The #1 Thing Consuming Extra Time For You On a Detail?

[vanev]

The #1 thing that consumes extra time for you on a detail?

For me, it is usually wheels.
I have found that it is not uncommon for vehicle owners to go months, even years, without fully cleaning the wheels.
Even worse, most vehicle owners will typically use some form of tunnel wash to wash their vehicles.
The biggest problem with this is in regards to wheels specifically is the wax/sealant option a lot of people choose, then followed by the heated dryer when pulling out of the tunnel wash.

Tunnel washes barely touch the surface in regards to cleaning wheels.
The wax/sealant used will seal the uncleaned brake dust onto the wheels.
Follow that up with the blistering dryer, and you have baked on piles of crud that takes an eternity to fully remove.

An example of this is a vehicle I detailed yesterday.
The plan was a full correction on this Passat.
After the initial wash and decon, it rained off and on the rest of the day, so I was not able to even begin the correction stage.
I wanted to get as much out of the day as I could, so I thought I would get the wheels finished.
Well, three hours later, the wheels were finally finished, then another few minutes or so for adding dressing to the tires, and D156 to the wheels and wheel wells.

I have run into this all summer.
Rarely do I seem to detail wheels that are in moderately good shape.
Most of the vehicles I detail have severe brake dust that takes an eternity to remove, even using wheel acids.

Process yesterday:
Note:
The extensive process was a result of the condition of the wheels and what it took to get to the finished result.
This is more extensive than the normal process for detailing moderately dirty wheels.
It was dark when I finished, so I only have some before pictures.
When I return to finish the vehicle, I will take some after photos of the wheels

- Pre- clean with Simple Green Crystal.
- Clean with Meg`s D101 APC @ 2:1
- Clean with Greased Lightening De-greaser.
- Steam clean.
- Clean with Meg`s D140 Wheel Brightener.
- Clean with LA Awesome RTU
- Steam Clean.
- Pre LSP with Meg`s D120.
- LSP Meg`s D156

Random Pictures:

 

[Ronkh]

Simple green scares me

 

[mnehls86]

Wheel`s do tend to take me a long time but with products like CarPro Iron X Iron Remover and SONAX Wheel Cleaner Plus all that baked on brake dust comes right off with minimal effort.

 

[Jaddie]

What`s the big cover for? Is that big black thing a bucket or trash can (refuse disposal system)?

Ron, why does Simple Green scare you? I last used to it remove exhaust stains from our WaveRunner, but it worked very well for that.

I don`t detail professionally, just barely amateurishly for myself and family, but the two things that bind my drawers on every detail are getting everything set up (filling three buckets, getting bottles, brushes and nozzles ready) and cleaning up everything at the end (washing out those buckets and brushes).

Washing the painted surfaces takes me no more than fifteen minutes, washing wheels and wells takes me no more than twenty minutes, yet the whole process somehow sucks down two-and-a-half hours of time.

I have a boy who`s turning eight on Saturday and one day soon one of his chores will be to do those two things for me if he`s home. Maybe I`ll pay him a buck per set-up and a buck per clean-up. (It might be a year or two. A full five-gallon bucket is very heavy for him.)

 

[Ronkh]

Simple green can pit/stain aluminum and stainless.

So for me, I completely stay away from it (ex to put in drains)

 

[Zelfiris]

+1 on the wheels

Takes up a lot of time, especially when you have a lot of spokes, heavy brake dust, and sometimes your brushes can`t reach all around because of big brake calipers.

Unless its a 3 bucket wash, my wheels don`t get much love. Rinseless wash? Nope. Coin wash? Just a simple rinse.

It had annoyed me so much I purchased a new set of minimum dusting pads. My recent pads were brand new but I can`t stand looking at my wheels covered in brake dust. <-- first world problem

 

[vanev]

Wheel`s do tend to take me a long time but with products like CarPro Iron X Iron Remover and SONAX Wheel Cleaner Plus all that baked on brake dust comes right off with minimal effort.

I have Iron-X. just did not think I would need it on this detail.
Iron-X has a way of stinking up my vehicle, so I usually only take it when I think I will really need it.
Wish I had it on me that day.

Simple green scares me

This is Simple Green Crystal, totally different than the Simple Green APC or Simple Green Industrial Cleaner you may be familiar with.
Crystal is possibly the best de-greaser I have ever used, and is by far the best degreaser in working on hot panel surfaces or in direct sunlight.

No added color.
No added scent.
Non- toxic.
Non-flammable.
Bio-degradable.
VOC Complient.
NSF registered for use in food facilities.
Ingredients:
Water.
Ethoxylated Alcohol.
Sodium Citrate.
Tetrasodium N.
N-bis (carboxymethyl) - L - glutamate Sodium Carbonate
Citric Acid

What`s the big cover for? Is that big black thing a bucket or trash can (refuse disposal system)?

Cover:
That is a tarp.
Used to protect the concrete from clean spotting and color staining from chemicals.
Also for environmental runoff protection.

Big Black Thing?
Not sure what you mean.
The black and yellow thing is a steamer.
The two black things with towels are waste baskets purchased new.
One for clean towels, one for dirty towels.
The very big black thing is a VW Passat, lol.

Simple green can pit/stain aluminum and stainless.

So for me, I completely stay away from it (ex to put in drains)

Not this Simple Green.
Crystal is colorless and odorles.

 

[Stokdgs]

What dilution rate are you using Meguiars Wheel Brightener ?
How long are you letting it dwell?

Have detailed a few hundred German vehicles and seen all kinds of brake dust build up and never had an issue getting it off with Wheel Brightener..
On the worst ones I like to pressure wash everything really well, especially the wheels, inner wheels, fender liners, etc.., then spray the wheels with W/Brightener, come back to where I started, and if its looking like it stopped working, pressure wash all that off.

Then, if its not all gone, spray, let dwell, and come back with the wheel brush and get all the wheel especially the inner wheel cleaned out, pressure wash it again, and its good!

I have never hurt a wheel doing this..

Also I never go near Simple Green -Anything on a vehicle !
Dan F

 

[Sonic Mustang]

Wheel`s do tend to take me a long time......

USC student or alumnus?:wacko:

 

[ShaneB]

Wheels as well take a ton of my time. Just had to clean a set of Audi wheels that were 4 years old and NEVER saw anything more than an automatic wash. Took almost 4 hours. BDX was extremely helpful on that one. The worst part were the globs of tar that had covered the barrels

 

[Lonnie]

Wheels as well take a ton of my time. Just had to clean a set of Audi wheels that were 4 years old and NEVER saw anything more than an automatic wash. Took almost 4 hours. BDX was extremely helpful on that one. The worst part were the globs of tar that had covered the barrels

Shane (and fellow Autopians):
If you have "gobs of tar" on barrels of rims/wheels the best tar remover I`ve found is 3M`s Adhesive Remover. It works fast and does not leave a residue behind. Another, cheaper alternative might be solvent-based Goof Off (NOT to be confused with citrus-based Goo-Gone), but it does leave a film residue that need to be cleaned off with a degreaser.

Speaking of degreasers, one of the better one`s I`ve found is Optimum`s Power Clean (OPC). It is expensive, dilutes to 3:1 for it`s best cleaning. I would not use OPC as a fabric or carpet cleaner, as the fragrance is less-than-pleasant and REALLY lingers within fibers despite repeated rinsing and wicking/absorbing with a microfiber. Results might be different with a true carpet extractor.

Guess I need to do more research about Crystal Simple Green and it`s "effect" on aluminum. One way is to place a piece of cut aluminum (NOT a soda can) in some CSG and see if it causes the white "bloom" corrosion associated with over-the-counter Simple Green APC. With all the aluminum on today`s vehicles, I am leery about using anything Simple Green for vehicle detailing/cleaning, especially when there are "safer" vehicle-specific degreasers available (like Meg`s Detailer Line D108, which is cost-effective (AKA, cheap and works well), according to many within this forum). But, then again maybe it`s my ignorance and prejudice about a new product, Crystal Simple Green.

 

[briarpatch]

Wheels for sure.....heavy brake dust has proven to be no match for Griots Heavy Duty Wheel Cleaner...although the smell is not the best....

 

[Accumulator]

Simple Green seems to be mentioned up a lot recently....I thought Simple Green makes a formulation *specifically* for safe use on aluminum, one that`s approved for use on airplanes/etc.

Lonnie- Yes indeed, IMO everybody oughta have some 3M Adhesive Remover on the shelf. I even gave my Audi Tech a can to keep around the dealership.

USC student or alumnus?:wacko:

Heh heh, if you`re referring to

Wheel`s [sic] do tend to take me a long time......

While it`s none of my business, calling out every spelling/grammar/punctuation/etc. error might keep you busy, but it won`t exactly endear you to most Autopians. I can be a bit of a grammar/etc.-Nazi myself, but, well..besides being all empathetic about making my fellow Autopians feel bad, I figure that [ticking] them off wouldn`t be in my best interest as I never know who might provide some useful detailing info if they deem me worthy of the effort. Anyhow....[INSERT Nietzsche`s The Flies in the Marketplace from Zarathustra]. As the lady said, "it`s not my job to be a flyswatter" Just some unsolicited food for thought from a guy who`s been a [jerk] a few times and ended up regretting it.

 

[rlmccarty2000]

A degreaser that does not get a lot of love around here is Britemax Degreaser. It`s much better than Meguires Super Degreaser. I use it on problem wheels or ones that have not been cleaned in awhile. It`s worth checking out.

 

[Civicclutch]

Wheels used to take quite awhile for me as well but then i started to use 3d bdx and wolfgang uber wheel cleaner3.0, uber has a better smellbut i personally cant say how it works on a filthy,filthy rims cause i haven`t needed it yet but the bdx works great on super filthy rims as well as its paint safe to remove the bonded rail dust on the car as well. just rewash car when done using it.

 

[Jaddie]

This is Simple Green Crystal, totally different than the Simple Green APC or Simple Green Industrial Cleaner you may be familiar with.
Crystal is possibly the best de-greaser I have ever used, and is by far the best degreaser in working on hot panel surfaces or in direct sunlight.

I may have to give this is a try sometime.

Zep 505 works very well, too. Have you tried it? It`s available at Home Depot. I believe I`ve paid US$8.xx/gal. for it most of the time.

That is a tarp.
Used to protect the concrete from clean spotting and color staining from chemicals.
Also for environmental runoff protection.

Oh, I see. My driveway happened to have an asphalt driveway, and it does have a few clean stains. I could get rid of those in a jiffy, though with my handy dandy pressure washer and el-cheapo surface cleaning attachment.

Big Black Thing?
Not sure what you mean.
The black and yellow thing is a steamer.
The two black things with towels are waste baskets purchased new.
One for clean towels, one for dirty towels.
The very big black thing is a VW Passat, lol.

Wastebaskets. (Near the rear of the driver`s door.)

Thanks for answering my questions!

 

[Bunky]

I do not clean wheels as thoroughly as some (do not remove often, etc).

The biggest area for me is trim (plastic, chrome - real and fake, weatherstripping) and crevices (often around trim). They need to be cleaned and protected and plastic trim needs to be taped when doing polishing. When using Solution Finish, even more care is needed. I found if you protect trim before polishing tape does not stick to it so often do this after.

 

[Lonnie]

A lot of "non-obsessive-compulsive -detailed" oriented vehicle owners wonder why I "waste" time cleaning areas that will NEVER be seen by the average vehicle owner, like trunk spare tire cavities , door hinges, glove and storage boxes, engine compartments, under carriage and wheel arch shields/liners... well you get the picture. Or using cotton swabs (AKA Q-Tips) and soft tooth brushes to go over and remove excess product (or dirt I missed) from interior and exterior panel and trim seams, or vehicle chrome emblems/insignias or lettering on plastic signal lights... yup, it sounds like I AM an obsessive-compulsive detailer. That said, these "details" are what separates the head-snapping, better-than-new-looking, concourse-show-quality vehicle from a so-so nice-and-shiny car that every one has.
So while many feel it is a waste of time to be so OCD`d, EVERYONE likes/loves/admires the results.

A relatable parable/story:
A man attended a concert of a young violin and piano virtuoso who played an exquisite series of musical arrangements that astounded everyone in attendance. The man was so impressed he decided to meet the young musician after the concert to express his appreciation for the music he heard. When he greeted the musical virtuoso the man gave his thanks and said, " I would give my life to be able to play like that". The young musician replied, "I already have."

Dedication to a skill or endeavor may look like a "waist of time" to some, but it is that time that it takes to perfect the craft or skill involved that everyone can see and appreciate, but few are willing to invest in to become the craftsman or virtuoso.

 

[512detail]

A lot of "non-obsessive-compulsive -detailed" oriented vehicle owners wonder why I "waste" time cleaning areas that will NEVER be seen by the average vehicle owner...

Well said Lonnie. My clients often ask, why do you take off the license plate?

After advising them that I also coat the license plate and area behind it, they usually give me that wtf look, lol

Hell, i nano the logos

Fog lights, whatever

If it can be reached...

Great thread



Sent from my SM-G900P using Tapatalk

 

[Lonnie]

512detail:
Your post of pictures of the various Mopars/Chryslers that you`ve done speak volumes about your workmanship. It also points out that having the right tool(s) for the job makes doing the job easier, BUT you still have to have the skillset and ability from experience in using them properly.

As an extension of this thread discussion, there is a debate if vehicle detailing is an art form or a technical skill. It`s really a combination of both, but I lean toward the technical skill side more so because you are not "creating" something new, but rather restoring/servicing/cleaning vehicle interior and exterior surfaces that are composed of a wide variety of materials and shapes that require the proper usage of care-care chemicals and tools used to apply and remove them to achieve desired results that are, as we say in detailing, "eye candy" to look at. There is nothing more satisfying than having a vehicle owner say that their vehicle you detailed looks better than when they bought it or looks better than when it came off the showroom as a brand-new vehicle. It just takes time and attention to detail to achieve that. 512detail, you are the epitome of that statement.