelled" by the silicones still doing their duty faithfully. Lots of elbow grease with Silicone removers and also additives to the paints may be needed to neutralize the 'silicone effect'. Use with discretion. :eek:

Quote:

Originally Posted by BusyBee (Post 2561149)

English please lol:

All I could make out was that Silicone products can be harmful if a part is re-painted, hope that's what you meant. So what I tried was using the Silicone Glaze on a re-painted (by M.A.S.S.) fender and I didn't really notice anything unusual. I mean I rubbed the silicone glaze and then topped it with Turtle wax. The fender indeed got shinier and smoother.

I've used silicone glaze on my ORVMs also that have aftermarket paint and even they get a good shine post the polish job so I'm not sure what I'm missing here.

Quote:

Originally Posted by fine69 (Post 2561272)

English please lol:
I've used silicone glaze on my ORVMs also that have aftermarket paint and even they get a good shine post the polish job so I'm not sure what I'm missing here.

You will miss nothing. The problem arises only if you repaint a silicone polished surface. The silicone repels the paint :D. That is the only problem.

Quote:

Originally Posted by BusyBee (Post 2561274)

The silicone repels the paint :D.

Holy cow! Is that why the fender colour doesn't match with the rest of the car? I'd got it repainted about 6 months back and after about a month I noticed that there was a difference in shade, the repainted fender was yellowish compared to the rest of the paint. I'd used silicone glaze on that fender earlier (before I got it repainted) about 2-3 times over a period of 10 months.

Quote:

Originally Posted by fine69 (Post 2561288)

Holy cow! Is that why the fender colour doesn't match with the rest of the car?

Not necessarily that way. If there is silicone residue, the paint will be patchy and non adherent. They must have rubbed down and cleaned the surface before respraying. Is your car of metallic paint or solid colour?

The problem is more likely to be that of poor colour matching. Normally, they use the fuel lid panel for the reference colour when matching paint as it is easy to remove and carry to the paint shop. See if the painted panel matches the fuel lid.

Quote:

Originally Posted by BusyBee (Post 2561335)

My bad. There definitely couldn't be any silicone residue as it was rubbed pretty well. I think its only a case of poor colour matching.

So it seems that I'd be using Sonax Polish with Silicone Glaze after all. :)

Quote:

Originally Posted by BusyBee (Post 2560900)

The best washing and cleaning mitt is the sheep skin or lambswool mitt , which is the best to you want to use if you don't want those swirl marks on your cars. Second best is the microfiber mitt and the worst is a sponge. I use sponge only to wash and clean my wheels.

But it's all in the technique. Use the 2 bucket washing technique and either of the 2 is the best to use while washing your car safely and neatly.