Detailing door hinge area, and lubrication.

[Hoytman]

Obviously the door hinge area is an area of concern for different reasons: Cleanliness, and lubrication come to mind.

Often times the lubrication, or lack there-of, can present a grimy mess...either with excessive grease trapping dirt and who knows what, and/or the lack of lubrication of the hinge area allowing rust and corrosion to drop all over inside the jam. The latter, over the life of the car can cause doors to creak and pop when opening and closing, all of which can lead to premature door hinge failure.

1. Dirty door jams are nasty.
2. Ungreased door jams will cause problems.
3. Over greased door jams are nasty as well.

After cleaning these areas and ridding them of nastiness; What do you use to grease the hinge area (white lithium grease comes to mind)? How do you grease it without getting your product of choice all over the place and into the area of the hinge it needs to be?

My goal: To super clean door jams while leaving lubrication that can hardly be noticed, if at all.

I have my own way of doing this and was looking to possibly refine it. So, I ask; How do you approach this?

[dad07]

Bill I agree that is a problem area.....my method is while washing I'll spray with OPC and aggitate then sray it with pressure washer.

as far as lube I use a Teflon base made by Dupont,I get it at Lowes. It sprays on clear.

I'll hold a blue shop towel around the hinge and give it a good shot and wipe the overyspray off. takes me about 3 seconds a hinge.

[dcjredline]

I tooo like the Dupont Teflon stuff, I use it almost everywhere around the house and garage.

[NIS240SHU]

The DuPont Multipurpose Lubricant is awesome. We use it quite a bit on motorcycle chains. It goes on and stays clear and dries quickly. It actually smells pretty good too.

I'm a big fan.

For some reason, I can't attach or insert pictures from my iPad. Otherwise, I'd have one for you that I just took.

[Wors]

There has been other posts on this topic. One product that quite a few members mentioned was:

Würth HHS-K Spray Lubricant

[wangotango]

tri-flow

[mhphoto]

I leave lubrication to customers and just gently clean with APC, but for our cars I power wash the crap out of them and soak them in lithium grease. Doesn't look good, but I've never had a squeaky hinge in any of my cars.

[swanicyouth]

There has been other posts on this topic. One product that quite a few members mentioned was:

Würth HHS-K Spray Lubricant

Anyone have a local source for this stuff? Maybe a chain store? I'm thinking some place that sells BMW motorcycles may have it?

[FUNX650]

I have my own way of doing this and was looking to possibly refine it.


Hi Bill...

Don't know if I could possibly refine your way of cleaning/lubing the door hinge area
of vehicles without, at first, knowing your current products/methodology/etc.

Are you prepared to do so?


:D

Bob

[y8s]

Looking at this from a car guy / car owner, I wouldn't want a detailer removing normal lubrication without replacing it with the right lubrication.

In some cases a lithium based grease would make sense and in others perhaps a molybdenum grease would. Depends on the car.

[Hoytman]

Hi Bill...

Don't know if I could possibly refine your way of cleaning/lubing the door hinge area
of vehicles without, at first, knowing your current products/methodology/etc.

Are you prepared to do so?


:D

Bob
Ooooops! You caught me Bob. LOL! That was sort of my way of saying my method wasn't very good...but here it goes.

In the past I used to spray the area down heavily with a degreaser, like D301, and then would use soapy wrung out rags to wipe the area until it was thoroughly clean, then I'd rinse with a light flow of water, then dry. I do it this way because I have no power washer, which I'm not a big fan of using in these areas because of getting water inside the car, and I have no steamer. Obviously, my process is very time consuming, but thorough. I'm a believer tha additional tools like a steamer, or a tornador black, would greatly reduce my cleaning time by half in these areas. The next part is where I'm looking for the most "refinement" ...the lubricating of the hinge area.

I've used various products in spray cans and all seemed to lubricate fine, albeit they're short lived, but also have a tendency to run down the jam. I hate that as much as the lubrication evaporation, which brings me to the next products I've tried, or had the "luck" of cleaning out.

Some cars that I've cleaned the owner had taken never-seize and put into the hinge area. While this works great, it's a stinkin' mess. If you're not careful you can have this stuff all over a car and yourself in a flash and it's hard to remove. Therefore, never-seize is not my lubricant of choice.

I tend to use white lithium grease, not the spray type because it seems too thin. I force the grease with my fingers into the hinge area and wipe off excess. This is also a bit messy and time consuming, but the lithium grease stays put and seemingly lasts. One thing I have noticed though is that over time the grease tends to crust over. I've noticed this in cars that have had the grease applied and the jam hasn't been cleaned in quite some time.

This isn't something I dwell on and fret about, rather, it's just something that I've thought about from time-to-time. I really haven't put much thought into using or researching other products simply because I haven't worked on that many cars, but I have noticed those hinge areas on those cars. I just don't want a customer saying I removed the lubrication, so I want to find a product that (Thinking CRC sp350) will lubricate, stay put, and not look so apparent. My thought is that if I find the right product you won't even know it is there.

Is that enough Bob?:laughing:

[Twister]

I've used lithium grease for a while but I'm not happy with it. It drys out at some point and it's messy to spray. I started using a plastic cup to spray some in and then brush it on to the hinge.

I think I'll look for the 3M one this weekend

[POPPAJ]

I've been using BLASTER garage door lube and it works great. Back the hinge with a paper towel and spray to keep down the mess. It's thin and actually gets inside to the hinge pin. Doubt that greases do anything but sit on top.

[Hoytman]

One of my favorite all-time penetrant/lubricants is Kroil and if you know anything about it you know why I like it so much. However, it is extremely thin and will run all over the place, but it will get where other lubricants (WD-40, PB Blaster, and so on) will not, and I'm not so sure it's the right product to use in the hinge area.

[Hoytman]

Ooooops! You caught me Bob. LOL! That was sort of my way of saying my method wasn't very good...but here it goes.

In the past I used to spray the area down heavily with a degreaser, like D301, and then would use soapy wrung out rags to wipe the area until it was thoroughly clean, then I'd rinse with a light flow of water, then dry. I do it this way because I have no power washer, which I'm not a big fan of using in these areas because of getting water inside the car, and I have no steamer. Obviously, my process is very time consuming, but thorough. I'm a believer tha additional tools like a steamer, or a tornador black, would greatly reduce my cleaning time by half in these areas. The next part is where I'm looking for the most "refinement" ...the lubricating of the hinge area.

I've used various products in spray cans and all seemed to lubricate fine, albeit they're short lived, but also have a tendency to run down the jam. I hate that as much as the lubrication evaporation, which brings me to the next products I've tried, or had the "luck" of cleaning out.

Some cars that I've cleaned the owner had taken never-seize and put into the hinge area. While this works great, it's a stinkin' mess. If you're not careful you can have this stuff all over a car and yourself in a flash and it's hard to remove. Therefore, never-seize is not my lubricant of choice.

I tend to use white lithium grease, not the spray type because it seems too thin. I force the grease with my fingers into the hinge area and wipe off excess. This is also a bit messy and time consuming, but the lithium grease stays put and seemingly lasts. One thing I have noticed though is that over time the grease tends to crust over. I've noticed this in cars that have had the grease applied and the jam hasn't been cleaned in quite some time.

This isn't something I dwell on and fret about, rather, it's just something that I've thought about from time-to-time. I really haven't put much thought into using or researching other products simply because I haven't worked on that many cars, but I have noticed those hinge areas on those cars. I just don't want a customer saying I removed the lubrication, so I want to find a product that (Thinking CRC sp350) will lubricate, stay put, and not look so apparent. My thought is that if I find the right product you won't even know it is there.

Is that enough Bob?:laughing:

Bump...awaiting Bob's reply. Im the MAN