Yesterday I saw something that had me thinking - what's the worst that you saw someone do (or even if you did it yourself) that was supposed to help in detailing/caring for your car but instead ended up doing damage?

Yesterday I saw this guy using windex to clean his dirty car. It wasn't even a new car (an old dodge caravan) but the fact that he was using WINDEX to clean the paint had me wondering...

Recently I saw a guy cleaning his car with a scrub brush and a bucket of who knows what.

My sister's old Civic . . she used to ScRaPe the ice off the hood in the winter with the ice scraper end. :paranoid: She wondered why she found her "H" in the mud come spring thaw. :screwy:

Recently I saw a guy cleaning his car with a scrub brush and a bucket of who knows what.

That's like the guys at the stoplights - the bucket of nasty water from the drain or wherever, and an old rag or old piece of underwear...

My sister's old Civic . . she used to ScRaPe the ice off the hood in the winter with the ice scraper end. :paranoid: She wondered why she found her "H" in the mud come spring thaw. :screwy:I once saw someone use a SNOW SHOVEL to remove the snow off the hood of their car and, you guessed it - scratched the living daylights out of the hood! This was back in college (go UCONN!) and we had gotten about 12" of snow. Then again, it was a Ford Escort... :lmao:

Well, its not too bad, but dishwasher soap and a towel for a washrag. It was a 95' eclipse turbo, the paint looked like hell...I wonder why... :lmao:

In my parent's first car (1987 Olds Cutlass Ciera), they use to do all of the above... Scraping ice off the hood with an ice scraper, shoveling snow off the car, washing the car with dish soap... After 10 years, the paint looked like hell! :eek: It was cracked, scratched, chipped, and faded! :paranoid:

I tried using a windex solution to clean my parent's Camry before.... I was a little out of it so I grabbed a bottle of blue fluid that I thought was car wash solution... When I poured it in and didn't notice the bubbles, I knew something was fishy.. Then I started washing the car and realized that it was a big bottle of windex. :rolleyes:

Another one was on my ex's mom's camry... When I first met her, they had a 1995 Camry. I checked the oil one day and noticed that the crankcase was empty! :eek: They didn't change the oil based on mileage... Instead, they changed it about once a year at each tune-up! They travel about 11,000 miles a year in that car! :paranoid:

Another one of my friends knew nothing about car.. He got a Honda civic that NEVER got an oil change.. He ended up seizing the engine from a year and a half of negligence.

I got a few more, but they're all about the same friend. :lmao:
I'll leave those for next time... :lmao:

I caught someone at a school carwash using a big wide broom (like the one they use to sweep up in office buildings or other big rooms) to wash the roof of an SUV. Then they used a squeegee to dry the car. I damn near smacked the kid over the head and it wasn't even my car.

Went to a coin-op car wash place for the first time... Saw the lady in front of me using the car wash brush to scrub her carpets, on the floor, nonetheless.... Let's just say I've never gone back to those places to wash my car. It costed me $3.00 in quarters and it wasn't even clean! :lmao:

:lmao: My brother-in-law went to wax their new Jetta (back in '00). He thought he had grabbed wax. It was rubbing compound. Luckily he only did half the hood.

I caught someone at a school carwash using a big wide broom (like the one they use to sweep up in office buildings or other big rooms) to wash the roof of an SUV. Then they used a squeegee to dry the car. I damn near smacked the kid over the head and it wasn't even my car.


Now that one I've seen happening way too often!!

1. Coworker's engine caught fire with the air cleaner off, so she throws sand on the flames. That old Pontiac is still running.
2. No ice scraper in the company car, but a brick was handy. Voila! Ice gone, but was almost easier to see thru the ice than the resultant scratches.
3. Use a paint roller to paint your roof if want the vinyl-roof-look. I had to touch it to make sure is wasn't vinyl. (I've also seen the whole car painted with a roller and don't recommend it.)
4. You may be a redneck if . . . you use T-shirts for seat covers. Actually the effect is not inappropriate for certain muscle cars.

I've got to tell this one on myself:

I had a brand new 1988 S-10 Blazer 4X4, first year of the 4.3l V-6. It was fire engine red with a K-40 CB antenna sticking out of the center of the roof.

I worked selling boats in Alabama and it was very, very slow that day. I told the honcho I was going to the shop to wash my truck.

I pulled in and grabbed a bucket of what I thought was boat wash from the make ready guys. It was solvent! My fire engine red truck faded to a primer gray after it dried. No one said a word until I was through, then they laughed until they cried. The bastards! It took a lot of work on my part to make it red again.

I have been told by a guy that he used Armor All on his WHOLE CAR, minus the glass :thmsup: Nice and shiny, although it looked patchy. On an old Ford LTD, T-bird, or something like that.

Was heading home from the mountains a few years ago in early summer, and the bugs were out big time. We stopped at a rest area on the highway to scrub the windows down (I had a squeegie in the trunk). Also at the rest area were a couple of college ladies who had been camping, having the same problem with bugs. However, they were using a metal camp spatula to scrape the bugs off of their windshield AND the hood of their car. Sigh...........

:dunno:

I don't get to see someone actually doing the damage, just after the fact!
I would estimate 1-2 vehicles a week that have had scotch-brite pads used on them.
Then you have the crowd that never clean their cars for 3 yrs :thumbsdow

I would say less than 5% of car owners actually know or pay someone to keep their vehicles paint looking good!!

I1 :)

I would say less than 5% of car owners actually know or pay someone to keep their vehicles paint looking good!!

I1 :)

Glad to be part of that 5%! :thmsup: :banana:

Getting back on track, I decided to rotate my wheels two weeks ago, but when I took them off, I decided to detail them too. So there I go washing the first wheel inside and out when all of a sudden I decided that I don't want to see any tar on the inside of the wheel so I decided to clay them. I figured I got a clay bar sticking around that I'm not going to use on the body of the car anyway, so I used that on the wheel. So I grabbed a bottle of detailer spray and my clay bar, slapped on some latex gloves and start spraying and claying. When I'm finished, I was wondering why the clay bar is getting gooey? I thought it was from the water on the wheel or just from the fact that the clay was over 2 weeks old. :dunno: So I spray the wheels off with water and was marveling at how water repellant the wheels were. Then it hit me! I finished that bottle of detailer's spray the first time I used that clay bar and I refilled it with tire shine! :eek: I had to spend the next hour cleaning up my mess, but I got everything cleaned up nicely. :yes: When I was finished, three hours later, I used the bottle of tire shine for it's intended purpose.. .... Shining up the tires. :yes:

The stock alloys are coming off soon for winter. I'll detail them then, inside out.

I don't get to see someone actually doing the damage, just after the fact!
I would estimate 1-2 vehicles a week that have had scotch-brite pads used on them.
Then you have the crowd that never clean their cars for 3 yrs :thumbsdow

I would say less than 5% of car owners actually know or pay someone to keep their vehicles paint looking good!!

I1 :)
and yet half the time we're the ones with the problems that can't be cured...... :bawl:

or maybe it's because their isn't dirt to hide the imperfections.......... :rolleyes:

i started leanring early on when my dad would yell and scream if we dropped a sponge on the ground and that sponge would meet the trash can. and the lectures about never using brushes on cars for washing. and not using brush-full car washes, only brushless and only when no other option exists. and how he'd make sure the kids were washing the bottom parts of the older cars whie he cleaned the more visible higher panels and the newer cars.... :lmao: (sneaky, make us think we're helping wahs the cars, but stick us with the area witht he road tar and scratches from rocks and other road debris so that we couldn't do any noticeable damage. oh, the truck bed was one of his favorite places to stick us in to clean......)

now he is nowhere near as picky about it as i am though....... only using one bucket and sponges.... :lmao: how dare he.

he waxes the cars about 3 times a year in a typical year... one coat. but hey, he waxes them and more than once a year even!! :blah:

maybe i should teach him some skills....

I work as a detailer, so i have seen my fair share of bad things happening to cars, but..
1. Co worker using the side of his high speed buffer at 3000 rpm's on a black lexus es300.. Lets just say, when he was done, it would wave at you in the sunlight..
2. Of course.. the brillow pad on paint thing..
3. Dirty dish spounge on car (Thats just gross)--i use the dishwasher, dirty dishes gross me out..
4. Car wash brushes-- NONO..
5. My grandma, although she is cute and old (61)-- left on two seperate occations, a tube of red lipstick which melted and stained her tan leather in her camry, and a bottle of acetone!!!-- the seat of the camry is ruined.. lets just say

Dad is in the detailing business.

Used real car wash that doesn't strip wax.

Customer's complain, not enough bubbles!

Revert to dishwashing liquid.

Customers happy.

:dunno:

you know what they say: keep it simple, stupid! :stupid: :lmao: