How about a Non Autopian thread...

I took my 1989 white Chevy K5 Blazer to the coin wash, spray tire cleaner over the whole thing, scrubbed the the foaming brush and then rinsed. By golly it sure was clean, it dried on the way to the dealer where I traded for a 1994 Silverado.



Yep, come a long way!
 
i saw my annoying neighbor washing his car. He kept putting his wash "towel" on the pavement when he hosed the car down, then dumped it back into his dirty bucket and slapped it right back on his car. I laugh every time he does it (his car has insane scratches now :)).....i hate his guts, so i guess its sort of non-autopian.
 
Barry Theal said:
We as autopians often discuss whats the proper and safiest way to detail vehicles. I thought we could change it up a little. What are somethings you may have done that " how do you say? " Non Autopian. I can remember when I used to work high volume. We had to do like 30 cars a day in an assembly line. There were 3 of us "buffers" who would do a car at the same time. We would turn the dewalts up to 3000 with some wool and the heaviest compound and HAck away. While not Autopian it sure was fun. I think this could be a great thread. Change things up a little. If not at least we can make Accumulator freakout. :LOLOL
Click to expand...



LOL Sounds like you and I started out the same way Barry! :D



I also worked at a high volume shop that did auction cars, car jockey cars, dealership cars, and retail on the weekends. We had dedicated buffers, and then guys doing the wet work (washing) and guys doing the dry work. Much like you buffers were ran at 3000 rpms using Schlegel wool finishing pads and Car Brite polishes like "Phaze Glaze" or "Super Glaze".



I'm ashamed to say that the carpets were cleaned by pretreating with an APC and then they were pressure washed while placing a wet vac inside the car to suck up most the water!



To clean cloth seats we used lacquer thinner!!! Funny, it cleaned really well! :D



Clay? What the heck was clay back then?



Motors were cleaned using pressure washers putting out 2800psi....removing and drying distributor caps was a routine thing around there (those dang 4Tech motors on the early 80's GM cars sucked!!!)





What's funny is that back in the day I could run a rotary buffer 10hrs a day 6 days a week and not be sore at all! Now I can barely stand up straight after spending a 10hr day buffing! :D
 
Heh heh, hey...I can contribute to this thread too :D



My summer job in the '70s was new-car prep at the local dealership...with a rotary and wool pads :soscared: Yep, I was "that kid with the rotary". Actually, I did OK and was the only guy allowed to do dark cars (wonder who did 'em when I was back at school :think: ). That was in the days of single-stage, which I found easy enough to do OK on, at least by the standards of that time. I should note that I had my own set of pads, products, and towels that I took home every night ;) I still remember how heavy that Milwaukee felt...



When I realized that I had to get serious about college, I got rid of my (oh-so-nice) black car and got a beater, which I simply ran through the carwash! Yep...I just treated it as a disposable car, pure transportation. And when I traded it in (after a quickie detail) I got just as much for it as I woulda had it been perfect.



Did the same sort of thing with another car a few years later when life had me too busy to keep all the cars perfect; I'd run it through the local carwash (at least they have cloth strips instead of brushes) every other Friday and I'd detail it sorta-properly every few months. Yeah, it looked like [crap] compared to my other cars, but when I traded it in they gave top-dollar (heard him on the phone saying "you won't believe this thing, it's showroom-new..").



I ran some family cars through the same carwash as recently as the late-'90s. I'd tip the guys at the dry-station a little and they'd spritz it down with QD before drying it with my MFs. Worked OK...the owners were satisfied.



Other...."normal"...people simply don't notice or care about all this "Autopian-level" stuff.
 
D Tailor said:
My wife's dad used to wash his cars (which are always Volvos and Bimmers) with gasoline (or kerosene) to get all the salt off his cars after the harsh Erie winter.
Click to expand...



MDRX8 said:
My friend used kerosene for his post winter wash then Meg #26. He used it on the whole car. It turned out to look great.
Click to expand...



DLB_1 said:
In the past I have done a water only wash and a kerosene bath on a SS paint.



I don't know where the logic comes in on a water only wash...nothing makes logical sense about it, but hey, we were all young and stupid once.



The kerosene bath however - my red truck never looked so shiny! (Until it rained). I am guessing that wasn't the "green" way to wax?



DLB
Click to expand...



Whenever I see kerosene, I think of this product, Dri Wash & Guard. From the product MSDS......



SECTION I. MATERIAL IDENTIFICATION

Product Name: DRI WASH ‘n GUARD®

Description: WATERLESS CAR WASH & PROTECTIVE GLAZE

Chemical Name: POLYMER EMULSION

Manufacturer: DWG Internationalâ„¢

Telephone No: 702-262-5555

SECTION II. HAZARDOUS INGREDIENTS

Ingredient Name: DEODORIZED KEROSENE PEL: 500 PPM

CAS Number 8008-20-6 TLV: 100 PPM

Percentage 7.20 IDLH: 10000 PPM





:think:
 
Accumulator said:
Heh heh, hey...I can contribute to this thread too :D



My summer job in the '70s was new-car prep at the local dealership...with a rotary and wool pads :soscared: Yep, I was "that kid with the rotary". Actually, I did OK and was the only guy allowed to do dark cars (wonder who did 'em when I was back at school :think: ). That was in the days of single-stage, which I found easy enough to do OK on, at least by the standards of that time. I should note that I had my own set of pads, products, and towels that I took home every night ;) I still remember how heavy that Milwaukee felt...



When I realized that I had to get serious about college, I got rid of my (oh-so-nice) black car and got a beater, which I simply ran through the carwash! Yep...I just treated it as a disposable car, pure transportation. And when I traded it in (after a quickie detail) I got just as much for it as I woulda had it been perfect.



Did the same sort of thing with another car a few years later when life had me too busy to keep all the cars perfect; I'd run it through the local carwash (at least they have cloth strips instead of brushes) every other Friday and I'd detail it sorta-properly every few months. Yeah, it looked like [crap] compared to my other cars, but when I traded it in they gave top-dollar (heard him on the phone saying "you won't believe this thing, it's showroom-new..").



I ran some family cars through the same carwash as recently as the late-'90s. I'd tip the guys at the dry-station a little and they'd spritz it down with QD before drying it with my MFs. Worked OK...the owners were satisfied.



Other...."normal"...people simply don't notice or care about all this "Autopian-level" stuff.
Click to expand...





Awe yes, the old Milwaukee!!! Those things were bullet proof TANKS! :D
 
RaskyR1 said:
Awe yes, the old Milwaukee!!! Those things were bullet proof TANKS! :D
Click to expand...



I bet that dealership is still using some of those same units to this day!



And people wonder why I don't like rotaries all that much :chuckle:
 
Accumulator said:
I bet that dealership is still using some of those same units to this day!



And people wonder why I don't like rotaries all that much :chuckle:
Click to expand...



LOL!



I know the shop that I used to work at still has a guy still using one....he is VERY old school! I've tried giving him samples of M105/M205 and some foam pads but he is stuck in his way! :rolleyes: Things are a little different there now though....3 guys renting stalls all running their own detail business...though the quality is about the same! :D
 
Before we started our own semi collision shop I worked at one when I was 15. I was in charge of washing/buffing when I wasn't prepping. Had 2 bins full of wool pads, one junk and one good. But they didn't have lids and were right on a wall not far from where a old timer did fiberglass work on hoods and stuff. Saying the new pads weren't clean was a understand then. Had the old vector rotary turned way up and went to town with a lot of times the 3M Compound (rocks in a bottle) or the next compound down (looked the same, just didn't have the "grit/sand" feeling to it.) And then we only had about 5 or so of those black waffle pads that I would use with some 3M Black glaze and go to town buffing. Lets just say there was lines in every paint job from my buffing. But the old supervisor said that's just what buffing does. Not to mention most of the time I was doing it next to people sanding on trucks, blowing sand of trailers/frames we just sandblasted, or some doing fiberglass.
 
when I was a kid we'd take our vehicles to my dad's workplace where there was a two or three inch thick fire hose. It didn't have the power to lift you off the ground, but it did have a hell of a kick and you did not want to be the person that let it slip out your hands. The water nazis would be all over anyone that tried that these days!! After the "rinse" we'd scrub them down with water and dishsoap using any old rags that were laying around.
 
I loved the milwalkee buffers. They were a heavy bugger, but wow when you did flats on them it was nice. Between the wait of them and your body weight you had some serious down force. Rasky I can on about stories of the things we did to cars! Pressure washing cloth seats, carpets. Cargo vans were the best. Open them up spray some degreaser threw a weed sprayer washer like the exterior. I never had a problem with the old gms. The old VW jettas. I use to get so many of them wet it was insane. I master those distrubutor caps. Kerosene lol that use to be our pre buff wipedown. It removes tar so fast its insane. Its cheaper then solvent!! Those were the good ole days!!! Nothing mattered, but time and money. In all honesty I learned alot from high volume. Why clean wheel wells? Dollar store flat black covered all the dirt. lol I need to stop I could go on forever. Wheres Rickrack at. He started high volume to. lol I know him and Rydawg got stories..
 
my old boss use to pull cars in from outside, right into the bay, and start buffing. no wash, clay, anything. said the dirt gave the compound a little extra bite. somehow they always turned out decent.
 
I just have to respond to this thread#1 Kerosene and water was used to wash cars . One cup of kerosene to a bucket of water. It worked, it kept road film from sticking to the paint . It was the original rinseless wash . The kerosene would coat metal clips that held mouldings on , and prevent rust. It would not attract dust and would leave a luster . #2 Somebody mentioned Murphys Oil Soap . That also worked , hell back in the 1920s and 30s thats what they used to wash cars , there was nothing else. In the 1950s somebody sold a car wash soap that advertised to be gentle on car paint , that was called Purple Magic, and it was purple colored oil soap. Some of you guys think that your fathers, grand fathers, and uncles were a little stupid on the way they took care of their care , but that wasent always the case.#3 Plain water . Years ago people that took good care of there cars used plain water to wash there cars. Most soaps at that time was to strong, even car wash soaps . Wax didnt last very long when you used such soaps to wash your car. Im sorry , I just had to vent . Dont judge what other people used on there cars until you yourself tried there stuff on old fashon SS paint.
 
This isn't too bad; but growing up my Dad would do a single bucket wash and follow with Mother's Carn Cleaner wax paste on a SS-white paint. It worked great in total.



We also used JCPenney terry cloth towels to dry with. Only white ones and they were always super-clean. But looking back I know these combined with the 1-bucket left the fine-random halo scratches.



The worst thing I did lately was 1-bucket wash my GF's BLACK G35...first time it's been washed by me, it was her b'day and I was in a rush. It's horrible; oh-so-horrible it didn't matter. There's so much fallout/contaminants on the paint it feels like 600-grit sandpaper. Hope I get around to it soon because it's starting to look gray instead of black sometimes (to me...she still thinks it's ok as long as it's "clean").
 
When i worked at one of my first shopes we had a silicoine tire shine that was the same color as the glass cleaner u know the rest what a pain in the *** to get off.Young and new almost broke my arm with a high speed by not watching my coard riped the coard right out of the buffer.
 
swirlnuts said:
my old boss use to pull cars in from outside, right into the bay, and start buffing. no wash, clay, anything. said the dirt gave the compound a little extra bite. somehow they always turned out decent.
Click to expand...



LOL! That's exactly how we did it too! :D
 
lawrencea said:
I just have to respond to this thread.... Im sorry , I just had to vent . Dont judge what other people used on there cars ...
Click to expand...



Yeah, I've posted before about how a childhood friend's dad use a kerosene-mix on his work car. Worked quite well as far as preserving a always-outside vehicle that saw some awfully nasty conditions. No, it didn't look "Autopian" but it lasted for decades (and many hundreds of thousands of miles) back when cars always rusted away after a few winters.



And you're right about some of the other things people used on ss, especially the old-school lacquers. Up until maybe the mid-50's it was a completely different ballgame and things didn't resemble today's detailing until well into the '60s.
 
in response to the kerosene and murphys oil.



back then the epa didnt regulate what solvents were allowed in paint so i bet alot of that paint was meant to take a beating unlike todays fragile coatings...



kerosene has a tendency to cause the paint to swell thats why you got the luster from it, if the paint has no swirls to refract the light then it looks glossy



to add to the thread



when i was 16i had a black car that one day i just hosed down and wiped dry with a towel...it looked terrible in retrospect but as long as it was clean i didnt care!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top