DETAILING Q&A: 3 Ways to Decon your Paint
The Rag Company Podcast | A Detailed Look Inside Car Care Culture
DETAILING Q&A: 3 Ways to Decon your Paint
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Company
RAG Company
RAG Company is a car-care brand that makes detailing products. In this episode, they’re running the live stream and the big event being discussed.
Term
PPE
PPE means personal protection equipment. It’s the gloves/eye protection (and sometimes a mask) you wear so detailing chemicals and dust don’t get on you.
Company
The Rad Company
The Rad Company is the detailing brand running this show. They’re sharing events and videos to help people learn how to care for their cars.
Concept
exterior decontamination
Decontamination is a deeper cleaning for your car’s paint. It removes stuff that’s stuck to the surface so the paint feels smooth and is ready for the next step like polishing or wax.
Concept
TRCMA
TRCMA is a virtual event where car-care brands show products and demos. You can watch online and ask questions through the chat.
Term
gloves
Gloves keep cleaning chemicals off your skin. That matters because some detailing products can irritate you or cause burns if they touch you for too long.
Term
acid wash
An acid wash uses special cleaner that’s acidic to dissolve mineral deposits on the paint. People use it when the surface is covered in hard-to-remove spots.
Concept
water behavior
Water behavior is how water acts on your car’s finish—whether it beads up or spreads out. It’s a simple way to tell if the coating is still performing well.
Car
Pontiac Aztek
The Pontiac Aztec was a quirky Pontiac from the late ’90s/early 2000s. It stood out because it looked different—especially the back hatch—and it was marketed like an outdoor/adventure vehicle.
Car
Chrysler PT Cruiser
The Chrysler PT Cruiser is a small car with a retro-style look. It was popular in the early 2000s and was designed to feel a bit like an SUV even though it’s still a car. The podcast mentions it when talking about that trend of mixed styles.
Car
Chevrolet Blazer
The Chevrolet Blazer is an SUV model from Chevrolet. It’s the kind of vehicle people used for everyday driving and light family or utility needs. The podcast mentions it to explain how it fit into the SUV and pickup lineup at the time.
Car
Ford Explorer
The Ford Explorer is a long-running SUV model from Ford. Here it’s mentioned as an example of the older, more truck-like SUV category.
Car
Chevrolet Tahoe
The Chevrolet Tahoe is a big, full-size SUV from Chevy. The speaker mentions it to illustrate the older, truck-based SUV idea.
Concept
overlanding
Overlanding means taking trips where you’re kind of living out of your vehicle, often camping and going off the usual roads. The speaker is saying the Aztec was doing that vibe early.
Concept
sliding doors
Sliding doors are doors that open by sliding sideways. They’re often easier to use in parking lots and with kids because you don’t need as much space to swing the door open.
Concept
badge engineering
Badge engineering is when two different car brands sell almost the same car, but with different badges and small cosmetic changes. It’s usually done to save money by using the same underlying design.
Concept
decon process
“Decon” means cleaning the paint more deeply than a normal wash. It’s about getting stuff stuck to the paint off so the surface is ready for protection.
Term
turn purple
Some iron removers change color as they react with the metal particles on your paint. If you see the color shift, it usually means the cleaner is working.
Term
dilution
Dilution is how much a concentrate is mixed with water before use. The host emphasizes using the correct dilution so the decon soap is effective without being overly harsh on paint and trim.
Term
active foam
Active foam is a foamy car-wash product you spread on the paint so it can loosen dirt. You let it sit briefly, then rinse it off.
Term
iron decon
Iron decon is a special cleaning step that removes tiny iron particles that stick to your car’s paint. Regular washing won’t always get them off, so you use a product made to dissolve and lift that iron safely.
Term
clay lube
Clay lube is a slippery product you use while using clay on the paint. It helps the clay glide so you don’t scratch the surface.
Term
browning
“Browning” is when the wheel cleaner turns the grime a brown color as it loosens it up. It usually means the cleaner is working on the dirt.
Term
ergonomics
Ergonomics is basically “how you set yourself up to work comfortably.” Using the right stool height helps you avoid hurting your knees or back while you clean.
Term
lug nuts
Lug nuts are the bolts that hold the wheel on the car. Cleaning around them matters because dirt and brake dust build up in those tight spots.
Term
two bucket method
It’s a car-washing trick that uses two buckets: one with soap and one to rinse your mitt. That way, you’re less likely to drag dirt back across the paint and scratch it.
Term
pressure washer
A pressure washer is a machine that sprays water at high pressure. In car care, it’s commonly used to rinse off soap/cleaners so you don’t rub dirt around.
Term
tonneau cover
A tonneau cover is the cover installed over the bed of a pickup truck to protect cargo and reduce weather exposure. Detailing around it matters because it can trap dirt and contaminants along edges and seams.
Concept
water spots
Water spots are those hard mineral marks that show up when water dries on the car. Sometimes they wipe off, but other times they need a stronger chemical treatment.
Term
hand agitate
“Hand agitate” means you actively work the cleaner into the paint instead of just letting it sit. The host is saying some products are meant for that, and others are better used without rubbing them in by hand.
Term
wheel mitt
A wheel mitt is a special soft cleaning pad you use only on wheels. Wheels get really dirty with brake dust, so keeping a separate mitt helps you avoid dragging that dirt onto the paint.
Company
Angry Monkey Detailing
Angry Monkey Detailing is the brand mentioned here that makes the detailing tools and replacement parts. They’re basically selling the specific accessories people are asking for.
LIVE
All right, and welcome, everybody, to a very special
live stream here at the RAG Company YouTube channel. Joining me today, Miss
Sydney Bray Gwynne. Thanks for having me. I'm super excited about this.
Me too. I'm sure about to get a little crazy. It is about to get crazy, Sydney,
because this is a momentous moment, right? A momentous, can you say that? Because
we are less than a week away. Yeah, very much less than a week away. The biggest
live detailing event of the year, which is TRCMA here at the RAG Company
YouTube channel. Now, if you have been living under a rock, or let's just say, I
don't know, I mean, you've just found out about detailing and you're going all in.
You're diving deep down the rabbit hole. What is TRCMA? So TRCMA is the RAG
Company media access event, and this is essentially a full week of live streaming
for the detailing community, highlighting the latest and greatest in detailing,
whether it's tools, techniques, people, brands, things like that, because
everybody comes out to Boise, Idaho here under this roof and presents and presents
and more. I don't know how to just say that. It's not just a normal presentation of just
showcasing product or showcasing tools and techniques, but it is basically a community
coming together on a live stream involving all of you watching in the comments where you can
be a part of it. And Sydney, what do you like about it? Well, for one, I love having all the
brands here, right? We often get to see things that maybe aren't out on the market yet.
We get to communicate with them. It's so fun. It's literally probably my favorite week all year.
It is. It's pretty awesome. So what is today's live stream and what does it have to do with TRCMA?
Well, we like to, again, get some practice before a big event like this. And so right now, we are
stress testing our systems. We are going through to make sure that there's no sparks or fires
starting in the electrical room. We make sure that. I didn't hear it gets hot in there, though.
It does get very hot in there. We make sure that Glenn has a fan on and a spray bottle as she keeps
switching things behind the scenes. Sebastian, I believe, is just, I think, fanning or doing
something behind the scenes as well. Now, everybody is doing something here, right? We have Jimmy
holding a camera. We have several other cameras set up here, and everybody else has some type
of headset on to be able to coordinate how this thing all comes together. So it really is like a
full feature when we do this. So what we're doing is stress testing this, but today we're
actually going to be featuring several different kind of live detailing examples. And so we're
going to be going through and actually doing some live decon. We're going to be talking about PPE,
talking about, you know, personal protection equipment. We're also going to be cleaning
some wheels and doing like a decon on actually on your car right here, right? A little clay.
Yep. But we also are doing something else fun for the audience at home. We are actually filming
a full main channel video. Yes, right. So you guys get to go with us behind the scenes as we film
a regular YouTube video. So this is going to be really interesting. We've not done this before.
So we're kind of covering a couple of different things here. So it's going to be pretty interesting.
So Anthony, now what we need from you is a YouTube intro. So like go into character and bust it out.
Okay. This is interesting because this is live. And normally I take some time to sit down and
meditate, you know, practice. I'll let you know if you need a retake. So mindfulness about this.
Okay. So would you like me to say like we are doing some decon and we're going?
Yeah, just your normal YouTube intro. Just normal YouTube intro. The ins and outs of decon. Do you
like who that sounds? I think that sounds nice. Yeah, like three ways to skin a cat. I don't know.
Oh my goodness. I didn't know we were doing that. Is that how it goes? I didn't know we were saying
that. Okay. All right. Let's just try this. All right. Ready? Okay. Okay. All right. Okay.
Here we go. And should I snap or don't snap? Yeah. Do your hey guys. Do it. Okay. I'll just tell us
a point. Okay. Ready? Here we go. And hey guys. You're through The Rad Company and welcome to an
exciting video where you get to learn everything that you need to know about exterior decon.
Let's do it. What do you think? Was that good? That was pretty good. That was pretty good.
Okay. You know, but they like to do another one. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. We have people
driving by saying hi right now. So here we go. Three, two, one and hey guys. You're through The
Rad Company and welcome to a video where you're going to learn the ins and outs of exterior
decontamination. Let's do it. Yeah. That was good. That was good. Why don't you do one? I think we're
ready to go. Why is it just me? Why don't you just do it? I think this is where you toss it to Dane.
That's it. That's it. I put myself out there. I gave you everything. Okay. That's fine. I guess
we're going to give it a pass. We are going to pass it over Dane as he is the man in the box today.
So let's hear what's going on on his side of things. Well, you know, it is funny. They pass to me
because I'm supposed to give you the spiel on TRCM up. But realistically, Anthony kind of nailed it.
I mean, apart from the actual dates, which if you didn't hear are next week. So we will be
cramming next week full of TRCMA goodness. TRCMA, if you will. And that stands for The Rad Company
Media Access Show. So basically, as they stated, it is a chance to catch a trade show
in a virtual environment. Basically, you get to be a fly on the wall and actually
see the demos as if you were going to a trade show booth and you could actually talk to the reps,
which you actually can talk to the reps via the comment section, the chat. That is how it works.
So if you haven't been to a TRCMA before, don't worry. You can literally have it right there in
your pocket on your phone, on your computer, your TV, however you want to enjoy it. But just so
you're aware, I'll go over the dates again here. It is March 30 through April 2. So if you're not
sure if you're going to remember, just know that it's next week or to make it really easy for you,
you can go to trcm.com. And that'll take you to the section of our website where you can actually
get info. You'll get email updates, that sort of thing, when different segments go live,
different brands perhaps that you're interested in. Maybe you haven't heard of a brand before
and you just want to know what they're all about. You can check it out right there on the page as
the show goes on. And of course, if nothing else, just watch us here on YouTube, on the Rag Company
YouTube channel. That is where you're going to see it all go down. But as you can see there,
if you want to enter your email, you can certainly do so and be a part of the action. So hopefully
that gets you in the mix there. And of course, I don't want to spend too much time being the
box, but you know, we can move on for me and go right back out to the guys there. I believe they
got a station set up with some safety equipment, which when you see what we get into today, it's
kind of important. Yeah, thank you, Dane. Can we get you to do the man in the box thing again?
Bam in the box. Wow. I mean, what do you mean? Would you be willing to do that for money,
essentially? I mean, we'd just throw you a couple bucks. Okay, he's going to do it for free. We
don't actually have to pay him at all. That's amazing. Dane, thank you so much for that glorious
intro. We appreciate all the work that you're doing there in the box, but I think we kind of got it
from here for right now. No problem. All right, Dane. Thank you. Okay, so Sid, we are here at this
beautiful table with a couple devices here that, you know, questionable things, right? Maybe you
could commit some crimes with some of the stuff on the table. Maybe not, right? Between the sunglasses,
the gloves, maybe a mask or two and whatever's in that spray bottle. So what is this stuff?
So we wanted to chat PPE real quick. So as much fun as we like to have, sometimes we do have to
make sure that we're being safe. So we are going to be using acid today. Actually, I am. Anthony's
going to be using some iron remover. So because sometimes in the art of detailing, sometimes you
end up having to use chemicals or devices that are not safe. And so we kind of wanted to highlight
some of the things that you need to make sure that you have in your arsenal when preparing to
work with some of these chemicals. So first things first, I'm going to be using acid today. So we
obviously have our acid. Then we have a respirator. Now because I'm only going to be doing a fender,
I'm not going to put the respirator on for you guys because it's not very like fashionable just for
two seconds. So I'm not actually going to use the respirator, but you should when you are doing it
at home. And then of course, probably always with most things detailing, you need to make sure you
have gloves. Depending on how long you're going to be working with the acid and really like kind
of what you're doing is when you want to make sure do you need more gloves than just these.
They obviously have the over gloves and things like that. But let's talk about why gloves real
quick. Skin is our biggest organ actually. Did you know that? I did not know that. It is. It's
your biggest organ. And so whatever goes on your hands goes inside your body. So always think of
it like that. So if it's on you, it's in you. Just think of that. So if we have acid on our hands,
it is inside our body. So ceramics, you know, wheel cleaners, anything like that, you want to
make sure you're wearing gloves so that it is not getting into our bloodstream. Yeah, that's terrible.
So we have gloves and then always eye protection, especially when using acid. You want to make sure
because if you spray a wheel or spray a panel and it splashes back at you, the worst case scenario is
it gets in your eye. If it gets on your skin, you want to obviously wipe it off. But for the most
part, you want to have eye protection. Now, I have my sunglasses today here. So this is what
I'm going to be using as my eye protection. Now, is this really appropriate eye protection?
Probably not the safest, but it's better than nothing. So if you have your sunglasses,
just make sure that you are using them. Gotcha. Yeah. So this is very important stuff. Last
night, I was actually splitting some non-chlorinated brake cleaner and I was cleaning out a valve
cover and I sprayed it and it kind of did the spoon thing. And it went right back on me.
Got a little bit of my mouth right on my face on my glasses. I was like, oh, that's not good.
Right. So I ran inside. I ran to rinse everything off. Right. Okay. But you know,
I did have gloves on so it wasn't you didn't have it on my hands. I did have it pretty much
everywhere else though. So basically when you're spraying any type of chemical, it's always good
just to make sure that you are protected, whether it's long sleeves, whether it's gloves, glasses,
masks, you know, things like that. I mean, again, we're using detailing products which
aren't going to be the worst things in the world. But again, for to do this long term
and to stay doing this forever, we want to make sure that we are protected. So
no, it's funny because right when you said that, you know, you were doing acid, I'm like,
this is way different than like acid in the nineties, right? We're actually just using acid
for cleaning, right? Not necessarily an outer inner body experience. So now you're going to be
doing that. Yep. I'm going to be doing a different type of the process. But yes, so masks, acid,
gloves, glasses, and a well ventilated area, right? So that's another big thing to mention. So
when people think about ventilation, we think, okay, well, what if we just do it outside, right?
Outside is great. You also have wind outside, right? And so what happened is the slightest
amount of wind. Oh, it can just blow that right at you. So yeah, basically with any type of
caustic chemical, just make sure that you are protected. Because yeah, like Sidney said, if
it's on you, it's probably in you at some point. And yeah, I think I'm made of great cleaner right
now. Yeah. Well, and good to mention that what we learned from Anthony's situation last night is
also keep your mouth closed while you're using this stuff. I don't know why like my mouth was open,
right? Like I think I was like an, oh, I'm like, wow, this is really cleaning this valve cover,
really good. And then like, I got my mouth a little bit. I'm like, yeah, that's kind of gross.
Spit that out. So other things to note too, right? So we talked about doing this outside and we
talked about the wind and potential environmental factors there. Make sure you just have water
readily available, right? Whenever you're spraying the chemical of any sort, make sure you have some
running water, right? Whether you need to rinse yourself off or whether you need to rinse that
surface off. You just don't want to start spraying something, realize that your hose isn't on,
realize that you're covered in it, and you have to do something about it, right? So that's a big
thing to note there. And then gloves too. I know there can be different arguments about gloves
and the importance of them with certain, like maybe a standard washing, right? Using a pH
bounce soap or something. Yeah, gloves aren't going to be super necessary. But also to just be
mindful where the cuff is sitting. I know there's plenty of people out there that will use some
pretty caustic chemicals. They'll be wearing a glove. They'll go dunk their hand in. And
their glove is now full of what they were just using. So now their hand is just like living
in a bath of that stuff. So make sure you have a glove that fits you properly. So that's the
other thing too, is that I have very large hands. I very rarely can find gloves that fit me because
of my hand size. Usually a 2x to 3x is what I need. Yeah, yeah. So definitely the glove size
is important. I think Joey mentioned that in the comments earlier, which is super helpful. So let's
talk. We went over PPE, but before we move away from this set, I do want to mention we talked about
working inside, outside. So obviously if you're working inside and you have a well ventilated
area, again, watch the airflow and how things blow. Because if you are like in a shop or in a garage,
I have seen where people spray acid and it floats over to the other car and like smokes the next
car sitting there or something. So always make sure of how your airflow is. But then also if you
are working in the sun and you're using acid, you want to make sure everything in the sun speeds
up your process. So always good to have all of your stuff ready, laid out. Like Anthony was saying,
make sure you have everything set to go so that you're not running back and forth trying to find
stuff. So be totally prepared before you do anything like this. I should also say too, we don't
actually sell acid at the RAG company. Like we actually don't sell a chemical that's like caustic
like this, or at least this level of causticity. So just keep in mind, this is something that you
can just buy at a detailing like supply store for like the real like nitty gritty like bad details.
This isn't something we sell. This isn't something you have to worry about. We are covering just a
lot of this specifically because of this, but it could still apply to some other chemicals that we
do sell, right? Even higher alkalinity chemicals, you know, brake buster or things like that. So
but yeah, that's pretty much it. So Sid, I'm excited for you. You're gonna jump right into this.
And I'm just gonna go away. I'm gonna drift off into the sunset. Yeah, I'll see you in a bit.
Okay. Do you want any of that? No, no, because I've got my mediums over here. Oh, gotcha.
Because we talked about making sure you wear the right size, right? Okay, so real quick before I get
started, I want to talk about why we chose to do this acid wash. So there's a lot of chatter on,
you know, social media and things about how should you unclog a coating. And there's a lot out there
about doing these acid washes. So while they're not totally bad, we kind of wanted to address
when a coating is clogged or you're coming out of winter and you want to do these major
decons. Is acid always the answer? There's a lot of people out there that think acid is like the
holy grail. And so we kind of wanted to go through the three obviously to show you there is different
ways to decon a car. And like anything else, you want to use the least aggressive when necessary.
A lot of times people are thinking that acid wash is the only way to reset a coating.
And I'm going to show you why maybe it's not. So if let's say this coating is super clogged,
needs to be rehydrated or needs to get, you know, decon cleaned out so that the
hydrophobics come back. The biggest thing to note that never gets mentioned is the way
coatings work is they obviously have layers within themselves are very microscopic. But what
happens when you hit the panel with acid is it actually shocks the coating. So what this means
is initially upon rinse off, it's going to look like the water behavior is completely stripped.
So I see this a lot where people say, I just did the acid wash and now my coatings ruined.
It's not ruined. It's shocked because the hydrophobics on any coating only go a certain amount
through that coating. So when the water behavior goes away and we think a coating's dead,
it's not actually dead. Just the hydrophobic layer is dead. So initially the acid will shock
the surface and it will make you think you killed your coating. Now what will happen
is after several hours that will come back. But initially it can be a little bit scary.
So I will say this is certainly something that only a professional should do. I would never
suggest that, you know, a DIY enthusiast do this. And mainly you don't need to use acid. So there's
going to be lots of other ways that we can unclog a coating that are a lot safer. Really acid.
I mean, I'm not going to lie. I did the other half of my car so that we had some b-roll for later.
That was the first time in my whole life I've ever put acid on one of my cars. So
we are going to get started. I'm going to go grab my pressure washer hose because I want to show you
guys what it looks like before. Just make sure that's working. Okay. So what I'm going to show
you is obviously this car is coated, this fender is coated, has really nice water behavior.
So we can see that, right? The coating is all good.
And then we are going to talk about the acid. So now obviously this coating is not necessarily
clogged, but I want to show you guys what happens when you spray acid on the vehicle,
what it does, and how long it takes to come back. Now, if I was doing this on a maintenance
customer's car, so let's say they had water spots and so I wanted to do an acid wash,
I need to know that that water behavior is going to be stunted. So then when I was done with this,
maybe I would go back through with a topper or something like that just to kind of refresh that
coating, but had you left it alone, it will eventually come back on its own. So we are going
to just spray this panel down with acid and I'm supposed to put my glasses on. Jeez. Look at me.
Not good at the PPE. So you got to have your glasses on so that if this splashes back, it doesn't get
in my eyes. All right. So then when we are using acid, we usually let it dwell for a little bit.
I don't need to let it dwell that long because there's not actually anything on the surface.
It's not clogged and it does not have water spots. So, but what I want you to pay attention when I
start using the water again is how the water behavior has essentially been killed in this coating.
So when you are doing this yourself, that's what it looks like and it's a little bit scary.
Now, had I left that on the full recommended two minutes, it actually goes completely flat,
which is not great. So do we want to show that b-roll now, Glenn, before I wash it?
All right. So I'll just walk you guys through this. So this was me doing the same exact thing at
home on the other side. And what I want you to see is obviously how the water behavior comes back
hours later because we obviously can't fast forward several hours after I do this.
All right. So totally flat again. And this was several hours after. Now,
this was only about four hours after. So that water behavior will even get better. It's doing
its own job at kind of curing itself. So obviously it gets a little bit better back after time. So
I found about the eight hour mark, which as soon as we wash this side, so I make sure I get this
deactivated, I'll have Jimmy follow me to their side and we'll hit that driver fender so that you
can see the water behavior at this point, which is about four days later is totally back. So now
what I'm going to do, obviously when we're using acid, we need to, we rinsed it, but now we need to
actually deactivate it. And so you can use any kind of soap, APC for this, whatever you want.
Generally speaking, you're going to go into your normal wash. So just so that I'm not
leaving acid on my car, I'm just going to wash this fender and rinse it. And then we will run
over to the other side and see how that driver fender is doing. And I will mention, I did not
cheat and put any protection on the other side at all. We've just left it for the weekend.
All right, and see still no real, you know, it's got sheeting, but
not the water behavior that we should have had from the beginning. All right,
so now I'm going to walk over here. We're going to test the driver side that we did the other day.
And as you can see, this is 100% again. So that coating completely healed on its own
over, you know, probably eight to 10 hours.
So super nice. So does acid unclog your coating? Yes, it does. But it is not,
I wouldn't say that it's the safest or always as necessary as people are using it
so heavily on the internet now. So you can absolutely do it. I don't necessarily think
it's a good idea unless it's clogged by water spots or like heavy contamination.
So there's, we're going to show you two other ways to maintain your coating. This is one,
but just make sure that if you are doing this, that your coating actually needs it,
make sure you have all the right tools and that you are set ready to go start to finish
because it is kind of a fast process. You don't want to leave acid on too long.
So next we are going to go to Iron Decon and we're going to jump over to Anthony for that.
Or no, actually go to Dane. Dane, what do I want you to talk about? I heard that you have had some
stuff on, why don't you tell us about, are you into Pontiac Aztecs? Oh, great. We're going to
talk about Pontiac Aztecs. That's great. Actually, you know, it's funny. I pulled up the Wikipedia
article just in case we needed to pass a little time while the cars do their movement out there.
I'm sure we can get like an overhead camera while I just happened to recite a little info for you.
But you know, the Pontiac Aztec marks an interesting point in time for the car landscape. Of course,
you recall if you're old enough that when the PT Cruiser came around, kind of those car-based SUV
things, before they were known as crossovers, people thought of SUVs as well. That's a
body-on-frame truck thing that just happens to have more body over where a pickup bed might be.
You know, your explorers were the analog to the rangers and your blazers were the analog to,
say, the S10 pickup. Or in the case of the full-size like the Tahos and such, those would have been
your Silverados turned into an SUV. But in the case of the Aztec, it was an interesting thing
because much like the Lexus RX300, which also brought about the beginning of the luxury crossover
craze, the Pontiac Aztec marked kind of the adventure vehicle type stuff. A lot of ways
you see Subaru doing today, but I mean, everybody's got like overlanding vehicles and stuff these days.
The Pontiac Aztec was right there in the late 90s in concept form, right about 2000 actually,
is when they released the first ones. And yeah, they get made fun of for looking real ugly,
but at the same time, they had some pretty interesting features, some unique characteristics,
and that funky shaped hatch in the back that frankly, I mean, outside of like a Honda Insight
or, you know, Prius, you're not going to get too many cars where the glass is formed that way in
the back. I mean, not even a Volvo P1800ES will do that. Anyway, I digress. Pontiac Aztec,
you could get a tent for the back of that thing. You could get a little cooler, little speaker
setups, all kinds of fun stuff, things we take for granted today. I mean, Rivian's putting like a
Bluetooth speaker in the center console now and all kinds of stuff. But the Aztec was doing that
way before anybody else was, you know, even the Honda element, which I had one of those, I absolutely
loved it. Aztec predates that. So, you know, kudos to the Aztec for taking what was essentially
the Pontiac Montana minivan basis, that, you know, platform underneath and turning it into
something different. Although, you know, I'm a, you know, utilitarian at heart. I find that the
sliding doors are more useful, in fact, than the fold-out doors just because, hey, you got kids in
the back, you don't want to whip in the doors out. That's what sliding doors are for. They're
awesome. Also, just storage needs, type parking lots, etc. But no. Anyway, I keep getting stuck
on tangents. It's what happens. But then again, that's what they asked me to do today, was bore you
to death with a fun little tangent about cars that you don't care about. So, yeah. Anyway, the Aztec
probably nowadays best known as that car that Walter White drives in Breaking Bad, which they actually
the showrunner got a special custom color just for that particular Aztec. He wanted it to be as
drab and disgusting as possible. So they found this perfect, just like, I'm sorry, I'm just going to
say it. It's like Canadian goose poop or puke colored car. It's terrible. Absolutely awful.
The Aztec did not, in fact, come in that color, but they made it that color just for the show.
Just in case you wondered. But yeah, no. The Aztec. Funky car. And my first memory of it was
actually watching, was it the first or second season of Survivor, the reality TV show, where the
prize at the end, the winner got a Pontiac Aztec. I think it was a black one and had like the tent
and all that stuff. Anyway, that was, that was quite a journey. Imagine you go through a grueling,
just like, absolutely horrific experience out in the jungle while a bunch of, you know, TV cameras
are pointed at you catching every single horrible, compromised moment of you just like living in this
competition with a bunch of other people. And at the end they go, congrats, your prize is a Pontiac
Aztec. How would you feel? Tell me in the comments. I want to know. Anyway, Anthony, how are you doing
out there, bud? Well, Dean, that was all very interesting stuff there about the Pontiac Aztec.
I don't think anybody really wanted to know that. Oh no, I told them as much. I know. I just,
we thought it would kind of be a joke and you'd probably move on to something more serious or
something that people would care about. I mean, I'm just glad you didn't go down a tangent of the
Kia Rondo, right? I mean, for the- That's the car for the person with nothing left to lose.
Yeah, they've pretty much lost everything. And what's that other random, I think it was,
actually, the, you know, you talk about GM, they're famous for their badge engineering, you know,
where you have like the Sunfire and the Cavalier and like all these different cars,
all the same car just with different badges on them and stuff. The Buick Rendezvous was just
a Pontiac Aztec except they shaved all the harsh edges and made it smoother. It was an A.
Thank you so much. All right, so anyways, we're going to be jumping into the main wash here. And so,
thank you, Dane. What we have today is, again, a decon process, right? We've been going over
decon, talking about kind of ins and outs of that. One fun thing that people love to do is use a
fallout remover and then they like to follow up with some type of decontamination soap. Now,
coming into spring, now is the perfect time to do, we'll call it a yearly decon. You're coming
out of wintertime, you still have a lot of that muck on your vehicle. There's going to be certain
cases where you're going to want to use an APC, right, and go through, spray the undercarriage,
spray the exterior of the car, any type of buildup there. This particular 350Z is, you know,
it's in good shape, right, for the most part. It's been pretty well maintained throughout
winter despite it barely having paint. It's been washed quite often, which doesn't really make
sense. So, it doesn't have necessarily the buildup that we would expect to need to use like an APC,
but it does have some rust here. And for that, I have a different product that we can use for
surface rust and also just general fallout contamination. So, we're going to be going through
today with Coach Kemi's rapid rust remover. So, this is a product that we don't highlight too
often here on the channel, but this is going to be Coach Kemi's dedicated fallout remover. So,
this is going to be for general surface rust. This is going to be for iron fallout from brakes.
It's going to be just a great, great, great product for removing that specific thing.
Now, Magic Wheel Cleaner is very similar in a formula level, but also has some degreasing
properties and whatnot designed for wheel cleaning. This is really not going to have any major
degreasing properties, more so just focusing on that fallout. So, it's a thick kind of product,
it has really good clean time and a little goes a long way, but we're probably going to be using
most of this bottle on this car behind me. So, join me. I'm going to grab Jimmy here,
and we're going to take a walk around and start spraying this. Now, a couple things I want to
point out. Generally speaking, when we're doing a decon, you want to just identify how much dirt
buildup is on the car itself, right? Do you need to rinse that off first? Do you need to go out
and do a wash first before addressing most of the other contamination? And like Sydney said
earlier, there's three ways to skin a cat as she so, you know, elegantly said. There's different
ways to approach fallout removing or removing iron contamination. You can do it by going in
with a full wash first, spray the iron remover on, pray it does something, or you can go on it,
use it basically just on the vehicle as it sits dirty. There's a light coating of dust on this
car. I'm not super worried about having to rinse this off with this level of dirt. So,
just throwing that out there, people wonder, do I rinse it off first? Do I not rinse it off first?
It's just how dirty the car is. If it's not that dirty, then don't rinse it off. If it is that
dirty, then you probably want to rinse it off or at least go over that area. So, we're going to go
ahead and take our triple R here, and we're going to go through. We're going to hit some of this
stuff right here, specifically that, because I think that that's going to put on a pretty good
show. And then what I like to do is generally focus on this kind of front area near the rotors.
And if you want to, you can absolutely spray on
your wheels. Now, that's instant. Now, if we want to check out this wheel here, I mean, yeah,
it's instant there, but this wheel, I sprayed it and it reacted, would mean literally in seconds.
So, sometimes with certain fault removers, it takes a little bit of time, right? You'll sit
there and be like, is it going to happen? Is it going to turn purple? It depends. It depends on
the contamination, depends on the fault remover. So, we have some good spots right here. This is
really starting to put on a pretty good show. I'm actually really happy with how that's looking.
So, that is something out of a crime scene right there. Go through. Now, you don't want to spray
your windows. There's no point in doing that, but if you want to hit your lowers, you can hit some
of your uppers depending on if you feel like you're up, you know, you have rail, what was it called?
Rail yard? Yeah, rail yard. I was about to say railway or rail runaway. If you have rail yard
fallout and it lands on the top of your vehicle or it just breaks dust from other people's cars,
it could very well land on top. But we're going to go ahead and just spray it. Get the rear here.
Oh, man. This car is something else. Believe it or not, I think this is actually Jimmy's favorite car.
Might be. He's trying to convert, he's trying to eventually convert everybody to a 350Z, ideally.
The stuff smells not bad, right? Not bad. It has like a cherry smell to it.
Remember when we talked about PPE? Yeah. I mean, we have the door open, but I'm just gonna...
Well, I'm not getting it on my hands, Jimmy. I'm doing this without even touching your car.
We are simply spraying. I call this spraying and praying. We're gonna hope for the best.
Ideally, we do this decon and it's got, you know, basically the car is like a fresh coat of paint on it.
Wow. Pretty bad. Okay, so I'll put on some gloves now because we are gonna probably get some
little bit of residual soap or whatever onto our hand. But look at that. Look at that front wheel.
Gnarly. Absolutely gnarly.
Seriously, the cling of Rapid Rust Remover is very impressive. It clings exceptionally well.
So if you are finding that you have a lot of buildup and you're looking for like maxed well time,
this is probably a pretty good product to use. So we'll go ahead and grab our spray gun here.
So we're doing some rinsing. Now, when letting it dwell, you don't want to let dry on the surface.
So as long as it's still wet, you're good. Don't do it in direct sunlight. Do it in a dry, cool area,
ideally with some shade. And you should be good to go.
There we go. Looking good. Go ahead and start rinsing from the top here.
Delicious.
Oh, you see that hatch? This thing is like, what is in that, Jimmy? Look at that. Oh,
we go rinsing this out. Come back over here, back side. So what I was saying earlier,
so look at our top of our trunk here. We do actually have a decent amount of buildup up top there.
And it could just be because of all the downforce that this car creates, right? And all that just
creating this vortex of air. It comes back around to the top of that hatch. It's because when Jimmy
is doing about 200 miles an hour in this thing, right, on some Idaho back roads. Yeah, that's what
Anthony, I had to throw up Ronnie Yacht's comment here because he goes,
I've sprayed iron remover, PNS iron buster on a vehicle and then
foamed over it, let it dwell then rinse. The runoff is, as he says, Pesto Bishop pink, which I think
is a fun typo because he probably met Pepto Bismol. Yeah. But Pesto Bishop, that's a new line. Also,
hello, Jimmy, in the back, man on the camera. There is not the man in the box, but the man
with the camera. That's right. I'm going to make myself disappear now. Bye-bye. All right, so we're
making our way around here. Let's put on a good show. Actually, I'm pretty happy with how much
iron buildup was on this thing because sometimes, you know, you go to make a video and you wash the
car, you know, thinking that you're going to just have a decent amount of buildup that's going to
put, you know, do something and sometimes you're disappointed and you're like, what? That APC ate
through most of that or that soap ate through most of that. We'll go ahead, rinse this off
and then what we're going to do is we're going to follow up with
one of my, call it my favorite smelling de-con soaps. So a de-con soap, it's just kind of
defined what that really is. A de-con soap, in my opinion, is anything that's going to have an
alkalinity that is higher than, you know, pH balance. So if you are at that nine of a pH, that
12 of a pH, that's when you're kind of getting into that higher level of alkalinity that's going
to do it just a better cleaning job on its own, usually without physical agitation. Now, is that
something that you use often? Depends. Depends on your environment. Depends on, you know, what the
car is going through. But generally speaking, the higher alkalinity soaps that you use, the more
often you use them, it could potentially dry out your trim. It could potentially start causing
some fading. Your paint can start drying out too if it's not well protected. So it's something that
you want to use when and if needed and you want to use it at the correct dilution. So you're not
overdoing it often, but it's something that, you know, here in Idaho where we live, typically on
our cars here, people here at the RAG company that take good care of their cars, will usually do it
like once a year, maybe twice a year if needed for a real de-con. And then we'll go through with
claying and things like that. But you don't need to use it every week. You don't need to use it every
month. But it again, kind of depends where you live. So de-con soaps are important. And if you
can have one in your arsenal, I would recommend getting one that's either going to be kind of like
a nuke that you can dilute as needed and just use when needed. Active foam is a good kind of happy
medium, right? So let me see if I can get a better visual there for you. There we go. So active foam
is going to be higher in pH than GSF, but lower in pH than let's just say super foam that we sell.
So active foam is going to come in at a pH of 9.5 and this, again, perfect. That once, twice a year,
quick de-con, you foam it on, you let it dwell, and you can rinse it, move on to your GSF wash,
and you're a happy camper. And what's nice too is that this also comes in a one-liter size,
whereas super foam does not currently come in a one-liter size. So pick up active foam, use it,
you can follow it up after using something like Triple R here. This does have a technically
pH balance at 7.5. I don't know how they make that magic happen, but they do. So you can follow up
right after that and it's not going to be harmful. You don't have to neutralize anything other than
wash it with a standard soap. So here we go. So we're going to take our foam can in here,
undo this, and this is sandalwood. It's a dance party is what it is. It smells amazing.
So you pour yourself a drink, lay down some active foam. You're going to feel like you are
at Amsterdam Lounge in downtown Boise, Idaho during TRCM a week. It just feels amazing.
The lights are flashing, music's pumping, you're drinking some shots of a purple Viking is what
we have. It's a specialty shot that we have here in Idaho. So if you ever visit, they're horrible,
they taste disgusting. They're actually not even, I don't think they're meant to be.
It's just something. Do not recommend. Dane doesn't recommend the purple Viking. He had a
bad experience with it once, but why am I talking about this? Why am I not just foaming?
Let's just get to the main thing here. All right, so active foam.
Beautiful.
This is going on
thick. This is going on really thick.
Now active foam is something you can also spray in your undercarriage as well. So if you want to
get on your hands and knees and you want to start spraying underneath the car, you could absolutely
do that. This would be a more effective soap doing that than let's just say a standard pH
balance soap. A lot of people think that when they spray on like a pH balance soap on the
undercarriage that it's doing something and it's not doing a whole lot. To be honest,
it's really probably not penetrating the layer of dirt or just the general road filth that you're
getting. So you do need something a little bit more cleaning power. This is a good product for
doing that. So let's go in through I'm running low. I'm running low.
There we go.
There we go. I think I probably sprayed half that bottle on the side of the car.
But it looked cool. It looked cool for sure. So let me go ahead and grab our nozzle.
Now again, same thing applies here when you are using a product like this. So
do it out of direct sun. Ideally in a shaded area if you can. Dwell time, don't let it dry.
If it starts drying, you start rinsing. It's pretty simple there. And then outside of that,
just let it do its work. I mean that's the whole point. You're spraying this on to let it do
its job. And its job there is to sit and dwell. And after that you rinse it and you go straight
to your next process. Whether it's going to be a physical hand wash. I don't know,
let's just say you just want to just raw dog it. You just want to rinse it and just go drive away.
You can do that as well. So a couple different options there.
Trying to think. If there's any other tips and tricks that I would throw down
in this step. If you wanted to while this is dwelling and you wanted to start working some
areas that generally have maybe some build up that you want to go a detail factory brush.
Maybe like a bucket. You can start going through and knocking out maybe some of your badges and
stuff like that. Especially if you're going to do a polish. You can start kind of getting
into your door jams while this is dwelling. You can start knocking out wheels if you feel
like you're fast enough to do that. I don't think most people are for a full decon process. But
if you let this dwell inside here and you go I'm going to just do a quick run around on the wheels.
That's a good use of time. Otherwise you're just kind of sitting here and letting paint dry.
So let's go ahead and rinse this thing. So top to bottom rinsing, bottom to top rinsing,
different strokes, different folks, whatever you want to do. I'll just go top to bottom.
You know what? I would say there's definitely an improvement.
All right.
Oh, Jimmy. I hit your car with the hose. I'm super sorry about that.
All right. So yeah, quick little run around here. Nothing crazy.
But this process doesn't take long.
Your other option too would be that in, if you did not want to, let's just say spray
a fallout remover and you wanted to just go straight into the, I just wanted to,
I'm bouncing back and forth between cameras right now. Let me find you a little red,
little red dot. I see you. Come back here. So if you want to just go in, let's just say
fallout remover is not needed. And you just want to do a quick little decon presoak.
You do exactly what we just did, but you just don't use that. So you'll go on dry with active
foam, let it dwell for a little bit, rinse it, and you are good to go. So yeah. No, but this is
great. I'm pretty excited with how this looks. And I mean, I think Jimmy is excited too. It looks
slightly better. But anyways, we're going to continue rinsing this. I'm going to get this
probably out of here. I don't know what he's going to do. I think he's going to go take
this and go do some street drifting right after this. But I did want to pass this back over to
Dane and get his thoughts on the whole process. What do you think, Dane? No, I'm enjoying it so
far. I've really found the whole thing to be engaging. I hope people watching at home have
found the same. I did have some questions and stuff, but I'll save those for the Q and A section
here at the end of the video. Absolutely. Where we can touch on several different things they've
seen today. But anyway, yeah. Thanks, Anthony. Cool. All right. Well, that's going to be it for me.
So I guess back to you. Oh, yeah. Yeah. They're not prepared. So sorry, guys. We're going to go
on a little history lesson again with the Pontiac Aztec because you didn't hear enough the first
time. Right. You're probably listening right now and going, wait, what does the Pontiac Aztec have
to do with detailing cars? It doesn't really, although I'm sure some of you have detailed them
before or possibly done. I don't know if the current owners are interested in having their vehicles
detailed. Only you guys can tell me. I have to find out from the comments below. But anyway,
let's get into a little bit of the Wikipedia article on the Pontiac Aztec. I'll just read it
verbatim and you tell me what you think while these guys move the cars around. So touching
on the original concept phase of the Pontiac Aztec first shown to the public in 1999,
the Pontiac Aztec concept car was well received. That's a strange thought. It featured, quote,
extreme futuristic styling and promised maximum versatility in support of a young and active
lifestyle for its intended generation X buyer demographic. So Gen Xers, were you interested
in the Pontiac Aztec when it came out? Tell me. I want to know in the comments.
Following on the Aztec went on sale in summer of 2000 as a 2001 model. I distinctly remember that
because of the whole survivor thing, which it actually does mention here. The production edition
of the Aztec was launched with the tagline, quote, quite possibly the most versatile vehicle on the
planet in conjunction with CBS's hit reality show survivor in 2000. That's right. So for those of
you who are old like me or perhaps older, you, of course, remember this. And hey, if you're new
and you were born sometime after all this happened, you're learning now. So I'm glad that you came
to a detailing podcast slash video production event to find out this information. It looks like
they're still moving cars around. So let's move on to the styling section, which I think is going
to be probably the most interesting and pertinent part of the entire Aztec experience here. Let's
take a look. The Aztec was styled under the direction of Tom Peters. So that's who you can
look to to blame or or thank for the design of the Pontiac Aztec, which very interestingly he
would go on later to design the C seven Chevrolet Corvette. So that's a bit of a curveball there
actually. When you think about it, I remember when the C seven came out, or when it was being
designed, a lot of people were actually very upset when they found out they hadn't seen final designs,
but they heard it was being designed by the guy who designed the Aztec. And I remember being on
forums at the time, people were freaking out. They're like, Oh, no, this is going to kill the
Corvette. I can't believe it. What are they doing? Then some of the early pictures came out, people
saw the taillights and they kind of got rid of the circles. You know, I want my quads. What are
they doing back here? Kind of forgetting that they did the squircle thing in the latter part of the
C four generation. You'll remember they went from the circular taillights to the squircles there
in the early mid 90s towards the end of the C four generation. But yeah, then of course came out
with the C five, which had circles in the back, although they were slightly they were extended
so they're kind of O void. They weren't like perfect circles. They were the kind of stretched
circles, if you will. Anyway, way up A. So you went to the C six, the C six got perfect circles.
And then you moved on to the C seven where things got a little crazy because guess what?
Tom Peters, the guy who designed the Pontiac Aztec did do the C seven Corvette and those
taillights. Well, they weren't going to be normal. You could trust it. Anyway, Anthony is saying
something. Let's go see what Anthony is sitting talking about. I was busy, but apparently you
guys got more to show. We're not done yet. Yeah, no, that was just a wonderful history lesson.
Dane, thank you so much. So we'll take it from here. Okay. Okay. Thanks. All right. So Sid,
we have a different car down behind us. And we have another full cart here,
full of different detailing products that we're going to be using today. So what are we doing?
So this is my preferred method of decon. So obviously, like we talked about in segment one,
the acid is the most aggressive, not really my favorite to do because I think it's a little
bit overused, sometimes unnecessary and can be a little bit less safe. So then we did the iron
decon, which is a great, you know, thing to do if you have iron present on your paint. And
and that's the only way to get iron off is to do an iron decon. This is going to be your
most common run of the mill coating maintenance that you need to do that is safe, fun, effective.
And this should be your kind of first course of action and then move up from there if you
still have decon present. So we are going to do a regular decon wash. We are going to be using
foam and R foam and R. Is that actually what it's called? It's not. I mean, it's right. That's the
it's like code name. Yeah. So it's actually called optimum hyper foam, no rinse, but foam and R is
the fun way to call it. We are going to be using wheel and tire cleaner from ADS just so we make
sure we don't leave those behind. And then we are actually going to foam this on. And then
we're going to go straight into our wash. Correct. So we're going to do we'll do a
probably a quick little pre rinse, right? Just just the car, just the exterior, just a little
pre rinse. Then we're going to foam on foam and R, right? We're going to do four ounces in the foam
cannon. And then while that is just literally sitting there, we're going to knock out the wheels.
And then right after that, we are going to take a 256 to one dilution in the bucket and just wash
the car and then dry it. I mean, we're actually going to then we're going to wash it and then
we're going to lay and seal. Yes. So this is where we are going to use our clay scrubbers,
which is synthetic clay vine grade. This is going to do a great job at decontaminating the paint.
We are going to be using bead maker as our sealant clay lube in this process.
We're going to do that right with the foam and R on the surface because that's giving us the
extra extra lubricity. The polymers are still active on the surface. It's going to make the
process very safe and effective. And then we are going to dry. We're going to touch up the glass
and we're going to be done. Now, I will say we chose to do this versus just a straight rinse list
because this is one of the employees here, Anthony Blaine. We call him AB. This is his car. And I
know me personally for weeks, I've been like, Oh, you're going to leave your car dirty. You're
going to be dirty. So it's pretty dirty. This thing's filthy. I mean, pretty dirty. So we felt
like we needed to use a little bit extra. Yeah. So what's going to happen? Sid's going to do the
dilution, the pouring of this is going to mix in the foam. I'm going to start rinsing. But I do
want to show Jimmy just how filthy this car is. So you can actually get a good idea. So if we come
over here, you'll see this side panel. I mean, I don't want to have to do this, but can we just
come right here, Jimmy to where my finger is? Please. I know. I'm going to look at, I'm going to look
my finger. Ready? Here we go. And oh, that kills me to do that. But you know what? There is a,
there is a film on this car and it needs to go. There is a, I think that is either a piece of
bird poop and or I don't know what that is, a seed of some sort that's sitting right there as well.
Back hatch. Jimmy, you got to get this before I start rinsing it because it's going to start
getting, you know, all hidden pretty bad though. And there is poop on the hood.
There it is. Lane, you got to get that off the second you see it.
Well, let's hope it didn't etch, right? I look like he had something for dinner that he shouldn't have.
All right, let's start rinsing. Sam, I'm just going to go through,
try to get some of this stuff broken up here.
And we're going to do nothing crazy because
that foam and r is going to be doing a lot of the work here.
Through. Now while Anthony is watching, I do want to go through what we're kind of seeing
water behavior wise because this will be important later. So as we can see, everything from like the
midline up is has super great water behavior. So if you're an avid washer of the show, you know that
this car is coated in stout. So the water behavior is going to be great. We do live in Idaho. We're
coming out of winter. And so we've got contamination from the midline down just from our streets in
winter and we had a dirty acid rain a couple weeks ago. And so that water behavior is not great on
the lowers. But this process alone is going to revive that coating just by getting that
contamination off there with the clay. It's going to reseal. It's going to revitalize the coating.
And if we were to hit it with water after we did the clay and seal, it would the top then would
match the bottom. So definitely worth noting here that nothing is wrong with this coating. It's just
what we call clogged, which is exactly why we're doing what we are doing today.
That's pretty much all you need to do. So it's basically, we are doing a rinse with wash,
but it's that common sense of saying, Hey, there's dirt on the car. Probably should rinse a little
bit of soft because people always go, what are the limitations of a rinse? You can't just go into
that. Well, you could, but sometimes you probably just, if you have access to running water and you
can do a quick rinse, it'll be faster in the long run. So that's that. So really now what we're
going to do is just throw this foam on and let this dwell. And then we're going to start knocking
out these wheels. What do you think? Yeah. And I do want to mention too that because you just brought
up, you know, what does it mean to do a rinseless wash? So is there limitations? Is there any wrong
way to do it? Absolutely not. There is definitely times where when I'm doing this in my shop, I choose
to like foam on active foam like we did on the last vehicle. I'll do that as like a pre spray,
pre loosen everything up. And then I rinse the active foam off and then I go straight into just
a typical rinseless wash in the bucket. So you can do it that way. You can obviously do your normal,
you know, multiple foam wash. You can do what we're doing today with foam and R. There's really
like no wrong way to do this. It's whatever you feel is best for that situation. Now for me,
where I work out of my home garage, a lot of times I do just do a pre rinse or I will even use
prepared rinse list in like a keg sprayer and get the surface to super wet. So it's whatever
you feel is best, but there's no wrong way to do it. The only thing with rinse list is you probably
don't need to post rinse it, but there's nothing that says you absolutely can't
pre rinse it. So keep that in mind. There's no wrong way here. It's whatever is best for you.
So this is really interesting. I've never seen this product before. So I'm actually super excited
about this. And so Anthony, question for you. So we're putting this on the surface. How long can
it see and obviously we're inside, but how long can it actually sit there safely? Honestly,
so when we were doing the initial testing of this product, I actually just let it dry.
Okay. Yeah. So I went through and let it dry on the surface just to see what would happen.
It's a very interesting chemistry, right? So it kind of like looks like an oil slick when it dries
and it wipes away cleanly. There's no issues there, but I do think it has to do with your
water as well. Right? So if you're using really hard water, it will still have that kind of softening
effect, right? The minerals from really kind of settling. But I do think that having deionized
water like we have here, it makes it a very like there's bulletproof system. But if you have some
high mineral content water, I do think letting it dry probably wouldn't be the most ideal thing.
But it's going to sit here and be able to dwell no issues in drying at all. Very cool. Awesome.
So obviously, like we should always mention, if you're working out in the sun, you're not going
to have as much working time as we have here in the studio or inside of a climate controlled shop.
So keep that in mind. If you're working in the sun, you may want to get right to work on your wash
and, you know, do your wheels separately, but we're going to do them together. So
I'm actually going to get started on spraying down our wheels. So we're going to be using
ADS wheel and tire. Anthony's going back in for a second coat. That's so cool. Awesome.
All right. I'm going to prep our wheels here. Honestly, that is the last time that we have
to rinse this with any type of running water. Yeah, we will probably want to rinse the wheels
entire. Oh, sorry. Sorry. Yes, you're right. The wheels entire since we are doing that,
you know, old school way, you will probably need to do it that way. That's totally fine.
I'm going to grab myself a set of gloves here since we talked about PPE earlier.
And I am going to probably be right behind you.
But I'm going to take my fancy viper kneeling cart is what I'm going to do. Yes.
That thing is pretty cool. I'm not going to lie. I'm also, since we have our wheel bucket here,
I'm going to go ahead and throw. Look at that browning. That's crazy. Just an ounce or two
into here. Actually, I'll probably just do two or one ounce. So two couples just to get some of
that in there as well. So we can help kind of neutralize a little bit of that wheel cleaner.
I got myself a brush, a couple of brushes, and I'm going to guess. I don't know if you've seen
this. Has anybody seen this yet? It's amazing. Oh, this is the one that's kind of flipped,
but that's okay. No, no, no. It's okay. Watch this. Watch, watch.
So nice. It's like the perfect height. It is the perfect, perfect height. So we'll come over here,
take this and start doing our scrubbing. We'll bring around here.
I want to mention real fast that because the chair, it is really cool. So we've talked about PPE
and being safe. So if we talk about ergonomics as well, I have a super bad habit of squatting,
like I just was, right? Yeah. So probably I've been doing that for 15 years, probably in like
five years, I'm not going to be able to walk downstairs. I'm not going to be able to do anything.
You're going to do some new knees. What do you think? Because I'm blowing out my knees. So for sure,
these types of stools are great. Yeah. I have them in my, in my shop. I just am so bad and
kneel. So on the safety train, we'll mention it's a good idea to have a cart.
Totally. Totally, totally. I'm going to go through and just like pre-scrub around the
lug nuts for you. Yeah. And I'm not doing a crazy, I'm basically just doing a quick little
scrub on these wheels, not doing a full, full insane barrels or anything like that. So we're
going to go ahead and shimmy on down. What? No, why would I need that? Look at this.
What do you think? We need a what? Michael Blass wants to know what stool that is again.
Remind folks. So this is the Viper. It's called the Mini Creeper is what it's called. It is
life-changing. I mean, this is the most comfortable I think I've ever been cleaning a wheel ever.
Normally, again, I'm on my knees and it hurts. Sid does the same thing. We're squatting down.
Look at this. They call this, it's like a squat and Eastern European squat is what this is,
but it's with a chair for support. So yeah. Now you can flip it, right? It can be both directions.
You can change if it's a lower or a high mode. We can. We have two different versions. So Sid
has one. I'm going to take this other here. Sorry, I got so lost in talking about this
that I forgot that I'm actually supposed to be the two cleaning. This one's really low.
That one's not a, that one's not a squatter. That one's a kneeler, Sid. Oh. That one we have it set
in the kneeling position. I was going to say, I feel a little too low because I'm going to have to
somehow get up. Yeah, we have that one set in the kneeling position. We have the other one set in
these, this one's sitting the squatting position. Nice. But let me go through. You look like you're
doing a great job there. So how about while you finish that, I'm going to start working on the
contact wash. So I'll save it for you to do the clay and seal, but I'm going to go ahead and start
on the contact wash. You go for it. I'll be there, there'll be there momentarily. Okay. So I did put
in three cap fulls of the foam and R into our bucket. So we do have a little bit extra lubricity.
Now, like I said, I've never done this before. So this is super interesting. All you're doing is
just literally washing it and then we're going to go into claying it and we're going to dry it.
Wow. It's a pretty, pretty trick little, little system here. That is really, I think it's what it
is. It's for people who need to eventually get to like rinse this washing, but they have a hard
time doing the transition. This is the transitional learning experience. Okay. Like this is those
people who don't, they're not sure if they trust it. They want to see foam and suds. So this is
what they can use. And they'll get all the effects of a rinse list, but with that visual
effect of a foam. So I'm not going to lie. The part that's going to freak me out is the drying.
Yeah. Right. I know it does, it does, but then it just dries normal and you go, that's weird and
yeah, you move on.
We'll see how this works.
These wheels are, I call these flicker wheels. These are no matter what you do.
This is where I want my, my, my, my, uh, my kitty mitty. Where's my, uh, where's my finger mitt?
I need my kitty mitty. This is, I'm just getting too much flick.
So do you feel like Gabriel's coming to save me right now?
Do you feel like the UBS is the best?
No, no, no. The, the kitty mitty. We don't have one pulled.
Oh, goodness.
Anyways, I'm just going to continue washing. We have a wool mitt. Um, it's a finger wool mitt.
It's the best thing ever. It's awesome. No, we have milk. We have a finger wool mitt. It's the
best thing ever. I absolutely love it. One of my favorite wheel cleaning tools that we have
made of real lambs wool, super soft, super safe, doesn't bleed. Um, it's amazing. If you hate this,
the flick of brushes, then I recommend checking it out.
Oh my God. It's in my mouth again because of the flick.
But remember, we were supposed to not open our mouth.
I know, but here's the thing. I mean, I know you have to talk, but.
I'm just, I'm, yeah, I'm talking, but I'm also just in shock and awe of how great this wheel
entire thing is. It's so good. So that's why.
While you guys are doing that, I'm going to pop up Collie Carlos' comment here. Boy,
say that three times fast. Uh, he wants to know, how can you tell when you fully decontaminated
the surface? Is it just by feel with the clay or do you guys have another method that you trust?
Feel, look, I mean, once you start doing this for long enough, you could just look at a car and go,
okay, that's going to, that's going to be stuck. But feel when you're getting started is a huge way
to do it. Um, and basically if, if the paint, no matter really how old it is, could still feel
like glass, no matter what, right? The clear coat, that top coat can still feel good. Um,
if a proper decon polish is done, but for a newer cars, people don't really know, like,
how do I know if my car is decon or how do I know if it's, um, how do I know if it's contaminated?
The bag test is a good way to do it. Put your hand a little baggy. You can run it across. And if you
feel little imperfections in the paint, you can know that maybe there's some contamination there.
Um, but really, yeah, it's something that comes with a little bit of time, but not much. I mean,
if once you're new to detailing, you start doing this pretty often within a month or two and you
get enough cars into your belt, you'll, you'll know. And that'll be it. And then you'll never
have to say, you'll never have to guess again. It's kind of like seeing swirls for the first time.
Once you can identify them, you can't really unsee them.
Well, then I've also got this one here from car lovers, uh, asking, is the two bucket method
the safest for avoiding car scratches? The two bucket method, um, I think back in the day
before chemicals really got to the point where they're at now where we have this real huge
advancement in chemicals from rinseless washing to soaps. I think it was a very important thing
probably. And that's also when our wash medias weren't very good. That was when people were still
using, you know, um, let's just say, uh, lamb wool mitts, like wool full like full wool mitts,
those early kind of microfiber mitts that weren't very good. Um, back in the day, yes, that would
have been something that I think would have been your safest method. Nowadays with modern microfiber
and better chemicals, it's less and less necessary, especially if you're using a foam cannon,
pressure washer, all this stuff. So I can tell you that I do not, on my own personal cars,
do a two bucket method anymore. It's just not needed. Um, I have enough experience seeing the
befores and afters and all the different, um, scenarios that I have not induced any damage
ever. So, um, that's just me. Now with that said, there's going to be people that still
like the old school method of doing it and they still feel warm and fuzzy inside and that's okay.
All right. So
the wheels are done. I wish I had my, wish I had my little finger mitt, but it's okay.
And I'm going to take the pressure washer and I'm going to rinse this off mainly because we used a
cleaner that generally you would want to rinse off. So I'm going to go ahead and get the pressure
washer and do that. So this is wild. I'm trying to trust the process here. So you guys at home,
I'm right there with you. This looks a little crazy. I put on my sunglasses so you couldn't
see my shock on my face, but I'm trusting the process, trusting the process. I do feel like,
I will say, I do feel like the, um, the dirt is coming off really well. Like I do, I do feel that.
Now don't, don't get the urge to rinse, right? Cause I want to see how this goes.
Anything. I'm just doing the wheels.
Now another question, cause I'm going to ask it for the audience.
If somebody like, do you have to contact wash this? Could you just foam it on and then dry it?
Or would you always need to do a contact?
Can you foam it on and dry it? Yeah. So always do the contact, right?
I would. You probably could just go straight into drying it. I think if it was only like mildly dirty,
yeah. Um, but at that point, right? You're just might as well just commit. Yeah. I'm just trying
to figure out the limitations of this. It's pretty cool. While you guys are doing that,
I've got Dan's diamond detailing, another fun alliteration saying what products are in the
wash bucket he forgot. Oh, just the foam and art. Um, so we did four ounces of it in the foam cannon,
and then I put three cap fulls in the bucket because it's just the normal 256 to one. So it
would be a half ounce per gallon. We had about three ounce or three gallons in our bucket. So
we added three cap fulls. So same, same product that we foamed on. Right. Sid, where am I?
Jumping into. So how about you do the back? I have everything done except the rear end,
and I'm just getting ready to do this side. Uh, roof. You can do the roof because you're way
taller than me. Okay. I'll do the roof. Let me grab myself a, I can just stand on. Oh, never mind.
I can't stand on it. You know what? I did a rinse this wash yesterday with the mid on a stick.
Where's my mid on a stick? Yeah. Loved it with the mid on the stick. That's a good idea. Is it
ready to go? Okay. You know what? I'm going to go, you know what? No, you know what? I will. I
loved it. I'll get my mid on a stick. Yeah. Because Anthony, while you're looking for that,
I got a question for you because I guess what the replacement covers are in the drawer over there.
Okay. Are they live on the website yet, Jimmy? Replacement mid on a stick covers because I
know that we've got them in and I know we're getting working on getting them live. They are
live. Maybe I saw some in the drawer back there. Sweet. Did you find one? Yep, I did.
All right. So if you've ever been curious on how to install a mid on a stick cover,
it's very easy. You have the head of the mid on a stick. This has been used now for
what six, seven months now. We've been abusing this thing. It's still in perfect shape.
We're going to take our cover and we're going to go ahead and slide this on over the top,
which is a nice snug fit. We're going to bring the back section around and then we're going to bring
up these button snaps here and you're going to go ahead and just make sure you get those pulled out
and you're going to snap this into place. And what's nice is the button snaps are completely
covered. They will not scratch or mar or anything like that because they cannot, they physically
cannot contact the service once they're tucked in. So take that and snap this one in as well.
This one's a firm snap, firm snap on this one. Oh, I had that tucked up. There we go.
Cool. Look at that. Done.
Go over to our bucket here. You know, knock out the roof and literally probably less than a minute.
Oh, amazing. Isn't it great? It's amazing. Oh, and this is super slick with this stuff. Yeah.
This feels great. I had a tundra yesterday and I did the roof, the windshield and the
back window, you know, and then the tonneau cover. And I was like, I was like, okay,
this is the best. Yeah. Literally.
Yep. I'm never washing roofs again by hand. I know. Just not going to do it.
Wind shield too. Why not? Yeah. As soon as here, just knock that out really quick. Yeah. I mean,
I tried to do it, but I know that I missed a big section in the middle. I also like the
smell of this stuff. It smells like fruit punch. You notice that? Yeah. It's a nice fruity mass
appealing scent. Okay. I'm going to take these out in case you need more. You're good on water?
I am done. Okay. Yeah. I am done. So what is next? Clay? Clay. Yep. Clay and seal. So
we can, there's, okay. So again, just to recap, we are doing, so we have the
foam and are on the surface. We are going to use a sealant bead maker. Works really good for this.
It's got a lot of lubricity. We're going to use our clay scrubbers, which is a fine grade synthetic
clay, perfectly safe. And we still have this sitting on the surface. So we're even totally safe.
Okay. So I'm going to go through and start doing this and get this whole side done.
Is that probably best for you? Yeah. Okay. I mean, I like to, I like a lot, but
all right. I'm throwing down, you tell me what is your ideal?
That's probably pretty good. Okay. Okay. So real quick too, I want to go over this,
since we're doing this, is we are obviously doing the sealant and the clay in one. We're
using it as a clay lube and then it is also, you know, making contact with the paint cross leaking
and it's going to revive the coating and like the hydrophobics, the gloss, the slickness,
all that good stuff. And what's nice when you're, and I know you guys can't hear on camera,
but when you're doing this process, obviously when I'm up towards the top,
I don't hear or see that much. But as we move to those lowers, then we can hear that contamination
coming off. We can feel it through the clay. And so that tells us how many times we need to go over
it because this coating is still in the first half of its life and it's been very well maintained.
It actually is going to bounce back really quick. So this is going to be a really quick process for
us. Super nice. This feels really good with this foam and R. I'm like, yeah, it does. I like the way
that it's working together. That's actually pretty cool. I didn't know how it was going to, because
we've actually never tested this theory before, to be honest. Yeah. But like I kind of figured it
would work and it feels super, super slick. Really slick. Super slick. Well, and now like I can see
that it is no longer going to be a problem to dry. So super cool. All right, quick and easy.
I'll go to the hood and the front bumper out. You may get the rear for you here. Yeah, just
sprayed it up down and I'll catch that. Yeah. So now obviously he just sprayed it on the glass.
That is perfect because that's actually giving us all of the lubricity. This is going to
decontaminate, shine up that glass, make it super easy to do at the end of the wash. Super, super easy.
And since you're going to be fast, I'm just going to keep going around the car. Yeah,
because I know you're quick at this. Well, and I think we're on a time crunch now.
Yes. So obviously I do this every single day in my shop. Now the good thing is let's talk about
rinsing out your clay. How often do you need to do it? I usually do it every panel. You also are
going to judge how much contamination is on the surface. There's not a lot on this car. So
this is really, really going to go quick and easy.
It's going to look so nice. So I always say that to just your regular maintenance wash,
doing a wash clay seal, sometimes you're really only adding like 10 minutes to the whole process.
Yep. So so this is what I call like the ultimate money maker is doing
in these ceramic coating maintenance. Totally. Well, and the one thing I do want to point out too
is that you could just use foam and r as a clay lube if you wanted to do that, but you're not
going to get that sealing effect that you're going to get with bead maker. Right. So what's nice
is it's, yeah, it's super, super slick. But I do want to say though that you are going to be
probably using a decent amount of bead maker. Fortunately, it's a pretty affordable. Yeah.
So just plan on using a lot depending on the size of your vehicle. Definitely I'm not conservative
when it comes to the bead maker on the surface. Just because I want to make sure I have a plenty
of lubricity. Yeah. Really want it to pop at the end. And then we're not going to do it today,
but obviously after this, you could spray this down with, you know, amplifier, defender,
like another topper if you wanted. Yep, totally. For a little bit longer protection, but this
this has stout on it. Stout does a pretty good job by itself. I'm going to go ahead and get this
front bumper here. And I think we're good to dry after this. Yeah.
Oh yeah, even on the front bumper, this feels great. I thought this is going to be really
gritty, but it's awesome. It's good. Yeah. We're not going to worry about cleaning the roof because
there's really not any contamination on the roof. And we do have a little bit of time crunch. Yeah.
Doing our normal maintenance, I would, if this was a car in my shop, I would just get up there
with either the bead maker before I dry it or, you know, putting the defender on the top. Totally.
I did not do that side of the glass. Okay. Are we good? I think we're good. So I'm going to start
drying if that works for you. Yeah. I want to see your thoughts too. Did you know how did this idea
work? Yeah. Yeah. I'm interested to see what happens to this foam.
That feels good.
Well, it dries super easy. Super easy. You guys are doing a great job. And I'm just going to
remind the audience here that yes, if you have questions, we're going to get to those in the
next segment during our Q&A regarding DECON. So we're going to be covering all the subjects that
we touched on today. Ask your questions in the chat. I will put them in the queue and we'll
start hitting them up once these guys are finished with the Mazda.
Sweet. And Jimmy, if I can get you to come to the hood real quick. So this is like a real world
scenario, right? So like I mentioned a few weeks ago, we had in Boise what we call dirty rain,
acid rain. So hypothetically, this is a car that comes into my shop. I'm the detailer. I do this
whole wash process. There is like the faintest water spots on the roof of the hood. So in this
case, this car comes into my shop. If I did not catch that in the beginning, that there was just
these very faint water spots, this is where maybe on the hood you would do that acid wash process
that I did. Now, if we've already gotten to this process, we could easily go back through with an
acid wash just like I did on my Jeep. You would spray it, let it dwell for a little bit, rinse it
off, deactivate it, re-dry. Super easy, but I did want to mention that this is where you go, okay,
I need to go to level two here. So it's actually kind of cool that that's that way
so that we can point out where we're going to start with the least aggressive,
but if we need to go back or if we knew that those water spots were there ahead of time,
we would have been able to start with that. So super cool to actually have where you would
need to shift gears. All right, super easy to dry though. I do really like that. Yeah,
this thing was awesome actually. I mean, I'm looking at it. I see a little bit of some residual
foam and r, right? Yeah, like especially up in the grill. But what's funny is that so when,
and all the testing I did with it, when it dries, it just disappears. Like I said,
the only evidence that you would have is there'd be like a little bit of like an oil slick effect,
but then it just wipes up. Well, and I too, like obviously again, if I was in my shop,
I would take a blower to that grill, but I'm sure it would blow mostly out and it would be totally
fine. Yeah, that would take literally a second to do and you'd be done. Sweet. Yeah, it looks good,
but it does look like the acid rain that we get. We get it every year. One time it messes up
everybody's car. Yep, I know. It's not my, not my favorite thing in the world, but I think I got
hit with my cars as well. But what's weird is that I think this year it didn't really do the damage
it normally does. Sometimes it's really bad. Well, and it only rained for just a few minutes. So
you guys already did the front grill. We washed it. We have not dried it. So that is where we were
actually just chatting about the foam kind of hanging around. So you can either take your towel
and dig all that foam out or like Anthony saying it will eventually just dissipate on its own and
not leave any marks or bad stuff behind. I'll show you kind of what I would do really quick. I would
just go and grab a quick little ego blow or just do a quick little blast. Blow it out of there.
But overall this looks and feels fantastic. It's super shiny. We're not going to do it for the
sake of time, but if we took our pressure washer and re sprayed these lowers, you would see that
they're totally revived. Rip ear drums. Go back through it. Just mop it up and we're done there.
Very simple. Very, very fast.
Overspray and then the grill will just settle out on its own for sure.
What do you guys think? I think it looks really good. I think it looks good. It feels so much better.
I'm stoked with that. I think this looks really, really good. I think that chin splitter kind of
area ahead of the passenger side front tire. That black trim area looks like it needs a wipe
right here. Below that. So right up front. Yeah. Yeah. It's the underside there. Yeah.
That was just looking rough on camera, but now we're looking good. Yeah. The whole lower just
needed some help. There we go. Cool. Now we do have a slight etching from that bird dropping,
but what we're going to do is we'll go put this thing out in the sun and we'll let the UV do its
work and see if we can back and back that out. And if it can, awesome. If it can't, then we repolish it.
Yeah, but you know what's super great about that is we can take therapy on like a soft pad, polish
that out, and we don't necessarily need to recode it. So that's kind of the beauty. If you're using
the right polish, you're not going to have to worry about compromising the coating. Yeah.
But yeah, it looks good. Agreed. It looks good off camera. We would just the only things we'd need to
go back would be the, you know, we touch up the windows. We did get out some reflect, but we'll
probably save that for when we're done here, but you could just touch up the windows, obviously
apply tire dressing, wipe down the wheels, and this car is ready to go. Super cool.
Also, Michael wants to know what the green towel was that Anthony was using there. That is a new
color for that towel. So that may be why he didn't recognize it. Yeah. Yeah. So this is the new green
FTW. So it's just a different color. Super great. I love it. For those who like to color code their
towels, I like to use these for any like paint prep or glass. Obviously I use the blue as my main
glass, but I've ended up using the green as well if I'm using like a paint prep as my glass cleaner.
So just a new color for the FTW. Super great. Love it. You know, I've been wanting a green one
for a long time. So I'm super excited about that. All right. And then let's see. What else do we need
to cover? Oh, the bird dropping. So let's talk a little bit more about the bird dropping. So
generally speaking, coatings are going to be impervious to the birds. This bird I think was a
little bit on the ill side. I think he was a little bit ill. So he was a little bit sick. And so this
has left a little bit of a mark. That's not very common. So that's why I'm not joking when I'm
saying the bird was sick. I actually think he was extra sick. And so this should polish out pretty
easily. And honestly, the hood needs that acid wash because that acid rain really did a number
on it. It's not terrible, but you know, it should come off no problem. And then obviously the bird
left his mark. So if we talk about that, it's honestly, if you do get bird droppings on your
vehicle, this is why it's a good idea to get them off immediately. To be fair, we told AB to not
touch his car. So we are going to polish that out because we told him not to take it off. But
generally speaking, this is why I keep either a rinseless wash diluted or something like a paint
gloss, a quick detailer so that if I come out and that bird has done that to my car, I just quickly
wipe it off because I'd rather have a few towel scratches than the bird itching. But this is
going to be easy to fix. I'm not worried about it. Agreed. The second you see it, it's already
probably too late. So just knock it out then. Don't say, oh, wait till I get home because
what happens to some people, they go, they see it on their hood, right? And they go either at work
and they go, oh, shoot. Well, I guess I'll clean it off when I get home, right? Well, what they're
about to go do is drive their car and heat up their hood, right? What's that going to do? That's
going to bake that bird dropping even more so into that hood. So it's best to just literally
grab anything, grab a t-shirt, grab an extra pair. Take your sock off. I don't know.
And get some type of cleaner off it because again, a slight amount of micromarring is
so much easier to remove than a bird itching because bird itchings, you just don't know
chemically how far that's gone down to the clear coat. So yeah, just advice there.
Based on my own personal experience, I just have made some mistakes in the past and I go,
why did I just not do something? Because I just didn't like the thought of wiping my,
you know, car with a not ideal thing. Yeah, yeah. Wish I would have done it.
All right, you guys, let's get over to the side of the car. Have you a couple of seats here over
by the camera? Yeah, they set it up for you. Nice. Real, nice. Look at the little chair.
Fancy. Proper Q and A stuff. All right. So I've got a queue full of questions, comments,
various things just from the course of the show today. Of course, there'll be some more popping
in, but I'm going to hit the ones in the queue here first and we'll just see where it takes us,
how long it goes. Starting off. Oh, of course, this one just came in like a second ago
with alkaline towpath wondering how much super chat would it take to make me wash a car.
You guys forget I have washed cars on the Q and A before. It's like they just have selective
memories or something. Very rare. It is rare. I'll grant you that if I don't have to. I usually
don't put myself on that side of the camera. Okay, so this one's pretty easy because you guys were
just washing the Mazda here. Michael was also asking, he was asking a lot of good questions.
I think he popped in kind of late. So he was just wondering, what were you using on that Mazda to
do the initial wash? It was foam and R, correct? But specifically, if that's not the real name,
what's the real name of it? It's just called optimum hyperfoam, I believe is what it's called.
Hyperfoam, no rinse. Yeah, perfect. Okay. And then I've got David Boyce here wondering,
can decon soap be used entirely without using any other soap? Is that advisable?
It can. If you, again, if you want to use a decon soap and you want to hand agitate it,
you can with gloves on. It just, it's, there's really no, I mean, I guess what I'm trying to say
is you could do it. What's the reason for it if you're wanting to do it? Is it because you have
to do a major decon? Because we know that like optimum touchless is technically a decon soap,
but you could hand agitate it if you choose to do it. But it's also meant to be hand agitated,
whereas not all decon soaps are going to be meant to be hand agitated, especially if it's like a
pretreatment shampoo. Like I wouldn't want to take Superfoam by Coach Kemi and go put my hands in it
and start washing with it. That's not my probably favorite thing to do. If I have to, I could,
but I would make sure my gloves are completely covered, not getting any type of, you know,
product in the glove. Yeah, and I would have the same answer. I think there is a very high chance
that you're actually going to get water in your glove during the wash process, right? During the
decon process, you know, we're not at risk of getting it in our gloves, but definitely when
you're dunking your hands in the water, you're a lot more at risk of getting it in the glove.
But the other thing too is I think that for me personally, if I'm using a decon soap, I foam
that on and I rinse it because when I get to my contact wash, I want there to be more lubricity
and like, you know, a little bit more glide and things like that. So for me personally, I mean,
I think that there's absolutely, you know, no reason that you couldn't do that, but is it best
practice? Probably not. I would use more of, you know, a pH neutral or something with a little bit
of lubricity in it over the decon. Yeah, decon soap from ADS can be actually used by hand,
but even Bradley will say, you know, you want to make sure you wear gloves.
Should you be worried about performing rinseless washing on soft paint like the
I've done rinseless washing on the softest paint in the world and it's been 100% safe.
Yeah, I've been exclusively rinseless washing for like 14 years now. So I mean, every car that comes
in my shop basically gets rinseless washed. Really, the only time I'm doing foam washes is if
something is like crazy muddy dirty or I'm just having fun testing foams. But for the most part,
I'm only using rinseless wash. So I've used it on just about every year make model soft paint,
hard paint. I mean, if you're doing it correctly, there's really very little chance of causing
damage is using an iron remover and claim the car recommended before applying a steramic sealant
or wet coats. So I think so if you want to get the most out of it, I mean, if you are wanting to
do like a standalone sealant application, doing a quick light fast econ will probably make the most
sense. Oftentimes people will buy a steramic sealant or something like that or spray on
rinse off product. And the car really isn't it basically if there's enough contamination,
that product just won't work. It won't stick around for very long and you get people that
they go online, they go this product, you know, didn't work it only lasted like a week, right?
And you go and feel their car and you go, well, yeah, no, there's there was no room for this
product to be able to go on, you know, in your clear coat, because it's so filled with other
crap. So yes, it's one thing if you want to get the most out of it, yes, it's worth doing it.
If you were simply just touching up an area or just adding a little top coat just for fun,
then usually, you know, you can just throw it on. Yeah, appreciate that. And then of course,
I got air first here saying howdy because air is always the one who's like eating something
fancy during our Q&A is because they usually like late in the day form. So this is a totally weird
concept. Window there. All right, so I always love seeing you live. Of course, that's friendly
and Alpha Tango here also pointing out wanting to make sure you know is here with a good morning
and hello to the crew. Yes, I think we're having a really good time this morning. But Koshemi,
out with a little bit of sass, the concept of Anthony not having the mid on a stick or
wheel mitts ready until mid detail. That is true. That is true. I didn't know I was going to want
a wheel mitt. Basically, I don't know I want a wheel mitt until I'm like, I'm already like
doing something on the wheel and I go, Oh, I want a wheel mitt because I, you know, I didn't know
it was going to be like a flicking back type of wheel. And it was and then the middle on a stick,
there was no excuse for that. That should be ready to go at all times locked and loaded with a fresh
cover ready for anything. So that was just an oversight. I keep three like lined up. Do you?
I like you like you're going to war, right? Yeah. So like I like to think that like in the case of
like, let's just say like there's anarchy that's happening in the streets or like a mob is being
created. You know how everybody's like grabbing pitchforks and like torches and stuff. I'm grabbing
my man on a stick. Yeah. And so I'm showing up to like this whole thing where they're like,
we're taking over this town and they all have like their sharp things and they look at me and
they go, what are you going to do with that? I'm like, yeah, I don't know. You know, basically
like, you know, push people or, you know, just clean things and they will, this isn't that kind
of mob. And I'm like, well, I thought we were cleaning cars and they're pretty cool. Yeah. Yeah.
All right. So I'm skipping back to the beginning of my queue so I can get somebody's like really
early comments. So they may feel like, where's this coming from? But just know that they're from
like the very beginning of the show. Got it. The mid on the stick is available on the site and
the covers are new is something I've been told as well. So angry monkey detailing. Hi all catch
today. Oh, well, there we go. Let me pull this off the screen for a moment. There we go. The
Cyclone microfiber cover for people who've been asking demanding a Cyclone version now. Now you
can get one. So that is actually a really big deal. Yep, they are. And these are made in Korea
for people who just want clarification there. Yes. All right. Now let me get angry monkey
back up on the screen. Hi all catching today's show from inside the Smithsonian,
Aaron Space Museum in Virginia. Very cool. Well, TRCMA have an arts and crafts half time show again.
They're fun. Can't wait. Yes, we do. It's on Monday. I'm doing it and I can't wait. It's
it's kind of crazy different this year. I'll say that. Okay, there's gonna be some pretty strange
things you guys are gonna see. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I'll just leave it there. I've heard some things.
It's pretty out there. At least what I understand some of the the more abstract parts of the show.
Let's say. Yeah, you won't want to miss. You won't want to miss any of the halftime. So we'll
say that. No, no, the halftimes are crazy this year. Ronnie, what acid is Sydney? Stidney?
Stidney using using. And then he wonders if it's crystal wash. No, it was not crystal wash because
we wanted to act. So crystal wash will not cause that flattening of the coating. So obviously,
that is what I primarily use to declaw coatings. But we really wanted to separate today
into all the different ways. And so I was using hydrofluoric acid from car candy. But when it
comes to acid, they're all just acid. So there's no like one company that's going to make a better
acid than another. I will say that my favorite form of acid is like a gel based acid. If you
can find one that does a good enough job. And that is a little bit difficult. But most of the
Yeah, but most of the spray on acids are all just hydrofluoric acid. They're all going to be the
same. But yeah, so that bottle was car candy. Yeah, I just wanted to make sure for the viewers,
they understood that yes, there are different kinds of acid. But when in reference to acid,
you're putting on your paint here, you're really just talking about that particular kind of.
Yes, because crystal wash is an oxylic acid. So that is an acid that attacks
fallout. So it is a really good fallout remover, not like iron. So if you happen to ever catch
that video that Dave and I did last summer, we talked about the difference between oxylic acid
and an iron remover, where iron remover only removes iron and oxylic acid removes all the
other contaminants. But it is a it is a generally safe product to use. And so today we kind of
wanted to pull out the hammer because that is what I'm seeing so much around, you know,
on the internet is about hydrofluoric acid. And there's definitely a difference. So
all right. And then I've got Will Embry, who's been asking many good questions today,
wondering how do you wash an undercarriage without getting wet specifically applying chemicals
under a truck? Yeah, so if you're super invested in doing that, you can actually buy
foaming undercarriage cleaners and the rinsing ones. I only have the rinsing one myself. And
normally I'll take like a foam cannon or an IK sprayer. And I just hand spray, you know,
some degreaser up in there under the undercarriage. If you want to foam it, like Anthony said,
you can put it in a foam cannon. And you kind of do get wet, you're going to foam up in there.
But then they have the attachments, they, they look like they're sweepers, you know, for your
driveway or something. But you can actually turn them upside down. So I'm not talking about
the round round one, it's a bar with a bunch of streams that shoot up. And so you can either flip
it over to do concrete, or you can flip it where they're pointing up to do undercarriage.
So that's what I use to rinse out the undercarriage. But they do, from what I've heard,
they do make one that actually sprays soap as well. So yeah, good to know. And I do believe
that in kind of sneak preview. Today's video release we're going to have on the main
RAG company YouTube channel here is going to feature an undercarriage washer as well.
Oh, cool.
For part of the segment. So you can look forward to that. And we'll give a moment for the sirens
to go by. Will Embry also has another question wondering, what's that chemical in most iron
removers that makes them smell like rotten eggs, wondering if it's sulfur? It's close.
Yeah, it's a phyloglycolate is what it's called.
Yeah, there's different versions of phyloglycolate. But yeah, there's definitely usually a form
of phyloglycolate in there. It's the thing that turns purple. It creates that that look.
Yeah.
Oh, right. Then I've got Joey here. That's a nice pressure washer gun. Can't wait to hear more
about it next week. Hear more about it.
Maybe if you play your cards right, you might be able to touch this thing.
All right, moving along. We got Terrio Connell here. What's your opinion on using a combination
of GSF and GS for an alkaline prewash? How would you dilute it? So as gentle snow foam and green
star? Yeah. So for me, I do do this often. For me, I prefer to use green star just in a spray
bottle or an IK sprayer, probably use Ice-K multi the most. And I just walk around, spray the
lowers on a car and then go straight in with a GSF. I don't even rinse the green star off.
I just go straight in with the GSF in a foam and party on.
Oh, I do love some green star though.
Yep. And then following along kind of on the coach train here, we got is active
phone good to use post correction to wash off any compound residue? Kind of seems overkill to me.
Yeah, I prefer not to wash a car after paint correction, especially if you're going to be
putting on a coating. Just because you, you know, you really do run the risk of like very,
very, very micro marring from the towels and things. But if you're using a good compound
and polish, you shouldn't have any residue. Yeah, I'll usually if I need to, depending on the paint
or just the job, the mess I've created, I mean, I'll be honest, I've made some messes on accident,
right? Spun some pads that let's just say we're not ready to be spun. And when that happens,
I'll usually do a distilled, like a distilled water rinse, less wash, just a quick little touch
up area. And that way just because the paint is going to be the most bare, it's going to be after
a polish and most susceptible to in type of hard water spotting and mineral deposits. So
I'll just buy distilled water, have a couple gallons of it, dilute a rinse, less wash of my
choice, anything go through and clean up any residual areas, you know, excess compound polish.
And then I just repaint prep it after that. And I'm usually good to go. But I understand what
you're what you're saying. But no, like, I'm not going to go ahead and do a full wash. There's
just too much risk there of all. Yeah. And definitely the rinse less wash is the way to go.
Because then you've got those extra polymers for safety and, you know, quicker drying, it's in
the paint prep will remove those. So don't don't don't think I'm going to be adding these. No,
just don't worry about that. Yeah. And this is for time reasons, the last comment I'm going to
be able to get for you guys today. But this is one I tried to get to while you were doing the wash.
And I think Anthony was a little more preoccupied with the mid on stick. So
Deheen peeps says is the detail factory wheel face brush safe to use on gloss black wheels?
What say you experts? That's a loaded question to be honest. And so obviously I have a lot of
gloss black wheels that come through my shop. And honestly, there is just some wheels that
nothing is safe to use on them. True. I mean, I've got a a a Mustang GT 500 that
looking at them scratches them. I mean, they're so I would say for me is when I have gloss black
wheels, I generally go to the synthetic tri tip brush, you know, brush because it's just a little
bit softer than the wheel face brush. The wheel face brush is generally totally great on all
surfaces. But just because of man, I hate gloss black wheels. Yeah, it depends.
Right. Because sometimes the factory finishes on gloss black, especially if it's non powder cut,
let's just say it's a sprayed on paint, right? Generally speaking, that's usually going to be
pretty soft and it's going to scratch pretty bad. But for certain manufacturers or certain
aftermarket wheels that do get a decent gloss powder coat with a nice hearty clear over the top.
They can usually take out like a defective brush isn't going to do much to them. Yeah,
but you either again, gloss back is just tough. You don't really have an answer until you're
already halfway through the process. And then basically don't use a tire brush on your wheels.
Don't use a scotch right pattern wheels. Don't use that. That's going to be your major damaging
things. Yeah, but micro marring on gloss black wheels. That's a normal you just live with it.
It is what it is. Yeah. Yeah. All right, guys, well, thank you for that Q&A segment.
Thank you to all those of you who've been watching and providing great comments for us to pull from.
I'm going to throw it to you guys, though, because we need to give this video a proper outro,
because in case you forgot, we are shooting a YouTube video today and it needs a YouTube-ery
kind of outro. All right. Anthony said you're good at those. Yeah, but I did it to start,
Sid. So how about you finish it off? We're casual. It's not no pressure.
Okay. Let's see if I can do this in one take. You know, I like to take 10 takes for these outros.
Yes. So if you guys enjoyed this video today, please make sure that you like and subscribe.
Leave comments before, but say already messed it up. It's okay. Try again.
All right. We hope you guys enjoyed this video today with our tips and tricks on three different
ways to do a Decon on a ceramic coated car. Please make sure you like and subscribe. And for more
tips and tricks just like this one, stay tuned right here on the RAG Company YouTube channel.
Good job. Good job. You did it. You did it. All right, Dane. Dane, back to you.
All right. Bravo. Bravo. Well done. All right. Thank you so much, guys. You did awesome today.
And for those of you watching, I mean, you be the judges. You tell us down in the comments
what it felt like to be on the other side of making a YouTube video today for the RAG Company channel.
If you enjoyed this kind of stream, tell us. I mean, we could do this again, right? It's a fun
hang. I figured it was just kind of a chill time. So if you did enjoy this, he got some education in
there and some entertainment, let us know. We appreciate it. Show us by smashing that like
button. Make sure you're subscribed to the RAG Company YouTube channel. And before I go, I must,
I must remind you, TRCMA. That's right. We're not going anywhere without saying this because this
is what next week, frankly, the whole year for us is all about. We spend an entire year prepping
for these things. It's crazy. So what is it? It's like a live trade show event. Think along the
lines of like detailing SEMA, but cranked into a small space and, well, not that small, but
you get a lot going on in tight quarters here. We get live streams from all of the manufacturers
that you are fans of and maybe some you've never seen before. So we want to make it an exciting
place for you to be, get your questions answered in regards to any of your detailing needs. And
yeah, just be here next week. It starts in the morning, carries through for several hours. Each
one is a continuous stream each day of the week until we reach Thursday. So I hope you guys have
a fantastic week and weekend. We will catch you next week for TRCMA. Sign up on the TRCMA.com page
for more info. All right, take care guys. I'll see you then.
About this episode
A live Q&A detailing stream focused on exterior decontamination, PPE, and “three ways to decon” a ceramic-coated car. The hosts preview TRCMA (March 30–April 2) and then walk through safety for acid/iron removers, including respirators, gloves, eye protection, ventilation, and having water ready. They demonstrate acid’s “shock” effect and how water behavior returns, then cover iron decon and a safer, more routine approach using fallout removers and higher-pH decon soaps (foam and rinse, then clay + seal). A Q&A closes with guidance on rinseless vs foam washes, glove use, and gloss-black wheel brush safety.
Original notes
If you've ever wanted an easy-to-understand walkthrough of the car decon detailing process, this is the show for you! Join Dane, Anthony & Sydni as they take you step-by-step through 3 popular car paint decontamination methods: Iron remover, clay and even ACID to help a clogged coating work again (Safety first, folks!) If you're new to the detailing process, this handy guide will help show exactly when it's the right time to use each decon method and save you from wasting time. (Or worse yet, accidentally causing damage or harm by using difficult products improperly)
Want to get your hands on the latest & greatest detailing towels, chemicals and tools from this year's TRCMA show? Check it all out at: https://theragcompany.com
Want to catch the next live Q&A? Tune into The Rag Company YouTube Channel Thursdays at 2pm Mountain Time (4pm Eastern)
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