First hand wash this year

[Newlook]

I\'ve been working on the car since Monday... Took off the snows, cleaned up and vacuumed the interior, washed the mats. Installed the door sills yesterday.

And this afternoon I washed the exterior of the car. I noticed there are numerous black dots on the doors, look like dirt or brake dust. Need some scrubbing to get them off. And there are lots of rust-like dots as well, looks like rail dust or something. I wonder if clay bar would help to get rid of all these? Would I scratch the hell out of the car?

My 2.3 emblems have some surface corrosion as well. :(

[///M]

* Clay bar should remove the rail dust and whatever crap has accumulated over winter. Shouldn\'t scratch the car so long as you don\'t drop it on the ground and turn/knead it frequently.
* Try the Mr Clean magic eraser on the 2.3l badges. A clay bar should work too. If all else fails, remove the badges. :p

What did you use to wash the mats?

[bubba1983]

yeah i noticed them black dots too...booerns...oh well..

[Newlook]

Originally posted by autoexe

What did you use to wash the mats?

It\'s the all weather mats not carpets... My front carpets have some very little salt stain on the edge, other than that they\'re good as new.

I just spray the mats with water and briefly brush them, clean enough. Don\'t need to make them to look like new, since you turn around and step on them again :p

[chaser]

Always wax the surface where you\'ve clay barred because clay bar will take off the wax/coating as well. And don\'t play too hard with it, just enough to remove the contamination. ;)

[Xenon]

I did my standard 5 hour clean up on saturday.

Vaccumed the interior, dash protectant, vaccumed the carpets, cleaned all my rubber matts, used Eagle One 20/20 on all the windows, Washed and waxed the exterior, dressed the tires...

The only thing I didn\'t do was shampoo the engine bay.

My car shined like it was brand new. Very happy :)

[thesober]

I just claybarred my car over the weekend, i noticed it had a lot of rail rust all over car, my car is white so I really noticed the rust. The claybar work flawlessly, got rid of the rust. It just took soo long to do the whole car, i think around 4-5 hours just claybarring. Well worth it at the end. Remember to wax it after you claybar.

[ng3]

What do you guys use for cleaning the dash? I tried the Arm and Hammer Wipes but they leave streaks, then I went with some Simoniz stuff but so far the best result I can get is with Windex...


Any advice?

[///M]

Originally posted by ng3


What do you guys use for cleaning the dash? I tried the Arm and Hammer Wipes but they leave streaks, then I went with some Simoniz stuff but so far the best result I can get is with Windex...


Any advice?

Damp cloth works great.

[emc]

i use armor-all protective wipes on all the interior black in my car . . . it works great, no streaks, plus it comes out so shiny, and it lasts for a couple of weeks plus dust doesn\'t stick to it!

[cookie]

Originally posted by emc


i use armor-all protective wipes on all the interior black in my car . . . it works great, no streaks, plus it comes out so shiny, and it lasts for a couple of weeks plus dust doesn\'t stick to it!

Me too. I find it works great as well =).

[Titanium_M3GT]

The best product for the dash is the Mcguiars dash orotectant (Red bottle). Lasts for about 6 weeks.

[bubba1983]

ive only used warm water damp cloth, no chemicals or anything have touched the dash, nor will it ever touch the interior...