[sohail99]

Clean the glass with water and vinegar in 50/50 conc.

That should take care of the water spotting!

As for prevention, I'd say avoid using hard water for washing etc. and use a good quality durable wax on windows as well! (like collinite 845)

[deepfusion]

Originally Posted by el lobo 6061

Nice detailing done over there friend. Seeing you all, I'm waiting for some stuffs to come by and would do a detailing session on my Pearl Black Vento.
For the scratches either you can use Formula1 Scratch Out or Quixx Scratch remover, that the best. If you purchase Formula1 try to get it from a authorized distributor/retailer as there are many fakes of Formula1 out there in the market.

I have used scratch out in the session I have referred to above.

It is a darn labour intensive product. Took the hell out of me. I think it would be good with a DA machine.

As for quixx, well I have also tried my hand at it earlier, it is impressive.

[vinya_jag]

How to remove black spots/dots?

I hadn't cleaned off the black sport on the car body for some time now. I usually did that by pricking it from my fingernails. But this time there were way too many for my nails to do the trick.

So, tried a tooth brush instead this time. In the beginning, I was quite impressed as it took off all those black spots, but by the time I finished all four doors and the front ,I had spent a clean 2 hours.

Used some soap power and a toothbrush to clean all those million black dots on out white Figo. And hope to not do the same exercise for another year now.

[S_U_N]

^Claying is the safest method.
Believe me the tar spots (I presume in your case) will disappear magically before your eyes. However, it does take several hours for a big car for claying if things are really bad. Some contaminants come off easily and some take a lot of time.

Hopefully after you wax the car, the spots should come off easily the next time you clay.

@deepfusion: I tried removing a few scratches with Quixx, it was able to 'remove' 3 out of the 4 scratches in my case. If the scratches are deep, then wet sanding is required - there is some element of risk involved in that, so I was over cautious and maybe the results are not excellent in my case, but good enough.
I would say, I was able to lighten the scratches overall.

[deepfusion]

@SUN: I have successfully used quixx on my wife's red car, which had a dent and scratch marks on the left fender. I found quixx impressive on the scratches.

I was able to remove each and every scratch.

But what to do about the dent? No way to remove it, i suppose!

[S_U_N]

^Ok.. Did you use the sandpaper to remove the scratches?
For dent removal, there are those suction based tools which are used in body workshops. They are also available on ebay.in and some DIY options are also mentioned here
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/techni...t-rs-12-a.html
They are known to be cheaper that other methods, though I have no personal experience with them.

[deepfusion]

@SUN:I don't think these methods are useful, generally.

Specifically, i do not think these methods won't work on the dent on my wife's car because:

a. It is a skoda fabia. Why I am saying this is because after the accident, while the car has a small dent on the left fender, the car it bruised had to be immediately taken to a workshop as it had large dents on the front door, rear door, its rear bumper tore off and fell. So, practically, it is a tough thing to do. Even the scratches went off like these were some tissue papers glued to some surface. The paint underneath was still like new, barring one or two small white marks.

b. the dent is on the wheel arch, so, all the more difficult.

[Raj2010]

Originally Posted by SAS

The problem is that dish washing liquid removes any traces of oil from the paint, which shall over time cause the paint to dry up, become brittle and crack. You can clearly see it happen on cars which are not waxed. All waxes are buffed off after application and only a hint or residue remains, this is what protects the paint. IMHO our climate is tropical and we expose our cars to a lot of sunlight, unlike those in Europe and the US.

You could be right about the different climates. Not sure about what oils you are referring too however, paint finishes these days are very durable. If you washed and did a full detail I dont think you would experience any issues.

Originally Posted by NPV

Folks, Looking for suggestions here:
Noticed several spots/stains on the glass (windshield, ORVM's, windows) caused mostly by hard water. How can I safely remove these ? Any ways to prevent them in future ?
Thanks in advance.

Water stains can be removed with vinegar and purified water. You would have to check with detail suppliers in your area to see if they offer anything from preventing further water stains. Even in the states stubborn stains need professional help.

[stanjohn123]

Originally Posted by vinya_jag

How to remove black spots/dots?

I hadn't cleaned off the black sport on the car body for some time now. I usually did that by pricking it from my fingernails. But this time there were way too many for my nails to do the trick.

So, tried a tooth brush instead this time. In the beginning, I was quite impressed as it took off all those black spots, but by the time I finished all four doors and the front ,I had spent a clean 2 hours.

Used some soap power and a toothbrush to clean all those million black dots on out white Figo. And hope to not do the same exercise for another year now.

Why not just buy and use the Meguiars Gold class car wash shampoo. It's pretty good at removing these sort of things. You use your nails to remove those tar stuck onto your car . Doing that will surely damage your clear coat and inflict a lot of scratchs on your side panels. Its not at all safe removing like that unless you don't car for your car.

[ajay_satpute]

Took my car to 3M Car Care on the Baner-Pashan link road today morning. I wanted to a basic Foam Wash for my Vista. I was there at the showroom at 9:20 AM, still the 2nd customer of the day. There was a Fluidic Verna before for filming. Boy-o-boy, did it look spectacular or what in the purple shade! It was a VVT Auto Verna. Ok enough of OT.

Back to cleaning.

- Started with pressure vacuum, blowing air at tremendous pressure. This took out each and every possible dirt particle/leaves and rest of the stuff from all those inaccessible areas.

- Then vacuum suction throughout the car. Again fantastic job.



- Then car goes into the washing bay. Water was sprayed using a fab looking nozzle which had a triangular throw from it.

- Now foaming. One guy got a portion of 3M's shampoo in a test tube kinda thing which was then mixed with some water and put into foam applying machine. That machine sprayed the foam all over the body.



- Car was again washed with that pressure nozzle and it started sparkling.

Total Cost: 345/- (all inclusive) | Time taken: 45-50 minutes



Just look at the attention to details. Before the car left the showroom, 6-7 attendants were ordered by the boss to check each and every corner of the car for dirt that is still left after the wash. Thankfully there was nothing left. At the end, they applied a spray on all the black rubber/plastic parts to give those parts a nice shine.



Overall, I highly recommend 3M car care for basic wash for your car. The cost differs based on the size of the car, but its still worth IMO.

Goodbye to those local car washers!

EDIT: The entire staff here knows about TeamBHP well and they follow the forum religiously.

[S_U_N]

^Looks worth the money. Thank you for sharing.
Any idea how much would be the charge for removing swirls from all over the body?

Do you have some sort of a price list?
Edit: The experience reported for 3M Viman Nagar has not been very positive. Looks like the Baner center is quite different in this regard.

[ajay_satpute]

Originally Posted by S_U_N

^Looks worth the money. Thank you for sharing.
Any idea how much would be the charge for removing swirls from all over the body?

Do you have some sort of a price list?

Believe me, its totally worth the money. I do not have the price list with me, but let me try and get it for everyones' benefit. Will update the thread once I get it. Yes, they do have a treatment to get rid of swirl marks. Infact, there are around 20-25 various treatments such tyre shine, AC duct disinfection, leather cleaning, dash restoration, wheel cleaning, etc.

EDIT: Yes, thats true. One my friends had been to the Viman Nagar center and he was not completely satisfied. Baner center seems to be good. However, I can not make any final judgement right now, since I got just a basic foam wash done. Those who go there for detailing packages can comment better.

[ajay_satpute]

I received the photos of my Vista through email which were clicked by the 3M guys using their digicam . These are Before/After kinds.

Please ignore the date on the photos. Looks like the date was never updated on their camera.

Front view: You can observe that black grill looks actually black in the After photo.

Before:



After:




Rear-view:

Before:



After:



LHS Side-view:

Before:



After

[kartzik]

I hope i am addressing this in the right thread.
Jan of this year i picked up a pre-owned 2005 Fiat Petra (Black).
During that time there was a slightly fading patch, 5" long and 2" wide on the bonnet.
I brushed it aside thinking i will get it fixed at a later time when i get my car detailed.

Recently over the last month what i started to notice was that this fading patch started to get whiter and started to flake out.
I assumed it was some hard water patch and tried using "Formula 1" liquid polish on a small patch (pic below).
What i noticed was that the flakes came off and i could see the dark black paint underneath.
Probably the clear coat is flaking off ? Not sure what this condition is called. Am scared this may start to spread throughout the car as i have started to see little white dots now all over the bonnet.

Since i am new to this forum and do not have much knowledge on this i was wondering if any of you pro's can guide me on what is going wrong here. Is this a clear coat failure ? If so is there any treatment which can fix this other than a complete re-paint of the whole car ? Kindly advise.

[kalpeshc]

Is anyone aware of 3M services (like the one listed above) in Mumbai? If someone does not want to do the detailing/washing, etc. themselves and are using their regular car wash guys cleaning it up everyday with a dirty banian cloth, a regular use of such services may help right? Maybe wax every 6 months and wash every month like this.