Least favorite part of detailing?

House of Wax

House of Wax

Active member
What's everyone's least favorite step?  I'd have to say mine is windows and more specifically the windshield.  I don't know what it is, but I just hate doing the inside of the windshield.


 


 


Honorable mentioned goes to post job clean up lol
 
I have four least favorite - right front wheel, left front wheel, right rear wheel, left rear wheel.  I hate wheels and wheel wells!
 
Front and rear windows. The work sucks, does little to improve looks, it's hard to know when to stop and it's a huge nitpick area for customers. Swirls all over, no worries, a small smudge behind the mirror... I need a discount!
 
Definitely the windows.  There's just no love there.  I could spend 100 hours cleaning the windows, 1 hour cleaning the car and everyone would rave about the car and not a freaking soul would mention the windows.
 
Major process- Correction.  I do everything possible to avoid it, with the exception of just living with marring.


 


Regular/minor process- Dressing tires.  For some reason I just [freakin'] hate doing that.


 


Glass doesn't bother me all that much, maybe because I do it so often- virtually every day for the windshields of our daily-drivers and the inside (rear) glass on the dog-haulers.


 


Grilles on some vehicles *are* a huge PIA!  Doing the honeycomb one on my old MPV would take literally hours on end when I was layering on the KSG and even the routine washing of it took a while.  Last time I KSGed the one on my S8 each coat took about 45 minutes IIRC.  Fortunately once it's done it lasts for a good long time.


 


The BBS wheels on the old Audi take a *little* work, but nothing major now that I have my routine sorted out.  But admittedly I'm not doing the back sides of them every wash either.


 


Buckets- I have all my buckets on casters, but quite often I find myself just carrying them anyhow.


 


I'll be surprised if nobody says undercarriages and/or engine compartments; for some reason I don't mind doing them (as I've said before, "the first and last hours of every wash are spent on the undercarriage") but so many people simply *skip* those areas that I suspect they're not considered fun.
 
Windshield for me also. Its always a PITA. Like others have said, it doesn't make a whole lot of difference in looks and most of the time they are not looked at but god forbid you leave any streaks on the window and all hell breaks loose with some customers...


 


Some wheels can be a pain but I usually don't have a problem with them or wheel wells/undercarriage.
 
Which begs the question:


How DO you get glass streak-free?


 


I've had hard-water spotting (on the outside, obviously) that is plainly visible in direct light. I use Meg's Scratch-X with a white LC pad on a PC-DA to remove it and it leaves a "film" on the glass that acts like Rain-X. I see now that Mother's is marketing an OTC water-spot remover for windows. Anyone try that, yet??


 


My wife was invited to a Nor-wex towel house party. They sell household chemicals and silver-infused microfiber that are said to be anti-bacterial. She bought the ones used for cleaning windows and paid a small fortune for them (it's a two-towel system). But, in her defense, they do work well. That leads me to believe that quality microfiber towels are a key to cleaning windows AND having dedicated glass-cleaning microfiber towels used for that purpose ONLY. The Nor-wax system is suppose to use distilled water only as a cleaning agent, but I use Sprayway Glass Cleaner (ammonia-free) as my cleaner. To clean the towels you are suppose to use boiling distilled water poured over them in a clean sink and then rinsed with distilled water.
 
Lonnie- That hand-washing with distilled water would be a deal-breaker for me.  But I wonder if it's *really* mandatory, can't see why it would be, and I launder other silver-infused stuff the normal way without issues.


 


On the Scratch-X, I've never tried that product, but other Glass Polishes that left a film behind bugged me in certain lighting.


 


I get glass streak-free by just cleaning it over and over and over until it comes out OK.  Eventually I get all the [whatever] off it and it's not streaky any more.  I do think that using the Griot's Polypropylene WIndow Wipes for the final pass(es) helps a lot.  Once I get them nice the first time (new-to-me vehicles) it's never all *that* hard to keep 'em that way as long as I don't let it go too long between cleanings.
 
Toss-up between windows and door jams (unless relatively clean already)! 


I've noticed that windows are especially a pain mid summer. Sunlight helps to see streaks, but too much heat makes glass cleaner dry too fast.
 
I'm going to say:


 


-washing the lowest 8" of the car, / textured lower-lower rockers


-lower front engine compartment cleaning (cooling fans, lower rad. and hoses, oil pan).


-trying to improve rough-cast aluminum after any kind of oxidation starts.


-fooling with chips.


 


 


Love/hate, mostly love due to final results:


-engine compartments


-seal the underside of hood


-wheel wells


-cleaning jambs.
 
I HATED when I thought the glass clean, only to see highly annoying streaks later on after the detail was suppossedly complete. So, I was bound and determined to conquor the glass problem, and I did. Here's how:

1: Clean, clay and buff outside of windshield.

2: Use only dedicated zero-pile mf glass towels, and do not wash them w/ other towels.

3: Obtain a zero-pile mf mit/glove to wipe down after you thought you got all the streaks with the other square mf glass towels. Note: You definately should be sweating at this point. If not, keep scrubbing.

4: Obviously, attack from both side of vehicle.

5: Use those glass square scrubb pads/sticks for hard to reach spots.

6: Perform another task, then comeback to the glass and recheck.

*7 (optional) Use verticle wiping motions on the outside, and horizontal motions on the inside. This will indicate what side of the glass the streak is on.

#3 Is, highly IMO, the best step you can add to your streak removal. Buffing glass at awkward and difficult angles is MUCH easier and EFFECTIVE with a mit/glove because they don't bunch and slide around, and skip on the glass when used.

Also, clean your hands thoroughly before handling your glass towels. Also, store them in a ziplock bag.
 
Lots of people seem to struggle with glass!


 


For interior glass, consider wearing gloves so you don't transfer skin oils to the glass.


 


Eh, I can't help but wonder if other people would find the Griot's Polypropylene Window Wipes as wonderful as I do.  Maybe that's part of why I don't dread that task so much.
 
harold97- What, you get spotting or somesuch?


 


Ever think about using an AirWand to get most of the water off?  I get ~90% of it off even the Tahoe in a matter of  few minutes, can do a sedan *very* quickly.
 
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