Detailing hack saves the day

[Eldorado2k]

Saved the day? That’s a bold statement, and I dunno about you, but when I have my goals set for a vehicle that I’m about to detail, failure is not an option.

Failure is not an option.

So when this Nissan Armada was dropped off to me I spoke with the owner and he just bought it to replace another Armada that was hit in a car accident. So this is going to be his family vehicle and of course I want to do a good job on it.

1 of my main areas I was set to make a difference on was wheels & tires. I took 1 look and said “I’m going to make those look like new”

But when I started cleaning them I ran into quite a surprise. I started cleaning them at about 9pm. in order to get a headstart on the SUV for the next morning, and I wasn’t sure if I just couldn’t see or if they weren’t coming clean. After 2 rounds of Meguiars D143 I grabbed my flashlight and they weren’t coming clean. So I reached for the big gun, Brown Royal undiluted.

Holy crap, this has almost never happened.. This is what they still looked like the next morning.[I didn’t get any pictures of how they looked before the 1st round, as I didn’t expect this to turn into a notable situation]



So at this point my whole day is ruined because this is just unacceptable in my book. If something like this happens it’s nothing less than a complete fail and I don’t have it in me to charge someone if I give them back their vehicle looking like this. At the very least I knew this would cut about half of what I was going to charge for this job because how can you deliver a vehicle back with dirty wheels? Especially chrome, which the whole point of them is to shine like a mirror.

So I started thinking about what else could possibly be done when I thought about what we’ve all come across while watching videos.. I remembered about those crazy vids people post talking about Coca Cola and aluminum foil somehow cleaning rust off chrome and somehow leaving them shiny, polished, and scratch free.

And just by coincidence a old friend had stopped by my house a few days prior and brought me something to eat and also a couple of 2 liter bottles of soda, 1 of them Coca Cola. Keep in mind I don’t even drink Coke, so if it wasn’t for him I wouldn’t have had it in my fridge. So I said what the heck, lets try this, what’s the worst that can happen. I did a little test area… Holy crap, it worked!lol. I can’t believe it actually worked!!!

After the little bit of foil I tested got used up I decided to try it with the last bit of steel wool that I had left and it worked even better than the aluminum foil! So I got in my car and went on a mission to retrieve another bottle of Coca Cola and some steel wool…

Lets rock! Coca Cola, straight undiluted. Lol.
00 Steel wool.



It still takes a little bit of time, about the same time you’d spend hand polishing a wheel if not a bit more, but relatively speaking the baked on brake dust that nothing else would budge came off like hot butter. This nearly blew my mind.

Before: [btw these tires were insane as well. Brake dust like I’ve never seen. Just crazy]



After:



Before:



After:



Off label use, hacks, crazy stuff that nobody believes would possibly work even though there’s video proof… I don’t discount any information. It doesn’t hurt to take a mental note, because you never know when it might just save your day. It feels so good to have gotten these wheels polished. The great feeling of actually earning it!

Thanks for reading.


P.S. Desertnate, this is why I asked if your wheels were chrome.

[Bill D]

Coca Cola is incredible stuff. It's also quite nasty to your body. But people injest it by the millions every day. If it can do that to wheels, imagine what it can do to *you*.

I'm glad I quit soda in general years ago. My teeth and the rest of my body thank me for it.

[2black1s]

I drink Coca Cola at least once, and usually more, every day. If I run out at home I'll start having cravings. If I go 2 or 3 days with no Coke's in the house I'm going crazy LOL.

Moral of the Story... If I ever need to try out this hack I'll be pretty sure I have the stuff on hand to do it.

And those wheels look great!

Did the 00 steel wool leave any scratches? I would have gone for 0000. And even 0000 is something I'll typically stay away from on chrome. I have had too many bad experiences with steel wool and chrome.

[oneheadlite]

Coca Cola is incredible stuff. It's also quite nasty to your body. But people injest it by the millions every day. If it can do that to wheels, imagine what it can do to *you*.

I'm glad I quit soda in general years ago. My teeth and the rest of my body thank me for it.

We had a customer at our shop that used to always come in with 2 silo cans of Monster Energy Drink. Until he stopped. One of the guys asked why no Monster - Turns out one day going into the gas station he saw a big spot etched into the sidewalk. He asked the cashier, they said one of the cases of Monster was leaking when it was delivered and it didn't get cleaned up right away...

[Bill D]

Yikes! I’m glad he saw that and realized what it could do to him!

[Kamakaz1961]

WOW WAY COOL! Coca Cola is also good for draining pipes too! LOL It's also great for eating your intestines!....LOL Thank you for this information! Well done! KEEP ON ROCKING!

[JDGolden]

Big improvement!

Count me as one that was addicted to drinking that crap. I had my last one on Christmas day 2020 when I stopped on the scale due to how I was feeling. Not a DROP since. That and Dr. Pepper were my "treat" of choice. I've since cut all soda out.

[Desertnate]

I would never have even thought about using Coke! Genius. What a great turn around and improvement.

Years ago when one of my daughters was learning about bases and acids in science class I brought up the topic of Coke's acidity. Neither of my girls nor my wife believed me, so I found a really nasty penny in our household change jar. It was dark brown/green with oxidation and covered in other gunk. I dropped it in a small cup of Coke and told them to leave it over night. The next day the penny was so clean and shiny it looked like it was just released from the mint!

It also works great as a jewelry cleaner as well! Since the "penny incident" my wife has used Coke to clean rings, earrings, pendants, etc.

[noorth]

Best post of the month maybe year.

Cool story man.

I always enjoy stories from guys like yourself that do this everyday. Not us keyboard warriors.

[ducksfan]

You know Coke is a gateway drug. Later today, don't be surprised to see him clutching a tube of toothpaste and eyeballing those headlights.