Mother-in-Laws 1997 Ford Escort

A

abbeysdad

New member
Warning: A novice detail, not to be compared with the exceptional details represented here - but, hey, you gotta begin somewhere.



After seeing my new Rondy and some work I'd done on my wife's car, my wife's mother started hinting/joking as towhen I'd be available to work on her car. She said it had been 'sadly neglected'. She was right. Now she is extra easy on this ole '97 Ford Escort, but it's been some time since it was 'detailed'.



Befores:

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Process/Products:

1. Tire scrub (Simple Green / Dawn - B&D Scumbuster) - tires later still showed grunge, so later hit with Wesley's bleach.

2. Dawn wash

3. Bug 'n Tar (spot wash 'n scrub with Turtle Wax Bug 'n Tar)

4. Clay (Mother's yellow) - Ran out of the Mother's Quick detail so added about a Tbl. Dawn and filled with distilled water).

4. Dawn wash 'n dry (synthetic chamois)

5. Pulled Carpet mats. Vacumed, used Blue Coral Upholstery/carpet cleaner, Scumbuster brush. Hosed and extracted with shop vac. Redo on drivers side mat but never did get it really, really clean (maybe should have power washed).

6. Vac entire interior. Seats are a velour like material and lint/pills were a problem for the shop vac, so pulled out the little dirt devel with it's beater brush which worked much better.

7. Wash all interior vinyl with Woolite/water mix.

8. Apply 303 Aerospace Protectant to all interior vinyl. (WOW awesome stuff - This made the vinyl look brand new!)

9. 'Wash' seats with Woolite/water mix (didn't feel they needed deep cleaning, just a surface wipe down for dinge).

10. Shampoo pasenger area carpet (Blue Coral, Sumbuster scrub, wipe up/scrub with Woolite/water cloth.

11. Polish with PC 7424 std pc white pad using Mothers Power Polish (only polish I could find local retail - plan on ordering some Optimum) There was NO cut to this polish with the std pad. For the most part, this car has decent paint, but there were a couple of mars and swirls that went untouched. This polish acted more like a precleaner as it did leave a sheen.

12. Apply Meguiars NXT Generation Tech wax liquid with PC - hand wipe off with MF towels.

13. Dress tires with Meguirars Vinyl & Rubber

14. Clean glass with Soner's Invisible Glass



Duration: 8hrs - whew!
 
Afters:

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Summary:

1. The 303 protectant is great stuff. It honestly made the cockpit look brand new.

2. Need a better process/product for badly soiled (drivvers side) carpet mats.

3. At one point I mistakenly lifted the PC before turning off and..yep, watched my pc pad go flying off it's backing!

4. Need better polish/pads. Wasn't happy that I couldn't remove a couple of minor blemishes.

5. Need better method/product for wheel wells.

6. Mother-inlaw was very happy. Commented that the car looked brand new.

7. 8hrs and I was tired. Doubt quitting day job.

8. No more than finished and took it back to her - no time to admire the work.
 
Skip the dawn washes next time, there is no need and it's not good for the paint.



Other than that, good job.
 
gbackus said:
Skip the dawn washes next time, there is no need and it's not good for the paint.
Click to expand...





I would tend to disagree.





In a mix with a few gallons of water, the Dawn dilution is soo faint, you'd have to use it weekly for a year to notice any damage. Furthermore, it's more or less safe for your hands and I've even drinken some before (to prove a point). I would be more worried about overspraying a wheel cleaner on my paint before using a dish detergent a couple times a year (if that) before a full detail.





Anyways, abbeysdad, looks great! Very wet :).
 
G35stilez said:
I would tend to disagree.





In a mix with a few gallons of water, the Dawn dilution is soo faint, you'd have to use it weekly for a year to notice any damage. Furthermore, it's more or less safe for your hands and I've even drinken some before (to prove a point). I would be more worried about overspraying a wheel cleaner on my paint before using a dish detergent a couple times a year (if that) before a full detail.





Anyways, abbeysdad, looks great! Very wet :).
Click to expand...



Thanks Sean - no match for your posts, but not too shabby.



I agree with you about the Dawn - it's not that harsh and if you're looking to do a full detail and don't need to protect the wax/polymer, using a hand dishwashing detergent like Dawn makes good sense to me to get to a really clean suface.



Oh, and lay off the Dawn guzzlin before you need rehab! lol
 
David703 said:
great transformation!! (don't forget the wheel wells.)
Click to expand...



Thanks.



Yeah, like I posted in my summary, these wells aren't black like newer ones and need a paint like wheel well spray after pulling the wheels (not something I was gonna do on this one).

Unless someone knows of a product that might accomplish this w/o wheel removal?
 
I tend to side with gbackus on Dawn. Definitely not good for your rubber/plastic trim-once probably won't hurt but I'd never make a habit of it. I prefer to use clay and polish to remove any old wax or sealant anyway.



Back to the detail-very noticable improvement in the paint, very suprising in light of the pretty decent starting point-most Escorts are in far worse shape than that! Really deep glow in the after shots. :)
 
Looks great mate - certainly cheered the car up nicely, and the inerior turnaround is particularly impressive...



As mentioned above, I would personally skip the Dawn wash (well, its Fairy Liquid in the UK) - this doesn't do the paintwork, rubbers or plastic any favours and you can remove old wax coatings from both the claying stage and also the polishing stage - many polishes contain chemical cleaners too, like Meguiars #80, which will act the cleanse the paint removing the old wax coatings.
 
Scott/Dave - Thanks.



I don't think you have Dawn in perspective though...please consider...



1) A million ladies have their dainty hands in Dawn dishwashing liquid/water every evening and it doesn't seem harsh to them.



2) Rubber and plastic are not really negatively impacted by dishwashing detergents - you'll notice that they're packaged in plastic bottles.



3) Consider that the Dawn is used at a few tbls/3+ gallons of water.



4) You feel Dawn is to harsh for the paint, but you would use clay rubs and polishing compounds with a machine that are much, much more abrasive to the finish.



I agree that you would not want to use Dawn or any dishwashing detergent for regular washes because it can disolve grease and wax and be detrimental to some polymer finishes, which could leave the vehicle unprotected. However, if you're doing a full detail, using a dishwashing detergent like Dawn makes as much sense as using detail clay and polishing to achieve a clean, clear paint finish to better accept the final finish product. As a matter of fact, one could say that in some cases, a Dawn wash and spot claying may be better, long term for the finish than abrasive polishing.
 
2) Rubber and plastic are not really negatively impacted by dishwashing detergents - you'll notice that they're packaged in plastic bottles.



Sure the bottle may be plastic, but is it colored black, is it textured, does it seal the water out of your car? We are talking about two different things here. You want to keep your rubber seals and plastics soft, cleaned, conditioned....Dawn will not do this and being packaged in a hard plastic container has nothing to do with its ill effects on rubber and automobile plastics. Its like saying its okay to use Laundry Bleach on interior plastics and vinyl because it doesnt eat away at the container? Products are made for different purposes..



a Dawn wash and spot claying may be better, long term for the finish than abrasive polishing



Im going to disagree here...Dawn does nothing to make the finish better or better than polishing. Polishing on whatever scale, abrasive or chemical cleans the paint and removes stuff like oxidation. Dawn does nothing....Ive used it and people always talk of how strong it is to stip waxes...but I havent seen this. If you want a perfectly clean surface use an IPA solution.



When making your comparisons your comparing apples and oranges...(Microfiber post as well in other thread) Purchase one pakshak or poorboys plush towel and you will see there is a big difference than Target's "microfiber" as well as your post about using Quick Detailers...You talk as if detailers are being ripped off left and right, try the products before you misinform other people who may read your posts.
 
Josh,



You suggest that dawn doesn't affect wax, but you think it harms rubber and plastic? That's largely a myth, especially in the context of this discussion.



I think you just aren't thinking this through. In industry we use rubber suits and gloves to protect against all kinds of acids and corrosive chemicals. By comparison a little bit of Dawn diswashing liquid diluted in several gallons of water isn't going to phase that material. in the least .

Dishwashing detergents are typically not recommended for automotive use because they can be a bit harser on the LSP, not because they harm rubber, plastic, clear coat or paint. Abrasive compounds and polishes are many times more agressive than any dishwashing detergent.



You're also off target in your other remarks. I never commented about any MF towels from Target. I did suggest that the Walmart waffle weave towels weren't as soft as others I've used and you flamed me for that opinion, again with your incorrect apples and oranges analogy.

In the other thread regarding the $10 fluffy MF towel I said that the price was too high. No apology, it is. I wouldn't buy one, let alone 200! You could get two 14"x17" premium MF towels for about 1/3 that price and have them sewn together if you like.



Many Quick Detailer products ARE mostly water and are marketing magic at an approx. price of $8-$10 for 16oz. I realize that car care products (just like all others) are priced competitively at what the market will bear. And as long as so many will pay $10 for towel that cost $.50 to produce or the magic spray that's mostly water, they'll keep stocking the shelves and banking the profits. This isn't all bad since some of this money will likely go to R&D to invent the next greatest LSP that will act as a force field to repell all contaminants! ha



There are many, many high quality products out there. But keep your eyes open and you'll often see very similar products being sold for much less in other markets - that's how buisness works - high profit margin in some segments, lower in others - but often the lower profit margin segments have higher volume.
 
You can't simply say that because we use one type of plastic/rubber in a different area, that dawn won't harm the plastic and rubber on your car! It's not that simple. There are many types of plastics made for different purposes, and the reason dawn doesn't affect the plastic bottle it comes in, is because it was made for containing dawn... While it probably won't hurt (much) using dawn before a full detail, it is completely unnecessary and it won't help anything.



Dawn is an alkaline detergent, which will tend to dry out the paint, plastics and rubber on your car. And while you might reapply polish and protectants when doing a full detail, the dawn wash solution will also be running down in areas you won't reach, like the backside/underside of bodypanels, and will remove protection from theese areas...



Btw, here's a quote from Procter & Gamble, the makers of Dawn:

Question:

Can I wash my car with dishwashing detergent?



Answer:

Your car surface and the dirt that gets on it are a lot different from the food soils and dishes that dishwashing liquids clean effectively. We don't recommend them for cleaning your car.
 
Well, after ranting a bit about dawn ;) I forgot to say that the car looks good!



I have a tip for the dirty carpets: After working in the carpet cleaner, leave it in for 15-20 minutes. This will give the product time to work on the dirt, lifting it off the fibers. The soak time is actually more important than scrubbing. Often you can get the dirt out almost without scrubbing, just by doing this. Spraying with warm water before extracting, also helps.



I agree with you, that a lot of car care products are seriously overpriced. I buy carpet cleaner, from a supplier for the professional cleaning industry. I have enough to mix 80 gallons of carpet cleaning solution, which cost me $16 :) Comparing this with ready to use carpet cleaner for the car, where you might get 2-4 small spray bottles of solution for the same price :eek:



Also I can't get QD in my country (yeah the detailing business is like 5 years behind here ;) ), so I have to order it from US. I refuse to pay for having mostly water shipped halfway round the globe, so I buy DP 4-in-1, 32 oz will mix to about 4 gallons of QD :getdown



But you should be glad that you don't live in my country where most detailing products cost 2-3 times as much as the same product in the US!
 
Definate improvement in the car. Also if you happen to rotate her tires for her..the next time just spray the wheel wells black.

Carpet....you can buy a carpet brush attachment for your PC.....but its gonna reflect market value :chuckle:
 
Zet,



Well, after over 30 years in plastics manufacturing I am confident that any/all of the plastics used in automotive applications will easily stand up to a tablespoon of Dawn in a few gallons of water for the 3-5 minutes we're talking about! Admitedly, Dawn has a bit more cleaning power than than the average car wash shampoo...but then so are the degreasers used to detail engine bays (that contain even more exposed rubber and plastic). The point is, like polishing, this is not a routine process, but something that may be done anually or semi-anually at most. Considering the wash and rinse process involved, these materials would hold up longer than any of us will be on the planet.

It's almost a foolish discussion.



I appreciate the feedback about the carpet. In so many details I see drivers side carpet mats that just don't come clean. That's the trouble with the detail - when nearly all of the vehicle is spotless and shining like a brand new dime, your eye is instantly drawn to the dirty carpet mat, or wheel well, or tire or whatever that was nearly invisible before and now sticks out like a sore thumb.



Next time I'll leave the carpet shampoo longer. I also have another idea that I wrote of in another thread. Prior to turning in my last lease vehicle, the drivers side carpet mat was a real mess. The grunge just laughed at my attemtps to clean with a carpet cleaner. Noticing that my coin-op car wash had clips for mats, I clipped the mat on there and power washed it. I know, it probably sounds odd to power wash carpet - but when finished, it looked brand new again!



I've only been across the pond once. I wasn't especially fond of the "high test" coffee and one could nearly starve with the small portions in restaurants - haha - in the end, 'there's no place like home'.

I never paid much attention to products available there. Of course in the global marketplace you can get most anything from anywhere - the question is if the price, including shipping is worth it as often there are local substitutes that work just as well. Also, it makes one wonder - with so much outsourcing - manufacturing in China, why are products more difficult to get in Europe than the US?

(now this is really funny - from detailing autos to global economics! LOL)
 
Sure, the plastics will stand up to Dawn, but Dawn will definitely not improve the look of those materials. In my book washing with Dawn is working backwards in the detailing process. I just think it's better to use a soap that is made to be safe for all the materials on a car, and will not degrade the appearance.



Yeah, sometimes I really don't get the dynamics of the "global marketplace". When reading about detailing products, many are touted as being based on "german technology" - German polishing pads, Menzerna products, Klasse, P21S / S100, new "super"-polymers etc. But even though Germany is my neighboring country, those products are very hard to find in my country, or they are very expensive. So I end up buying "German" products from the US, and having them shipped by air over here, and they end up being cheaper than if I can find them locally :nixweiss :)
 
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