Tell everyone one of your best detailing secrets!

ammonia and water to clean cloth seats and carpets. i know the smell , but ammonia does not leave anything in the fabric to resoil. i mix it in a bucket with water , dunk in a towel wring out and wipe all the fabric down , dunking and wring out as you go .i one time did a cars headliner that had heavy smoke on it and it came out like new although it many buckets of solution, and because you dont soak the head liner it did not fall down, and they used the car for 2 years. useing water and ammonia and just damp wiping, the fabric dries very fast. if you can get pass the smell you got it licked
 
I used many secrets and improvisations in the old days before there were all these cool products that serve all purposes like we have today. Comet cleanser and a scrub brush were used to clean tires now we have dedicated tire and wheel cleaners. When I was out of Comet, I used a soapy Brillo pad to clean the tires especially the white walls. Windex with newspaper was used to clean glass. Now we have dedicated glass cleaners with a variety of glass towels. Formula 409 was used to clean the dash and the interior and then we finished it up with Lemon Pledge. Now we have our favorite OPCs and interior protectants. Lemon Pledge also doubled as a tire dressing.
Those were my secrets in 1973. No secrets necessary today.
 
I used many secrets and improvisations in the old days before there were all these cool products that serve all purposes like we have today. Comet cleanser and a scrub brush were used to clean tires now we have dedicated tire and wheel cleaners. When I was out of Comet, I used a soapy Brillo pad to clean the tires especially the white walls. Windex with newspaper was used to clean glass. Now we have dedicated glass cleaners with a variety of glass towels. Formula 409 was used to clean the dash and the interior and then we finished it up with Lemon Pledge. Now we have our favorite OPCs and interior protectants. Lemon Pledge also doubled as a tire dressing.
Those were my secrets in 1973. No secrets necessary today.


Great history lesson, Methuselah!! :laughing::laughing:
 
One thing I like to do is to take the Famous Detailing Brush and put it in my cordless drill. Then I use it to scrub tough spots on the interior and also exterior trim. I keep it on a lower speed and use it with Meguiar's APC.

This really helped me out quite a bit on this dodge truck I worked on a while back as the interior door panels were really nasty and I just don't think normal scrubbing by hand would have done as nice of a job. It aslo worked great on the cup holders as well as many other problem areas. Even the center console, and the door panel storage.

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comet cleanser on a red scotchbrite pad works great on white walls and white letters in case it hasn't been said,,,,I too have used newspaper to do windows with but the only I used Pledge for was inside of conversion vans or woodgrain station wagons
 
Does the tire shine attract dirt??? I use 303 Aerospace - similar application, but without the dirt attraction qualities of tire shine....

if you use foaming tire cleaner it does not attract the dirt. If you use the shinny wet look then yes
 
I use old toilet paper rolls flattened. (look like a "C") then wrap with a micro towel and spray with instant detailer. Makes the best barrel cleaner I have found to date.
 
The Peanut Butter trick is actually a trick that misses the mark...

Somehow, somewhere, someway someone posted about using Peanut Butter to remove polish and wax residue and the post spread from there... it continues to this day.

Here's the skinny...

If you have an open jar of peanut butter that's been used, usually you'll see some clear liquid pooling on the top of the peanut butter, this is vegetable oil, it's the vegetable oil in the peanut butter that helps to break-up and dissolve polish and wax residue and also turn faded trim a darker color which will also act to mask the problem.

Here's an old home-remedy for removing gum out of hair, which is a problem that sometimes happens to little kid, or how to get chewing gum out of carpet which is a problem usually caused by little kids, take and work some vegetable oil into the gum and it will act to dissolve it so instead of being a difficult, medium to remove it will break-up and then can be pulled out of or off of whatever it's stuck too...

If I had a jar of peanut butter for every time I've posted the reason why peanut butter is used to remove polish and wax residue I would have a pantry full of peanut butter...

pantryfullofpeanutbutter.jpg



:bump:


Shared on YouTube


Kind of fun to see this thread from 2010 brought back to life.

I bumped it for my own use. A recent comment about our latest LIVE Detailing Class caught my attention as someone mentioned using Peanut Butter to remove dried wax from black plastic trim.


jif_Peanut_Butter.jpg


It's not the Peanut Butter - it's the Vegetable Oil. And this is such and old, worn out urban legend.


there is no new thing under the sun



But yeah, keep this thread going or someone start a new one.


:xyxthumbs:
 
Wait a minute. Skippy? SKIPPY!!?? Real men use Jif and Jif only!! And don't even mention that brand with the little transgender elf on the label!!!
 
I use a thin flexible card, like the cards issued by supermarkets, wrap a microfiber towel around it and spray it with an exterior detailer or waterless wash to clean panel and other seams. Surprising what you can pull out of there.
 
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