Another week, another of my boss's cars and another Mazda!
I last did this car in February 2021, today was a bit different though at a chilly 0 deg C / 30 deg F 9am drop off. This 2014 CX-5 is a family car and has done just on 170,000 km on the clock.
Being too cold to have my hands in water, I decided to do the interior first. I don't remember the carpet being this reluctant last time! Sand and grass were resisting the Karcher vacuum, even with the help of the Tornador. I actually had to vacuum the interior twice, as the Tornador tends to stir things up and displace debris onto already cleaned areas. There was no other way though.
Being a family car, I needed to clean rather dust the rest of the interior surfaces. Today, I used a new interior scrub pad.
This is similar in concept to the Carpro Inner Scrub Mitt, although it has a softer reverse side for the application of dressings. I actually prefer this pad compared to a mitt as I find mitts cumbersome. Teamed here with P&S Express interior cleaner, it had no trouble lifting the ingrained filth.
Notice how the pad started off white and then turned a lovely shade of brown.
The remaining residue is then wiped away with a clean interior towel.
Another new item for me to try was the VLB from The Rag Company.
This brush was designed to clean vinyl and leather, hence the VLB name. These have an unusually soft set of "bristles" or "fibers" to deep clean dirty leather. The shape of the brush is also very handy for getting into the corners and different shapes a seat present. Here, I have teamed it with KC Pol Star.
It was then onto the exterior. While it looks clean in the pics, white always hides dirt on camera, so there was a healthy amount of wet winter grime accumulated on the wheels and body.
My first move was a complimentary engine bay clean. I mean, this is the bosses car after all. :xyxthumbs:
After a quick rinse, I'm using APC and some brushes to loosen any stubborn dirt.
After another rinse, I then applied KC Motor Plast, distributed with a little compressed air.
I then dropped the hood and left the engine running while I cleaned the wheels to help dry it out.
The wheels were taken care of with my usual combination of Purge and Brake Buster. Strangely, these Cooper tyres did not offer much in the way of browning.
Today's soap of choice was Carpro Lift, which had no trouble "lifting" the road film during the pre-soak phase. During the wash, I did need to use some Bug Remover, although the tar deposits needed no chemical assistance.
Carpro Lift is not as slick as Reset, nor does it have that amazing scent either. But it does cut through the grime very well.
I then used Gyeon Wet Coat as what is now being termed a "rinse aid".
With the car mostly dry, I grabbed some Meguiar's HCD to mop up any remaining water, add some protection and ramp up the gloss left by Wet Coat. I really like the ease of use and results this product provides.
The glass was then cleaned, the interior of the windscreen needing two cleanings, the second with a new set of towels.
I then applied Mothers Naturally Black to the unpainted exterior trim, doused the wheel arch plastics with Hyper Dressing and coated the tyres in Gyeon Tire Express. This dressing is not a favorite of mine, it's ok but not great like, say, Carpro Perl or NV Onyx. So, I'm using it up on someone else's car! :laughing:
With some extra time to spare, I also attended to the exhaust tips. I have a pet hate of clean cars with dirty exhausts, such a minor detail really brings down the overall appearance. Being a diesel, I had to get out the Autosol to deal with these.
With the customer on the way, I had a little time to add some protection to the leather. Pol Star apparently does have some protective element to it, but I decided to go the extra mile for this car.
A misting of my favorite interior scent and it was ready to go!
The car looked stunning driving away down the street. White tends to hide the amount of work that went into making it look so good. My body sure knows though!
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