Lustra is not a brand that is buyable from shelves. You have to locate a dealer or buy directly from them. Here is the website for more info. http://cleaningsystemsinc.com/ I find there "Tire Jelly" to be some of the best tire dressing solution I have ever worked with. It takes very little to dress a tire and stays on for a week or better. Their Pure Scent fragrances work nice but dont really last long, but hey, thats what your gonna get from a spray bottle fragrance when you drive with you windows down all the time. The tire dressing works well too. All my Lustra experiences were very positive. Theres some info :)

does the tire jelly run when its wet? alot of times when a ext gets dressed down here the rain gets on it and makes it run down the paint and streak up the new wax. How fast is the drying/ soaking time on it?

All the guys on he corvette forum use dawn dishwashing liquid,me too.It works great,similar to a claybar,but less work. try eagleone wax as u dry and meguiars show glaze 7. you will be impressed,i am.

What do you guys think of Zaino or Meguiars? What are the highest quality waxes and polishes?

i want to try that new dupont teflon wax's. i've found the best wax's i have used have been the teflon wax's.

the meguires wax's i used on the truck above came out nice, but within a week the wax has disipated and the truck looked very dirty.

I wasnt really impressed with the meguires wax's ( 2nd time i have not had results that suit me. Yes i'm picky when it comes to cleaning my car.)

i dont just let any shit touch it, thats why i'm testing it on my truck first, find out what the best retail shit is and use that on my car when its done.

^^smart move

i tired numerous waxes and polishes..the one that made the car look the shiniest and lasted the longest was the mothers carnuba (sp) wax..it really brought the color back and lasted for about a week or 2..the meguiars looked good too but only for like a day or 2, and turtle wax kinda sucked imo, lasted only 1 day so i threw that out asap..

im gonna try that dupont teflon wax too, it seems like a good product..

From what ive seen it doesnt run at all. Its all I use on my car and the tire shine stays for forever and i never have run problems from it either. It you buy some of it and see just how thick it is you can see why it sticks to the tires. Its almost stringy its so thick....

Well, I guess I could add my 2 cents into this one...

I've been detailing my own cars for about 3 years now, and I've gone through many different types of waxes and such, and actually just got my first orbital for graduation. Anyways, I've been using the Meguire's 3 step wax system for a while now and it's actually what I've liked the best other than Liquid Lustre. If you ever see a product called Mother's Back to Black, it's a really nice thing to pick up for your trim. I use Mother's Mag and Aluminum polish for my rims and such. A tip I learned a while ago is that the Mother's Mag and Aluminum polish (or similar) and Black Magic Tire Shine (or similiar) work great on tailights and headlights to make them really shine. I know it sounds stupid, but it works awesome. I've never been a big fan of using stuff on the wheels, since if it does get too far on the sides, you do lose a small amount of traction. I've never really stuck with one type of glass cleaner yet because it seems most of them work well. The orange clean stuff is very nice for door jambs though. For interior, I've got Armor All High Shine, and I think it works very nice. For my leather seats, I've got some mink oil that's normally used for anything leather but I can't remember the brand name. for my carpets, I usually just rent out a rug doctor and then vacuum it regularly. I guess that about sums it up, time to get back to the 7. I'll post pictures when I'm done. :p:

Well, I guess I've got a few questions now. I'm wondering about pads for the orbital. The polishing pads are the cloth ones and the buffing pads are the wool ones right? I was thinking today that the polishing pad should be used for my cleaner wax on the first step of Meguire's and that the wool pad would be used for the 2nd and 3rd steps. I'm still trying to figure out this polishing and buffing thing and I need some help. :(

what about cleaning under the hood (engine fire & smoke damage) is there anything that could be picked up at the local parts store to brighten up the aluminum

http://memimage.cardomain.net/member.../627330_15.jpg

Excellent tip!

I bought some Turtle Wax tar/sap remover. The instructions said to spray and let it sit for about 15 seconds. I tried. Then I let it sit for over a minute. I don't think it made any difference at all to the sap. The fumes made me dizzy though. :(

I was thinking about just sanding it all off and re-painting. (Sill might do that.) Then I came across the post above. It works just like TurboSmoke said. Just use an old towel or clean rag. The rag will get stickly as it picks up sap.

I think the sap sat on this car for too long though because there are pale yellow stains that won't come off where the sap was.

Denatured Alcohol is ethyl alcohol (aka ethanol). You can find it at a pharmacy next to the other rubbing alcohol. The common rubbing alcohol is isopropyl alcohol aka isopropanol.

Isopropanol and Ethanol are not the same checmical. Make sure the label says "Denatured" or "Ethanol" or "Ethyl Alcohol". Probably it will say something like %90 or %95 ethanol. Ethanol is also used in gas-line antifreeze so you can try using that on sap.

Ethyl Alchol is the same stuff that people often drink so chemicals are added to it which are supposed to make it taste aweful and potentially go blind. ( No I'm not kidding! Do not drink denatured alcohol! ) When these chemicals are added the alcohol is said to be "denatured".

These added checmicals do not react with the ethyl alcohol. They are just there to keep people from drinking it. Denatonium is used and is supposed to be the most bitter substance know to humans. Methanol is also used and in the human body it breaks down into formaldehyde which you don't want inside you.

I have a question regarding dirt buildup. My FD hasn't been running for the past 8 months, so it's just been sitting in my parking stall. It's got a roof over it's head, but it's in open air. For the first 8 months I had it covered with a car cover, but I was working on it recently and lazily left it off the car for a month or so.

My question is should i be worried about all the dust collecting on the car ruining the paint? It was pretty much freshly washed, clay barred, waxed, and polished before I stopped driving it, and it was done with good quality products. It sat under that cover most of the time. Will the dust/dirt cling to the paint and ruin it? Or will it act as a harsh abrasive and scratch/rub it off? Is my paint ruined because I haven't washed it in 8 months?

Also, I once ran into an old guy with an FC he used "Nu Finish" on and it looked GREAT. What do you think about the Nu Finish product?

First off, Thanks for the Info guys, this is the first car I've ever given a shit about, so I'd like to keep her nice, but had no idea how to do so.

My car has some yellowing in the under hood area. Any ideas about brightening that up? She's going to need a repaint anyway, but in the meantime...

I am looking to shine up my aluminum under my hood... ie manifold, MAF etc.

What is the best way of getting this stuff looking show again without glass beading and powdercoating everything.

I have also just got a set of wheels off a 280Z, They look awsome on my 7 but need to be shined have very minor rust and alot of oxidation. gotta be a betterway to do this stuff without 600grt sand paper.

Ice i never have liked using foam pads. I always use a nice terry bonnet on my orbital for when applying wax's. I use a wool pad on a high speed. which is like a angle grinder with a pad that has velcro on one side. The back of the wool pad sticks to that.

Using a high speed buffer is very tricky. if you dont know what your doing, you can burn your paint. make bad swirls. :rolleyes: i found that out the hard way. But i guess you gotta fuck-up to learn so you never do it again.


if you had a engine fire. go pick up one of those new mothers power balls or whatever they are. The foam ball might be just abrasive enough to help get it nice and clean again. i havent tryed it but i will one day. IF that dosnt work neverdul and a little elbow greese go along way.


If you have a good coat of wax on it you should be fine. Just take the hose out once every week or 2 and blast the dirt off.

If you start seeing little tiny brownish hard spots on the car. like on the hood and roof and on the windshield. Thats spider poop. and no i'm not joking. They like to hang out in carports and things of that nature where bugs can fly around freely and get caught in their net. If you start seeing spots appear.

Spray the carport with a spider spray and remove as many of them as you can with your fingernails. a fingernail is not sharp enough to do any real damange. but you can pop the poop off the car with your nail. (on lighter and white cars remove early to prevent staining)

get some engine degreaser. and scrub away.



chasedrk1 i sent you a pm back. :cool:


Sorry for being so late guys.

TurboSmoke

under the engine is completly factory in appearence. so i don't think it would be considered polished, more along the lines of aluminium or ceramic.

The wheels are aluminum as well, they are factory wheels off of an 83 280Z. deep dish aluminum with a pollished lip. i was thinking of using an aluminum polishing bit with a hand drill for under the hood.

Got any thoughts or suggestions?

Have you ever tried using Adhesive Remover from 3M? I usually find it at a local car paint store, but I have seen it in auto parts stores lately. You can also get it here:
http://www.griotsgarage.com/catalog.jsp?SKUupsell=15900

This adhesive remover works really well. You can either apply the liquid directly to the paint or you can put it on a paper towel and just hold it on top of the place where you have the tar for a few seconds (long enough to let it soak a little bit and get soft) and then it should wipe right off.

I haven't had sap on my car before, but this stuff works great for every other adhesive goop I have ever had on any of my cars (including road tar). The cool part is that it doesn't hurt your paint. It will take off the wax (since wax is an adhesive) so you will want to reapply some wax in that area after you are done. If you have a black car (like me) then you you will notice the black paint will look kind of foggy when you use the adhesive remover on your paint. Don't worry that will go away as soon as you reapply a little bit of wax.

- Cody

Incase anyone is interested here is a company that makes some very nice cleaning/detailing products.

Griot's Garage:
http://www.griotsgarage.com/index.jsp

They actually sell a handbook that explains how to use their products and how to take care of your paint and detail other areas of your car. You can find it here:

http://www.griotsgarage.com/search.j...htext=Handbook

Incase you are curious how good this stuff works I am posting a few pictures of my black 3rd gen. It is a 1994 with around 50,000 miles on it. This is not my daily driver, but I did track the car a few times a year at VIR when I lived in VA. Oh and this was done with an orbital polisher that Griot's sells.

- Cody

does anybody know how to remove burned on plastic from the tip of a Apexi GT Spec Exhaust? I put the car cover on too soon after i drove it and it melted on there and I wanna get it off my exhaust. Any advice would be appreciated, thanks.

what about dog hair embeded in the carpet. how the fuck he could keep his golden lab in the car befor i bought it.... idk........ but........ there is golden hair embeded in my maroon carpet. pm me if any one has a tip.

Embedded dog hair huh? Man that stuff does not want to come out, I know. Assuming you vacuumed to your wits end, I'd go and buy that 6 (or so) pack of lint removal rollers and have at it. GL! :bigthumb:

I don't think I'll buy another car owned by a smoker or anyone who let thier pet in the car. I mean it's cool if you love your pet but I spent hours vacuuming and pulling hair out with my fingers.

Somone told me to really clean the carpets take them down to the locall car wash. Hang them up on the wall with those clips for the floormats. Then spray them down with the wand. I'm told really dirty water just runs off.

If you have a pickup you can move the carpet around in and you have a place to hang it for a day or two to dry off it might help.

How do I clean out my Engine Bay?????

Here are the supplies I use to clean my engine:

- Simple Green or Greased Lightning (found in the same area as 409)
- Garden Sprayer (the large clear sprayers)
- Brush (nylon or perhaps a brush you would use to clean your wheels)

What I do is spray greased lightning on the part I want to clean (while it is dry) and then scrub at it with the brush. You can even use an old toothbrush for those hard to reach places. I then spray it off with water. Try not to let the chemical dry on the part. If it does dry then just reapply the chemical and clean the part again. Also, try not to spray too much water directly at the alternator.

Once you clean the part with greased lightning you will probably want to clean it one more time with simple green. The greased lightning will leave a film like feeling to your parts, but the simple green will get rid of that film feeling and will help clean the part even more. I like to put either the simple green or the greased lightning into the garden sprayer and add a little bit of water (since the simple green is concentrated). The only purpose in the garden sprayer is to keep your hand from getting tired from constantly squeezing the pump on the simple green or greased lightning bottle.

This is a very simple way to clean your engine, but it is VERY effective. You may want to take a towel and dry off at least the UIM and rubber parts that you can get to on the top of the engine (it looks better once you are done that is the only reason). I would suggest that once you are finished cleaning your engine that you let your car set overnight to dry out. The water will not hurt your electronics in your car (to my knowledge) as long as you allow it to dry. It is when you add electricity and water at the same time that you have a problem.

If you have any questions just let me know. Have fun!

- Cody

Thanks a lot will try it this weekend........

interior mold
 

my seven's been sitting for almost a year (i just bought it in April), and when i checked on it today i found that after all this stinkin rain we've had somehow moisture got inside and mold is starting to grow on the carpets. how do i get rid of this and any idea where the moisture may be getting in?

i dunno where the moisture is comming from but depending on how bad the mold is, you might have to remove all carpet and padding, if it hasnt gotten into the padding you can steam clean it, rent a steam cleaner for a day and do it youself. it might cost you 40 bucks but it will end up saving you 100.

as far as the dog hair goes, use duct tape, put it down and run your hand across the tape 3-4 times to ensure a good grip on the hair, you might have to do it a few times, BTW a 5'' piece you can use 5 times. untill the glue is no longer tacky.

Damn i didnt know about that moisture stuff. I mean whats the difference in using the car than not?

Unless your roof or doors are not sealing well that when it does rain, little by little gets in there wetting the interior?

Not sure if someone mentioned this... any advice on how to remove the discoloration on a stainless steel exhaust tip? I bought a used Racing Beat single tip, & the stainless tip is discolored (from heat I think). It's not dirty nor is it something on the metal, it feels like the metal itself is discolored. I was told an acid bath from a metal shop... but I was looking to try to clean it myself before handing it over to the pros. Any advice greatly appreciated.

Well, I don't see why a metal polish wouldn't work... ie, the kind that comes in a tin of cloth. You just have to rub the hell out of it and anything metal (besides aluminum I think) will look good as new.

ie, NevrDull.

My dad uses it on his Harley... I used to use it to polish this one .50 caliber (live) round I have...hehe. Went from tarnished to looking brand new in only about...15 minutes of solid scrubbing.

The heat discoloration is not like a layer on top of the metal, it is infused with the metal. The metal itself is discolored, I'm not trying to remove a discolored buildup from the tip. But I did already try metal polish.

My exhaust always turned a bronze color so i went to a harley shop because they have stainless exh on their bikes and its always perfect so i went to see how they did it.
He walked out and looked at it and told me to take it for a drive and get it hot, when i got back he wiped flitz on it and it was like chrome again. un believeable. I adventually learned another method, flitz with steel wool, you dont have to get it hot. just go get the finest grade of steel wool you can find and some flitz metal polish. Try it and let me know what you think.

Hmm... interesting ideas... but that was a good idea... asking Harley guys how they do it... How long did it take for your exhaust to start getting bronze again after each method of treatment?

& he put flitz... on a hot exhaust? Isn't that a BIT dangerous?

about a month, but i only drive it on weekends and to the gas station during the week, so about a week or so if you drive daily. and i wouldnt say dangerous but i had the bright idea to try it while the car was running so it would stay hot but do not!!! the fumes will choke your ass.

just get some very fine steel wool and flitz. also after polishing i buff it off with some paper towels, it takes a bit but it will have an amazing shine.

Have you guys thought of using something called luster lace?

http://www.lusterlace.com/

This is one of the most popular cleaners for exhaust pipes and spoked wheels for Harley and custom bike riders. It is fairly easy to find this stuff in your local motorcycle shop anymore. It is a really simple concept and it works really well. Just think of wrapping a shoe lace in a circle over a tube, in this case your exhaust, now pull on each end of the shoe lace back and forth so that the friction and the built in cleaner in the "shoe lace" cleans off any dirt and polishes the tube. I'm not sure that it will get rid of the discoloration, but I'm pretty confident it will clean your exhaust about as good as your going to get it.

The guys who tend to sell this stuff at motorcycle rallies love to take a soda can and wrap the luster lace around it to clean off the label from the soda can. Not only will it remove all of the colored label on the soda can, but it will end up polishing the aluminum underneath the label to a mirror quality shine. It's a pretty cool product and it is fairly inexpensive.

- Cody

man you got me on the exhaust thing, i've either pollished them or left them alone, i dont know what to do there. sorry man.

bloody dirty?
hmm, thats a little suspicious

(post script: i do actually know what you meant)

the best thing to do for your carpet if its real bad is go rent a steam cleaner. soak it down with carpet cleaner 10 min before you use the steam cleaner.

Shoot the liquid outta the steam cleaner when you go over it the first time. then you just go over it and get all the moisture you can out. spray on the heavy soiled areas more then once.

be careful of using simple green it is proven by usaf that it eats thru aluminum.

i never use simple green on anything on my car.

And actual just regular car soap in a bucket is good to clean out your int. and your motor. apply to a rag and the soap cleans all.

TurboSmoke

On waxes... I read about these for hours and hours but all the sources I found contradicted eachother. I did find out that Zaino lasts the longest, while Mother's and Armor-All have products that did best in the medium and low price categories. In terms of appearance Meguiars will look as good as Zaino, but it won't last as long. I'd go with Zaino simply because it boasts "UV40" UV protection. UV40 is an actual industry standard for UV protection; it's not limited to car wax (a quick google of "UV40" found a great deal of industrial, not automotive links). It is the highest standard for UV protection there is. With all the other claims made it's too hard to say what's true and what's BS. Zaino is a bit expensive but - including applicators, etc., etc. - it still averages out to only $2 per application.

I also found a really good study on what causes paint damage. Chemical action does not cause paint damage; paint is very chemical resistance. "Tree sap" (actually bug droppings), bird dropping, and bugs damage the paint through mechanical action. They stick to the paint, harden and then deform the paint, especially in the presence of UV light (i.e., sunlight). Bird droppings were the most mild and could be left on the longest without harm. Bugs were the worst and should be removed ASAP. "Tree sap" gets especially bad when exposed to UV light.

Of course car wax won't protect any of these nuisances from UV exposure. But I learned from my materials class that UV does damage polymers directly (paint is a polymer). UV causes the long, spaghetti-like polymer chains to become cross-linked to eachother. This hardens and embrittles the polymer, causing cracks, discoloration, etc.

Your rubber & soft plastic pieces harden over time because the plasticizers evaporate from them. Plasticizers are essentially low viscosity oil (like WD-40), used to soften plastic. They are the source of "new car smell".

Don't know if this has been mentioned before but one thing I like to do is put some of that oily tire shine stuff on my R1 lip, makes it look nice and wet :)

Let me ask this: What would you reccomend to get off compund? I had my car in the shop, and it looks like they used compund or something like that ( didn't wash it off completely) and now the back end of my car is all dull with this white haze.

everybody in this thread go to www.autopia.org and click LEARN.... read the damn articles.

^^^ Yes autopia is a great place to learn about detailing.

Anyways I don't know if this has been mentioned but don't ever spray windex on tinted windows or it will screw it up. The person who did the write up said to do use windex and a claybar. Of course you don't use a clay bar on the windows but make sure it doesn't get sprayed on accidentally. Water and soap will work better with a claybar and it's safer.

Im not sure about using a clay bar on tinted windows but you can use a clay bar on non tinted windows. I did clay my front windshield

There are different opinions in the window film industry right now pertaining to ammoniated products on window tint. Some say it's okay, some still say not to use it.

I always tell my customers not to use it, but regardless if they do or not, it isn't going to void the warranty.

keeping the vert top looking new
 

for my top i use vinylex by the makers of lexol leather conditioner.i apply it on a micro terry towel and evenly apply it on the top.it gives it a nice sheen and not a greasy look .it supposedly also has protective properties.for the leather seats i use the lexol .and finally for my air freshner i use 2 kynol blossom scent tabs under the seat.this stuff smells great and last .you wont smell it after a day or so but everyone else will.oh yeah for the exterior3m all the way.

I have a gajillion (yes... I said it) little scratches on my windshield. Sometimes at night they make it hard to see because of how the light hits them. Is there any way to fix/repair/make them better short of replacing the windshield?

Hope that was understandable. :)

^^ try using a clay bar