Year plus without a wash

[ZionsWrath]

So car was sitting. I power washed it for like 30 minutes, spraying out as much of the crevices I could and door jambs. Then I snow foam it and power washed that off. Then I did a 2 bucket wash and had to change the rinse water twice. When I was drying the towels were still getting dirt. Also there are many stuck on contaminants I guess dead bugs, pollen, sap, whatever.

The car doesn't need to be showroom clean or anything and it would be fine to leave it as is but I figure I could learn a thing or two cleaning it up.

I figure I need a more aggressive soap to clean the surface. Recommendations?

The stuck on contaminants, should I look at a bug and tar remover or a clay bar?

[DogRescuer]

Hi, ask yourself, "do I want a real clean car" if so you will get some serious answers:

decon wash
iiron x
clay
how involved are you willing to be?

[ken tuep]

I agree a stronger soap may be needed. You didn't mentioned what you foamed with, but a strong dilution of dawn or apc should help break down the dirt.

I like adding an ounce of dawn, and an ounce of apc, to 30 ounces of water in my foam cannon for nasty vehicles. Dwell as long as it'll stay wet. Sometimes refoaming will be needed. 10 minutes usually needs two soaks, depending on weather.

Strong scrubbing with a wash mitt or sponge is gonna be needed from the sounds of it. Followed by lots of rinsing.

A clay bar should also clean up all the bonded contaminates. Then put on any wax you'd like to keep it cleaner longer. Good luck, I hope this helps.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I777 using AG Online

[jankerson]

Use Dawn, it will remove the dirt, make it strong if it's really bad...

You can also mix Dawn and Tide together....

Spray it down really good and and go over the car and let it soak a few mins and the dirt will come off even easier...

Put a coat of wax on after as Dawn will strip off the old wax...

[c8n]

I would probably get yelled at for this... but if a car is that dirty, heck I would just take it to a car wash as it will probably need to be compounded anyways.

[Dr_Pain]

I agree with the jankerson's Dawn recommendation and agree with c8n as far as a compounding would be a good idea.

If the paint was that dirty and unprotected you will need to decontaminate the paint with a good wash and some product like IronX or Trix, a good clay will be necessary followed by another wash down, then I would take a paint cleanser with a mildly aggressive pad (on a DA) to remove the embedded dirt and staining..... OR you could go more aggressive (if you want to remove the swirls, scratches and other paint defect and go with a full compound.

After all of this, a long lasting paint sealant or a coating (check out the new Black Label product line)

[VP Mark]

I do not agree with using dawn. It is dish soap, use it for dishes. I recommend using car wash soap doubly concentrated, and pre treating really bad areas with APC+ or similar product.

Either that, or order the Finish Kare Decontamination system and use it.

Follow with aggressive clay either way, then correct.

[KillaCam]

All good suggestions. For really contaminated cars I like spraying APC+ 10:1 directly onto the panel and letting it dwell for about 30 seconds before going over it with my wash mitt. It helps break up a bunch of crap especially on horizontal surfaces. Cuts down claying time a bit too.

[FUNX650]

how involved are you willing to be?

^^^Good question!!^^^ :props:


All good suggestions.

^^^:iagree:^^^

I would probably get yelled at for this...

^^^I probably will too.^^^

but if a car is that dirty, heck I would just take it to a car wash
as it will probably need to be compounded anyways.<<< http://www.runemasterstudios.com/graemlins/images/yes.gif


http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/500/jackhammer.jpg (http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/showphoto.php/photo/68484)

:)

Bob

[Dr_Pain]

I do not agree with using dawn. It is dish soap, use it for dishes. I recommend using car wash soap doubly concentrated, and pre treating really bad areas with APC+ or similar product.

Either that, or order the Finish Kare Decontamination system and use it.

Follow with aggressive clay either way, then correct.

If you don't like the Dawn idea, then you will have to be a little more specific in your car soap recommendation. I agree that it is "dish soap", but it is also one of the more alkaline (and cheap and readily available) soap on the market boasting a pH of around 9 (14 being the top of the scale). If what he has on hand is a pH neutral soap then doubling or quadrupling the concentration will do nothing. Dawn as adequate lubricity for a pre-treatment wash and its pH and surfactants are strong enough to cut through some of the more stubborn dirt and grime. Definitely not recommended as a lubricant for claying!

If you feel safe enough to put APC on the paint (eg. Meg D101 at pH 13) then Dawn should be safe enough for the paint and for the skin.

[jankerson]

I do not agree with using dawn. It is dish soap, use it for dishes. I recommend using car wash soap doubly concentrated, and pre treating really bad areas with APC+ or similar product.

Either that, or order the Finish Kare Decontamination system and use it.

Follow with aggressive clay either way, then correct.

What do you think we who are older used to use before the half way decent car soaps ever hit the market....

Tide and Dawn..... And most of what is out today is based off of one or both of them in some way in diluted form...

And they still work better than most of what is out even today.... I know because I have used a lot of them...

Now yeah on a car that is taken care of that just needs to be washed then a good car soap works.... :xyxthumbs:

For the rest of them.... Well they have to be corrected and or waxed anyway because of neglect etc.....

So why not use something that really works and fast and really cleans. Cuts the time down a lot getting it done and is less work in the end overall.

A lot of it's just marketing...

[FUNX650]

What do you think we who are older used to use before the half way decent car soaps ever hit the market....

20 Mule Team Borax; Ivory Snow Flakes; etc.
Soaps...not the modern-day Detergents.

And was this before or after BC/CC paint systems came along...and bringing along with them:
The continual upsurge in the use of all this black plastic trim/molding, instead of chrome/SS?

Or does that even make a difference?

:)

Bob

[jankerson]

What do you think we who are older used to use before the half way decent car soaps ever hit the market....

Tide and Dawn..... And most of what is out today is based off of one or both of them in some way in diluted form...

And they still work better than most of what is out even today.... I know because I have used a lot of them...

Now yeah on a car that is taken care of that just needs to be washed then a good car soap works.... :xyxthumbs:

For the rest of them.... Well they have to be corrected and or waxed anyway because of neglect etc.....

So why not use something that really works and fast and really cleans. Cuts the time down a lot getting it done and is less work in the end overall.

A lot of it's just marketing...


20 Mule Team Borax; Ivory Snow Flakes; etc.
Soaps...not the modern-day Detergents.

And was this before or after BC/CC paint systems came along...and bringing along with them:
The continual upsurge in using all of this black plastic trim/molding, instead of chrome/SS?

Or does that even make a difference?

:)

Bob


Yeah I used those too from time to time. :xyxthumbs:

As long as the trim etc is treated after the newer cars are fine..

Not that I would use them every week to wash these days...

On my own car...

[Klasse Act]

After washing spray some Alien Kleen on it and let it soak, then rinse and wash again. I have no experience with Iron-X but this seems like a candidate for sure. Posting the results will surely help someone in the future, no doubt about it!

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[Rod73]

I'm going to be in a similar situation soon working on a good friend of mine's car. His is probably much worse I have always used the 'rinseless wash system'. I was going to go in spray the car with P21s in addition to washing with D114 rinseless. Optimum Iron remover and then claybar. That is my game plan going in if this helps you any!