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  1. #16

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    Re: Is this totally hack? Under hood cleaning...

    Quote Originally Posted by Oneheadlite View Post
    To Meangreen’s point - if a customer’s car is a total dust bomb underhood, I’m not going to spend a day getting it clean enough to eat from. I will, however clean out leaves and debris (even if it drives me nuts they don’t care and let them build up) because this can lead to water damage down the road, and I’ll try and get ahead of that scenario any chance I can.
    To expound on this a little further, sometimes it is not a lack of caring about the car, but not being able to do something like that. I detail my mother-in-laws Grand Marquis a few times a year (and have vowed to make it quarterly going forward), and always find leaves in the usual places. She is 87 (and has buried 2 WWII veteran husbands), but she is not able to remove those leaves herself. She lives in a house with HUGE oak trees, and parks the car on the side of the driveway, to allow better access for everyone else. She has a garage, but even though it was built in the 1950`s (and was in the movie `Walt Before Mickey`), it does not fit her large car. So every time I clean it I blow out the leaves and spider webs, and wipe the engine bay.
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  2. #17

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    Re: Is this totally hack? Under hood cleaning...

    mc2hill- Hey, that`s a good point about clearing out the leaves to avoid water issues. Eh, for that matter the engine compartments have to be some level of clean just to notice stuff like that, so IMO you`re simply doing the job right

    And that`s great that you`re taking care of your MiL`s car. And isn`t it funny how small older garages seem today?!? And just look how big cars were when those houses got built.

    EDIT: noting that the car is a Grand Marquis, there are indeed a few water-related issues to watch for on those Panther platform cars. Ford didn`t do *everything* all that great for something that was in production for so long; every generation of Panther had some kind of underhood water issue to watch out for.
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  3. #18
    Oneheadlite's Avatar
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    Re: Is this totally hack? Under hood cleaning...

    Just wanted to update this in case (somehow) anybody ends up looking at it in the future.

    After writing the original post, I went away from using washer fluid as I just didn`t want to worry about any compatibility issues. I think I mentioned in one of my posts that I was going to try just using the ONR mixture I use for wiping the plastics down - turns out it works great (for what I`m trying to do).

    After finishing repairs, I`ll degrease any areas as needed with our normal degreaser.
    After that, I`ll spray down any plastics (trim pieces, reservoirs, intake hoses, air boxes, etc) with my ONR mix (pretty sure it`s the rinseless wash ratio of 1:256), then use a blow gun with shop air to blow off the majority of the dirt/clear out the nooks and crannies.
    Next, I`ll do one last wipe down of any engine covers/etc for final install.

    This leaves it with just the appearance I`m looking for - clean and fresh, but not used-car-lot detailed. And, as discussed earlier, all at a minimal time investment.

    The ONR at that dilution probably isn`t doing that much cleaning; I could probably get similar results just spraying water and using compressed air to do the lifting.

    But, I know this has been working for me; and also as mentioned earlier I`m not worried about the ONR leaving behind anything troublesome if someone chose to get all actual-detail`y with their underhood.
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  4. #19
    John U's Avatar
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    Eagan MN & Scottsdale AZ
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    Re: Is this totally hack? Under hood cleaning...

    Quote Originally Posted by Oneheadlite View Post
    Short version - I work in auto repair, not detailing. The cars I see are typically far from Autopian. When doing bigger dollar repairs, I like to try and tidy up the under hood when I’m done. They’re not paying for underhood details, it’s just I hate leaving the cars as dirty as they were. My goal is so when the customer goes to add washer fluid, they’ll see their car was cleaned/worked on with intention, not just knocked out as quick as possible.
    How`s business out in Andover since you last reported on the effects of Covid on the repair traffic? I just unpacked for the summer in Eagan.

    Nice touch showing some effort to better the car then when they brought it in. You could take it one step further and pop the hood and show where the parts are located that were replaced and mention you tidied it up a little while you were in there looking for possible future issues.

    I clean my motors and detail the cars before any visit. Good time to do it and.... I usually get comments from the service writer that the "tech" has never seen a cleaner 200 thousand+ mile vehicle. I hate getting my hands dirty working on it, why should the next guy be any different. You don`t go to the doctor with old underwear on...... or maybe you do!

    Hope things are rockin for you!
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  5. #20

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    May 2003
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    Brookfield Ill.
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    Re: Is this totally hack? Under hood cleaning...

    I use to work for a Toyota dealer. They would clean a mess up only if they made the mess. If there were leaves in the front coul they would leave them. You would think with all the money a dealer charges that they would clean up a little , but not were I worked.

 

 
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