i clean the inside and outside of the windows with a chamios. dude i use the chamois to dry everything,… rims exhaust tips and windows. just not the body
Alright I love detailing my car and here’s my opinion and what I do when I wash my car, feel free to add anything or opinions about other products that any of you guys have used.
- Towels
It really doesn’t matter what type of towel you use, anything from terry towels to standard cotton bathroom towels will work nice but there’s just a little trick go getting them to work properly. Now towels like anything else needs to be properly broken in. If you wash your towel(s) in the washer it could absord water MUCH better. I’m not saying to overdoit just wash it a few times, about 5 or 6, but again that’s just my opinion. If you try this you could use standard soap and softner. One thing for sure is STAY AWAY from terry cloths for drying.
- Towels In General
Terry towels are the BEST when you want to wipe the wax dust off your car or just wipe it down in general. The terry cloth has a nap in the material and the nap will vacuum up and hold dust, dirt and wax particles up inside the cloth keeping it away from the surface. Regular cloths catch dirt and other particles on its surface and when you run that towel across your car, those particles are running along your paint which is not good of course. Also NEVER NEVER NEVER use a dry towel to wipe embedded dirt off your car, you’ll be asking for scratches.
- Glass Cleaning
I usually use regular Cleanex with a paper towel but when I really wanna clean my windows I go to a local car wash and buy a little package for like $.75 that’s is called Wet Towel. This thing works pretty good and it dries right away.
- Clear Plastic Restoration/Cleaning/Polishing
To get rid of annoying scratches in the plastic of your head-unit, gauges, LCDs, Meguiar’s Clear Plastic Cleaner will do the right job, follow it up with Meguiar’s Clear Plastic Polish. These products will also safely fix scratches on CDs too.
- Washing
Washing your car is probably the most important step in detailing your car.
First of all, use a good quality product, don’t use none of those household products like Dawn Dish Soap because it contains a powerful detergent that is not very safe for your paint and some brands have tiny microabrasives in it to disolve grease. I use Meguiar’s Hi-Tech Car Wash All you need is half of cup into a bucket of warm water, notice I said warm because using warm water is better because it will run off the surface of the car easier when you do your final rinse and also it’ll remove dirt much easier than cold water.
Use a sponge, make sure it’s clean too. Do one section at a time. Rinse off the previous section before moving on. Usually I do Roof - Hood - Hatch - Quarter Panels - Doors - Front Fenders - Wheels. Any way it’s fine just as long as you work top to bottom. NEVER let soap dry in the sun NEVER
It’s best to rinse the car in a gentle flow of water than just power-blasting it with a hose. This way the water will sheet together and slide off the car leaving it partially dry. To dry, use towels that you already put in the washer so this way you could absord MORE water and you won’t take long drying your car. Remember that water can cause problems when you’re applying polish or wax to a car, so after drying it take your car for a spin around the block to remove the water stuck behind moldings, mirrors, hatch, and other places that you weren’t able to reach.
- Paint Cleaning/Preparation
Ok now most of you think that the car is ready to be wax… wrong 
The use of a good cleaner (Not Wax Cleaner those things SUCKS!) will make your latest wax job incredible! You cold use a polisher but I rather use my arms instead. Apply the cleaner, in this case I use Meguiar’s Mist And Wipe, apply one section at a time and then grad a towel and start wiping. Terry cloths will make a squeeking sound but don’t worry this is nothing bad its just the way it is.
- Polishing
Polishing a car adds nutrients to the paint and gives it that “always wet” look. For my choice of polish I use Meguiar’s Showcar Glaze 7. Apply it with a little sponge and do one section at a time, you could leave a little residue behind but then just wipe it off with a clean towel afterward. After you’re done you could wipe it off with another towel and really buff it out and bring out that shimmer out that reseemble a rainbow.
- Waxing
Waxing is the easiest part. You could use any products here but the problem is that if you use a cheap wax it’ll take a lot of work to make it look as good as some of the newer high-tech waxes.
Apply one section at a time with a little wax sponge. I usually do the whole car and then just wait until its all dried and hazed over then I use a terry towel to remove the wax. Don’t worry about making perfect the first time around. Afterwards just grab another clean towel and clean off the rest of the wax that was left behind.
Now when it come to wax there are two products I like, Meguiar’s Hi-Tech Yellow Wax (favorite) and Zaino Bro’s Z-2 which around here is rare to find and expensive too but it REALLY gets the job done. You could also use Zaino Bro’s Z-5 which removes fine scratches and such.
Feel free to give me opinions. THis is not a 10 min task it will take you time to get your car to shine but at the end it’s worth it and you’re be turning head all over the place :horny:
Thanks to Zylo for helping me out on how to detail my car.
ABSORBER!!! best 3 bucks i’ve ever spent lol yes 3 bucks!! yes it was brand new
hey guys,
heres a tip to try for real clean windows, and it costs nothing if you have this item in your kitchen!! i have been using this technic for years. fill half a bowl with warm water and use some common household cornstarch and mix enough that the water gets “milky” wipe down your windows using this with a real soft cloth. usually i dry it with paper towels. works perfect for insides and out, and is streakless.
thats just my 2 cents worth.
tommy
detailing
i dont know everything but i use to detail cars at a toyota dealership, and to anwser your ?'s. I would definetly use a sponge to wash the car and then after u rinse it off u can start with the windows. I am very fond of “THE ABSORBER”, it works better than any chamois out there. as for the streaks, just take the damp absorber to them and after the windows are dry take a window cleaner(streak free) and go to work, the grime should be gone due to the absorber. as for like upolstry i have found a good solution that might seem crazy but works. if u have a bad stain on ur carpet or seats(CLOTH), NOT LEATHER. , do not use on leather. u can take some paint thinner and dilute it with water like if u had a cup of water pour like 2 tablespoons worth of paint thinner. start with a little thinner if ur worried about messing up the dye in the uposltry,and add more for worser stains. any way hope that helps
archivethis
Car, CARWASH, the kind with the plastic bristles!!! J/K! I use “soft water” at the carwash, get a bucket, use 3M car wash. Use a mitt, sponges trap dirt in the pores and can scratch. Always WASH the mitt BEFORE and AFTER you use it, (keeps cleaner and smells so fresh and so clean, clean). For windows, use Windex with a papertowel, then after you initially clean the window (while it’s still kinda wet) use a DRY baby cotton diaper to clear it out. Go to it with the newsprint paper after you’re done the first time to make sure that all the dirt/streaks are gone. This is how I wash the car, wash the car, wash the car…
on Oprah this cleaning lady used rubbing alcohol in a spray bottle to clean her home windows. or was it vinegar i forget. well she was thrifty and crafty and had lots of cheap tricks… hm now why was i watching oprah
ok here’s what i found
Wash windows or glass with a mixture of equal pans of white vinegar and warm water. Dry with a soft cloth. Leaves windows and glass streakless. To remove those stubborn hardwater sprinkler spots and streaks, use undiluted vinegar.
In cleaning windows to remove soil and grease use
an alkali, such as ammonia or baking soda or washing
soda.
To remove hard water deposits and some soils, use a
weak acid such as vinegar (a strong acid would etch the
glass).
Never combine an acid and an alkali to clean glass.
One partially neutralizes the other and you waste these
neutralized materials. Thus do not mix vinegar and
ammonia; use one or the other in your water solution to
get the full effectiveness of the one product used.
One popular “recipe” from a commercial product
suggests combining ammonia (a moderately strong alkali),
baking soda (a mild alkali) and vinegar (a weak acid) in
water to clean glass. It gives good results but you
could get the same result by just using less ammonia
without the weaker alkali and the neutralization of the
vinegar and part of the ammonia.
Be careful not to drip alkaline or alcohol solutions
on painted or varnished woodwork as it can damage the
finish.
A few tips on window washing:
Never wash windows while the sun is shining on them because they dry too quickly and leave streaks
When polishing windows use up and down strokes on one side of the window and side to side strokes on the other to tell which side requires extra polishing
To polish windows or mirrors to a sparkling shine, try a natural linen towel or other soft cloth, a clean, damp chamois cloth, a squeegee, or crumpled newspaper. (A word of warning: while newspaper does leave glass lint-free with a dirt- resistant film, persons with sensitivities to fumes from newsprint may wish to avoid the use of newspaper as a cleaning tool.
Use one of the following mixtures to clean glass and windows:
Soil and Grease: 1/4 cup ammonia diluted in 2 quarts of warm water
Hard Water Deposits and Soil: 1/4 cup vinegar diluted in 2 quarts of warm water
Heavy Soil and Grease Build Up: combine 1/2 cup ammonia, 2 cups rubbing alcohol and 1 gal water
Tips: When washing windows, wash sills and cross pieces first. Wipe windows with lintless cloth, paper towels or crumpled newspapers. To prevent streaking, wash windows out of direct sunlight. For touch-ups, keep any one of the above preparations in a spray bottle, spray on dirty area and wipe.
Vinegar.
When you have to leave your car outside overnight in the winter, mix 3 pans vinegar to 1 pan water and coat the windows with this solution. This vinegar and water combination will keep windshields ice and frost-free.
ok if your windows arent clean after all this i dunno what to tell ya bud… keep your windows rolled down =P
Polishing a car adds nutrients to the paint and gives it that “always wet” look. For my choice of polish I use Meguiar’s Showcar Glaze 7. Apply it with a little sponge and do one section at a time, you could leave a little residue behind but then just wipe it off with a clean towel afterward. After you’re done you could wipe it off with another towel and really buff it out and bring out that shimmer out that reseemble a rainbow.
JTEG: Why are you using a glaze for your polishing step? You should use a “real” polish like ZYMOL, then use the Meguiar’s Showcar Glaze 7. Your only getting the scratches out and a wet look with the glaze. You need to use the polish to bring out the color.
Mr Burns I’ve never heard of it before and now that you mentioned it I will thanks for the info.