Car Care Advice

Oranges and Lemons… Maybe?

I happend upon a possible answer to this problem while talking to the owner of a gun shop! It seems that he often has people in his shop asking to buy air rifles, and when he asks them what kind of shooting they want them for, the answer is often that it’s to “keep the cats of the fish pond”. more »

Yes, but it’s probably best not to!

“Orange Peel” is the name commonly given to a slightly rippled effect that is found on paintwork. The paint is sprayed on at the factory and because it is wet and the spray guns are pushing out a lot of air, the airstream leaves a visable rippled effect which is actually nothing like an orange!

Orange peel is a very old expression from back the days when cars were painted very differently from they way they are now. Different paints were used, different techniques were used, and very good paintwork on high end cars would be as smooth as glass while bad paint jobs really would look like orange peel or worse. more »

That is almost impossible to answer!

(For the benefit of keeping this answer as simple as possible, I will be talking about traditional wax, not synthetic waxes, sealants or blends.)

We at Clean Image have tried many waxes over the years, and we still can’t decide on just one favorite! For example, we have one that works very well on light coloured cars, another that works well on dark coloured cars, another that is good for dark cars with swirl marks, and then we have the waxes which last a long time. more »

Aren’t they all ducky…

Actually, “magnet” is the right word for this.  Chaps who payed far more attention in science class than I ever did tell me that part of the problem is the metal that comes off your brake discs and pads becomes statically charged and so will actually stick to your ally wheels like a magnet. more »

You have to take great care when doing headlinings. The problem is that when they get wet, they get heavy, which means they can sag, or even tear themselves from their fixings as they become weakened when wet.

So the trick is to clean it without too much water. What we would recommend is using a foam spray-on cleaner and a damp microfibre cloth. You can also use an upholstery cleaner in a trigger spray, just don’t put on too much. more »

Alacantara is a synthetic Suede, sometimes called Super-Suede… it can be a little difficult to handle, it can be delicate, we deal with it the same way we would deal with Suede.

There are two ways to deal with it, use the safest method first, which is to get a damp microfibre cloth and gently wipe it over, turning the cloth every now and again. more »

Well… the way to make it clean is to clean it… ! It sounds obvious, but without a doubt the best way to handle most dashboards it to clean them with a damp cloth which has been dipped in warm soapy water. That is pretty much all you need to do.

There is just one thing I have to say is that your cloth should be damp, not wet! Behind your dashboard are loads of electronic gizmos, everything from airbag units to the processor which controls your whole car - It only takes one drop of water in the wrong place and you could be looking at a bill for many thousands of pounds to put things right. We don’t advise that you use any product on your dashboard, but if you should ignore my advice, then fine… just don’t spay any product directly onto the dashboard. Instead spray it onto a cloth and put the cloth on the dash. more »

Fallout is anything that falls on your car, contaminates it and can damage the paint or otherwise ruin the appearance.Usually when people talk about fallout, they mean industrial fallout, specifically raildust. Raildust is particles of metal, most commonly from railway lines (hense the name) but it can come from any industrial process. Contamination with metal particals is a subject which deserves it’s own entry which can be found here. more »

Raildust is the common name given to ferrous metal fallout contamination. Often raildust comes from trains and is caused by the train’s wheels on the rails, the electrical pick-up rubbing overhead cables and the effect of the braking mechanism causing tiny particles of metal to fly off into the air. However, this kind of fallout can be caused by any mechanical device that involves metal on metal, including your own car’s brakes. Exhaust fumes will contain some amount of metal, especially from ships and aircraft, foundries and factories. The worst cases of fallout I’ve seen have been caused by people using grinders, either in body shops, or people sharpening blades in the garage. more »

What is a clay bar?

Clay bars seems to be the big thing at the moment, everybody is talking about them, which may explain why there are so many misconceptions about them! Hopefully I can clear up a few things in this article.

The story goes that some Japanese chap discovered that he could take riverbed clay and clean his car with it… however, you are unlikely to find a real clay bar on the market. The ones you can buy are plastic and pretty much made of the same stuff as Blu-tac, only blended to be stickier and harder. The basic idea is that you rub it over your car’s paintwork and the stickiness sucks up any contaminates such as raildust, fallout, overspray and organic matter. So it does ‘clean’ your paintwork, but some people are under the misapprehension that it will polish paintwork and can be used to remove swirl marks and scratches - it doesn’t.

Can they harm my car?
If you don’t use them properly - you bet they do! You are rubbing them reasonably firmly all over your car, so if you get any bits of grit in them they will cause scratches. You have been warned!
The first rule of using a clay bar is not to use it until you have got your car really clean, I mean really clean! Don’t cut corners, clean right under those sills, all the shuts and panel lines, gutters, trim, everything! Many people take great care not to drop the claybar on the floor (which is rule two) only to pick up a bit of grit which was sitting in some nook or cranny on their own car. They then proceed to rub this all over the paintwork and wonder where they went wrong.
Rule two is to take great care never to drop it on the floor. Any dirt and grit there will stick to it and stay in the clay. There is no point in trying to pick it out, it isn’t worth the risk - throw the clay bar in the bin.

As you use your clay bar, it will pick up dirt and grit, but this is okay, this stuff is so small it will cause minimal scratching. In theory, at some point the clay bar will get so full of dirt that it will need throwing away… but I have known this to happen because somebody always drops it on the floor before then! They last for ages and are a really good investment (unless you have butter fingers).

Clay bars come in a variety of different grades, many manufacturers producing 3 or 4. But most of these are professional use, being medium and heavy duty for removing serious fallout prior to buffing a car. The ones most commonly aimed at the general public are very soft and designed not to damage paintwork and are good for general cleaning of paintwork. When using them for heavier duty contamination removal, it is sometimes unavoidable to scratch the paintwork and doesn’t matter much to the professional as they will have the tools for removing light scratches.

But you don’t need to be a professional valeter to make use of a clay bar. There is all sorts of stuff that gets onto your paintwork and sticks there, from road salts, lime scale, soot, light metal fallout and organic material such as squashed bugs and tree sap. A claybar will remove the stuff that a sponge or wash can’t– If you try it you will be amazed, both by the stuff on the claybar and how smooth your paintwork feels.

How to clay bar your car.

First I recommend getting a bucket of warm water. The bucket needs to be spotlessly clean (no grit in it!), and the water needs to be nearly hot, this is because you put the clay bar in the bucket to let the water soften it. Once you have left it for a minute, take it out and knead it into a ball and then flatten it so you have a palm sized disk. Some people cut theirs into slices and use only a bit at a time… I have no idea why they would do this, it seems silly to me. Just use the whole lot in one go.

If you buy a clay bar, detailing clay or paint eraser, it will probably come with a bottle of clay lubricant, you can use this by spraying first the clay bar (so it doesn’t stick to your hands, and then on the part of the car you are going to clean. If you didn’t by a clay bar aimed at the retail market, then you can buy clay lubricant… but frankly, You don’t need it. I had a conversation about this the other day with a manufacturer, they told me that the clay lube does contain lubricants and some wax to help shine things up a bit, but really its nothing special, normal car shampoo (mixed with water according to the instructions) will do just as well, but the manufacturers feel compelled to provide a lubricant in order to ensure that you have something that won’t react with the detailing clay. Some soaps and detergents can cause a breakdown of the clay bar, so ensure you use a shampoo as these are PH balanced and suitable for cars and clay bars.

When you start off pushing the claybar across your paintwork, you will at first feel a slight resistance. This may because the claybar isn’t yet flat, and it may be because it is sticking against the fallout. but once you have made a few strokes, it will get going and you will feel the difference between dirty paint and clean paint that the clay bar glides smoothly over. I suggest that you move the bar in straight lines back-and-forth, you don’t need to press hard, in fact it’s better if you don’t, that way you can feel better. They say that you can tell when the paint is clean because you will hear it… it is literally squeaky clean - but this isn’t always the case. Check the bar often to see how dirty it is, check for anything that looks like grit, and check the paintwork for scratches. Once you have done a couple of square feet, fold the claybar in on it’s self, roll it up into a ball and flatten it again, and start with a clean face. This will minimize the chances of grit and dirt in the claybar damaging the paintwork. Every now and again, you feel a bit of resistance which is caused by some fallout, and although you might not be able to see it you know there is something there- once it’s gives way and has been sucked up by the claybar, fold it up again incase it was something that could scratch. Keep the car, the bar and your hand lubricated at all times, it will make things easier.

If you have a light coloured clay bar, you will be able to see all the crud that is coming off really clearly. I have covered fallout and raildust in other articles, but much of the stuff you are seeing is just everyday grime from pollution that normal washing can’t remove. This stuff harbours all sorts of acids, salts and other stuff which is harmful to your car. Unfortunately, car paintwork is porous, so you are only removing the rubbish from the very surface, which is why we always recommend applying a sealant such as Supagard or Diamondbrite to your car from new.

Once you have clay bared your car rinse it off. You will probably want to polish it, and you will certainly want to wax it, but you will now notice that the car is silky smooth.