Blog Articles: Tips, Best Practices & How-To's

How would you like to make washing your vehicle fun, fast and easy while preserving a swirl-free finish with the final results looking like you just waxed your vehicle when all you did was wash it?  If like most people you answered, yes, then you want a foam cannon. What is a Foam Cannon? A Foam Cannon is a specially designed spray head that attaches to a pressure washer to wash your vehicle.  After mixing a quality car wash soap in the foam cannon reservoir, when you pull the trigger on the pressure sprayer wand, the foam cannon will smother...

There are three primary ways to clean interior automotive carpeting, upholstery and fabrics. Hand cleaning with a scrub brush and absorbent towels. Hot water extractor Steam machine    Working by hand This how-to article will show you how to clean dirty, soiled carpet by hand using a quality carpet and upholstery cleaner plus an ordinary scrub brush plus plenty of clean, dry towels.  The secret to cleaning dirty carpet by hand is actually quite simple.  Besides using a safe and effective carpet and upholstery cleaner, the next most important aspect is to remove as much of the cleaner (and the...

A carnauba wax is a product formulated to add a layer of protection to an automotive finish while adding gloss and shine at the same time.  Carnauba waxes come in both paste and liquid formulations with the primary difference simply being the form in which a person prefers.   Carnauba Paste Wax A traditional carnauba paste wax come in a tin can although now days you will also find them in their cheaper counterpart, plastic jars.  Some paste waxes are pre-softened to make getting the wax out of the can and spread over the paint faster and easier.  There are...

When you purchase a new car and upgrade to the model with a leather interior, you end up paying a premium price for a more luxurious interior.  The downside is the initial cost is higher but the upside is you get the luxurious look and feel provided by a leather interior, which is nice.  Your vehicle will also have a higher trade-in or resell value when it’s time to upgrade to a new car.  The key thing to do when you own a car with a leather interior is to put into place a schedule for regular cleaning, conditioning and...

Microfiber Towels – The miracle cloth for car detailing There’s nothing better than quality microfiber towels for detailing cars.  The microscopic nature of the fibers that make up the towels is more gentle to delicate surfaces like automotive clearcoat paints and all the various plastic surfaces inside and outside of your vehicle.  By miniaturizing the size of the fibers that make up a microfiber towel, you get millions of extra fibers in the same area as compared to old fashioned or old-school towels used in the car detailing industry.    Adsorb and Absorb Microfiber is unique in that it excels...

Polished aluminum wheels look great when they are new or regularly maintained. The problem however, is over time, aluminum oxidizes and becomes cloudy and dull looking. The good news is, aluminum is easy to clean and polish and the polishing work can easily be done by hand on a Saturday morning in your own garage. Polished aluminum is a porous metal and as such, it's vitally important that the proper products be used to wash and clean the wheel and to also polish and protect the aluminum without staining the aluminum. This how to article is broken into 4 segments...

First… Why clay your car? Over time the contaminants in the air land on your car and if not removed in a timely manner they bond so tightly to the exterior surfaces that washing will not remover them.  These contaminants create surface texture, which reduces gloss because gloss comes from a smooth surface.  Because normal washing with car wash soap and a wash mitt won’t remove bonded contaminants - the most effective way to remove these contaminants is via a mechanical means called mechanical decontamination. Mechanical decontamination is done to a car after first washing and drying the car and...

Clean engines run cooler and are easier to diagnose when there’s problems Keeping your engine and engine compartment clean is important because it helps to keep the engine and engine compartment cooler as heat is one of the top enemies to your engine and drivetrain.  Keeping the engine and engine compartment clean also helps to identify and locate problems like leaks or broken components simply because it’s easier to see problems when the engine is clean versus covered in a layer of oily grime and sludge. Wet Wash Engine Detail versus Cosmetic Engine Detail There are two different ways to...

What are Ceramic Paint Coatings? Ceramic paint coatings are defined as any paint protection product that contains nano-sized particles of SiO2 or Silicon Dioxide.   True ceramic paint coatings use nano-sized particles of Silicon Dioxide to create a paint protection product that dramatically outlasts and out-protects conventional and traditional car waxes and synthetic paint sealants.  Due to their pure concentrated form and the fact when exposed to air they will solidify, most real or true ceramic coatings come in tiny glass vials. What is SiO2? SiO2 is the abbreviated element name for Silicon Dioxide, and it is one of 118...

Car Pro Detail finished this Honda CBX Motorcycle detail with beautiful results! They cleaned it nicely with HD Products. After washing it down, they worked on the paint correction. The products they used: HD Cut HD Polish Then followed with a paint sealant, HD Poxy You can see the results of the paint correction and auto detail on this motorcycle through the pictures below. Check out the stunning results!

Many professional detailers and novices as well are plagued by the amount of time spent just to prep a vehicle before performing a full detailing. Many spend 2, 3 and even 4 hours just to prepare a car for the detailing process!! I can’t help but to scratch my head when I read how in-depth a person feels they need to go just to prep a car for a detailing operation. Even though properly prepping a car is unarguably the most important step in the detail process, some are under the false notion that the vehicle has to be surgically...

Product Review by: House of Wax on Autopia “Got a chance to finally mess with HD Polish… I’m trying it out on my 2007 Dodge Ram that is in the process of getting prepped for winter. I will be doing a full correction on the entire vehicle, but for the purposes of evaluating this product I tested it on one of my doors without any compounding so I could see how much defect it would remove on its own. The weather outside today isn’t being cooperative to get good defect shots, so I’m making due with my garage lighting. Fortunately...