Old Cringe worthy Detailing Techniques

DETAILROOKIE

DETAILROOKIE

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Hello all!

I was thinking about the old ways I used to clean cars and it made me cringe. I used to use bath towels to dry the car, use one bucket to do the whole car, and clean it with a sponge.

I used to only drive Black cars too, I'd hate to see the paint of those cars now. Yikes!!!

Anyone else cringe at their old detailing techniques?

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I think about the way detailing has evolved and feel fortunate to be able to always stay updated to the "New norm" of doing it. Towels, one pad polish for a whole car, one bucket, orbital buffers for wax, etc the old days.

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I use multiple towels for washes (1-bucket or rinseless). Once a towel is dirty, it gets throw in the dirty bucket bucket. Only clean towels touch the paint. I use the Cobra Shine & Buff Wash towels.

Shine & Buff Waterless Wash Towel

There is a 30% off or BOGO today, 1/12/2021 so get them while you can.
 
DETAILROOKIE said:
I used to use bath towels to dry the car
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O ya lol, I remember washing cars when I was 16 (Im 38 now) not knowing that I was maring the ever living sh1t out of the paint :wow:

I see people at car shows take there bath towls to dry there car off after a light sprinkle and it drives me insane.
 
My father used to be in the cotton towel business which meant I had an endless supply of cotton terry towels when I 1st got my own car. So it was cotton hand towels for washing, and the Absorber to dry. By the time I got my 2nd car I evolved to using a chenille wash mitt, and I always had enough sense to rinse it off after every panel which meant dragging the hose around the car the entire time. Lol.

-I used Meguiars Gold Class Leather Wipes for years and years. I still don’t think there’s anything wrong with them. I remember I used to lurk on this forum and hear so many people talk crap about them. Lol.

-The Absorber did a good job as my drying towel. Not sure if it instilled swirls or not because I didn’t even know how to spot them. It was also my glass towel and it only did a decent job at that as I remember wishing I could do glass as good as the car wash did.

I never used glass cleaner back in those days.

-Besides my 1st car that had whitewalls, I would never actually clean my tires. My method was to use Armor All Tire Foam and for a while I think I would use the foam and follow it up with their tire gel too in an attempt to achieve maximum gloss. My tires looked pretty darn good for never scrubbing them clean.

-Once in a while I’d go to the coin op... Would I use the brush? Hell yea I’d use that brush!

It’s a good thing my 1st 3 Cadillacs were white.
 
I remember using diaper cloth to wipe polish off and newspaper to clean windows when I was a teen.


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psnt1ol said:
I remember using diaper cloth to wipe polish off and newspaper to clean windows when I was a teen.


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I started with the newspaper but didn’t like the way the ink would stain my hands.
 
Eldorado2k said:
I started with the newspaper but didn’t like the way the ink would stain my hands.
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by me bringing up the newspaper and you acknowledging it... we both gave away our age. LOL

I remember watching my dad waxed his car with a wax that came in a tin canister. He used his lighter to liquified the wax to make it easier to apply. That stuff was so hard to remove. :wowwow:
 
I can remember pre AG days using Zymol cleaner wax on a not so clean, or certainly not decontaminated, truck. I would use a small wash cloth to apply and wipe off with one old t shirt. It was like trying to wipe off glue! I could never understand why until I started learning here.
 
Don't forget about using cloth baby diapers on your paint...the good ones were stitched

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-I used Zep brand glass cleaner on everything in interiors. Actually a great glass cleaner. Zep glass cleaner and 90’svCadillac vinyl do not always interact well:(

-Would buff with a rotary in the early 2000’s and only clean my “foam” pad at the end of my polishing for the day. I would always clean out my pads every day.
 
DETAILROOKIE said:
Anyone else cringe at their old detailing techniques?
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:laughing: I sometimes look back in fondness at the early 2000's when I'd buy the $129 Zaino Show Car Kit each Spring (thinking it was a silly amount of money) and that was pretty much the car care expenditure for the year for the black C5 Corvette.

To go back to the early 1980's it was wash the car in the driveway w/ Dawn, a bucket and a sponge, dry it with a cotton beach towel and then drive 10 miles up to the local park to wax with a tin of Rain Dance paste and another cotton beach towel and slather the BF Goodrich Radial TA's with Armor All. All with the air cleaner lid flipped for that 'ram air' effect on the 160hp (likely optimistic) 350-2bbl engine. Did have a floor shifter auto cuz, ya know...'race car' :lol:

All the cool kids had air shocks and Cragar's though so strictly 'pretender status' for me.
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This the most accurate post description for the 80's! Right down to applying Rain Dance at the local park!! AWESOME!! People were undoubtedly all about your car too I bet!!
 
Using Brillo pads to clean my dads whitewalls.......(1965)
 
I think the first time I washed a car, when I was done, I dumped the remaining soapy bucket water onto the hood and rinsed again. You know, cannot let that soap go to waste. Oooooff.
I was an "old t shirt for wax removal guy" when I was 16.

At least I was never the gas station scrub down (with the window washing squeegee) guy. I still see that happen.
 
psnt1ol said:
by me bringing up the newspaper and you acknowledging it... we both gave away our age. LOL

I remember watching my dad waxed his car with a wax that came in a tin canister. He used his lighter to liquified the wax to make it easier to apply. That stuff was so hard to remove. :wowwow:
Click to expand...

Must have been Simonize Paste Wax, been there done that. It was definately an all day job and vehicles back then were not midgets.
 
back in the day i used a bucket , sponge and plain water to wash my dads car , then wipe it down with terry towels. wax of choice was simonize paste wax . later i would put a cup of kerosene in the bucket of water to wash the car , the first rinseless car wash.the car was a 1946 dodge maroon in color and it did look good mainly because few people would clean there cars back then unless they were new. later on when vista wax came on the market , that was the wax of choice.
 
Dish soap, a stiff-ish brush on a stick, and a couple old T-shirts was the way I always saw my dad do it.

Oh my god.........:doh:
 
California Car Duster and those Water blades used to dry. I’m guilty of using those things in the past.

I still use a mini California duster inside the car, I keep it in the glove box. Just for those times I find dust on the dashboard and I’m not home.
 
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