After checking out various web sites for a quick detailing product and seeing that they cost about $50 to $75 a gallon I decided to see if I could home brew some decent stuff.
I took 8 oz of hot "soft" water, 5 drops of Meguier's clear coat body wash and a 3 caps of rubbing alcohol and slowly mixed in an old blender. I put the alcohol in so that it would evaporate more quickly.After it was thoroughly mixed I put it in a spray bottle. The alcohol also reduced the sudsing of the soap.
I used it on my mini-van as a test. It seemed to work fine. I used a very damp cloth to put it on (turning frequently so I didn't rub the dirt in)and then a dry soft cloth (turning frequently) to dry and polish. It also worked fine on glass. No streaks. Dried fast. Probably too much alcohol
I tried putting it on with a dry cloth but a damp cloth took less effort and wouldn't rub the dirt in to scratch the paint. I didn't notice any problems with the paint.
I made another batch of 20 oz of hot soft water, 2 drops of Meguiers and 1 cap of alcohol. I ran out of time so I'll test it later. I figure it cost me less than 3 cents to make this stuff. About 20 cents a gallon.
Will the alcohol remove carnuba wax or silicon polishes?
Has anyone ran across other home brew cleaning products that work? Any BMW chemists out there that have something better up their sleeve?
Note: This is not a recommendation to do this. Try at your own risk.
Originally posted by Silver4evr@Feb 9 2004, 02:31 PM Will the alcohol remove carnuba wax or silicon polishes?
Interesting stuff, let us know how it works. As far as alcohol removing carnuba, in my experience, no. I use that same wax and got careless and some got on my exterior black trim. I tried several different trim cleaners, degreasers, dish soaps, and alcohol. Peanut oil worked for me - try it for removing the wax...
__________________ "Make all checks payable to my ass" - W.A.K.
I just take clorox (powder) and mix it with hot water. Mind you, I put very little in. Is this bad for my paint at all? It seems to work fine w/o damaging anything but if it is bad for it someone tell me please. Thanks.
Originally posted by Silver4evr@Feb 9 2004, 02:31 PM I made another batch of 20 oz of hot soft water, 2 drops of Meguiers and 1 cap of alcohol. I ran out of time so I'll test it later. I figure it cost me less than 3 cents to make this stuff. About 20 cents a gallon.
Note: This is not a recommendation to do this. Try at your own risk.
I did another test of this batch and it's working fine. I cleaned my windows and when wiping them I could see the residue drying quickly just like the other 'quick detail' product I've seen.
My van also had a huge 4" blob of bird bowel extract on it and this stuff, with some gentle rubbing, did some great work.
I think I'll keep "home brewing" my own stuff and save a bunch of $$!
BTW, I used 20 oz of soft water because that's how much my spray bottle would hold.
I would be cautious about putting any kind of powder, disolved or not, on your car. If any of the particles are not disolved completely, then it will scratch as you wash it.
__________________ "Make all checks payable to my ass" - W.A.K.
You can use warm water to help disolve any powder type products you use.
I've also seen a thick plastic mesh that goes in your wash bucket about 2 inches from the bottom, keeping your wash mitt/cloth/sponge from picking up any large/heavy dirt particles resting on the bottom of your bucket.
On another forum, someone made a this type of product by cutting a piece of plastic purchased at Home Depot and setting it in their bucket.
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