Detailing

[Pride]

Reviving an old post.
I'm looking for tips on glass cleaning, more inside than out. I can never seem to get a smear free finish. Any product recommendations?

Take it to a detailer to just clean the glass, I did and it’s now perfect, didn’t cost a lot to do, I waited while they did it, it took about 2hrs inside and out and I took a note of the product they used.

[The King]

Two hours??!! And I thought some of the detailers we had at the dealership were slow.

[Pride]

Two hours??!! And I thought some of the detailers we had at the dealership were slow.

Lol, Seriously though, one particular detailer I know who self pro-claims to be the “world’s most detailed detailer” and takes a minimum 8hrs on just your glass.

[Papalazarou]

Mines now sorn and ready for a Autumn/winter of even more cleaning and, well cleaning. I meant to get it up for sale last spring, but missed the window of opportunity for a handful of reasons. So withrew the advert after a couple of weeks.
Anyway, I’m looking forward to a few fun projects over the next 4-5 months. Then hopefully, finally get it up for sale in April.
On the bright side, the longer I leave it the better it gets.
The dry ice clean last year has given me a fantastic base for getting the underneath perfect, or close to. I’d considered concours but realistically I’d have to take the whole car apart. And as tempting as it is, just no. I don’t think most people really understand what a retentive world of hell that is.
Anyway, another year and another 500 miles. Next year, fingers crossed, that will change.

[Nick Graves]

I use DP Krystal Vision & a microfibre window cloth, well, a damp one and a buffing one.

Best to do it in bright sunshine, so it flashes off quicker & you can see the smears you've just made & repeat the process.

I believe it's the VOCs from the heater ducting that cause that grey film - new Hondas are terrible for it, but the effect decreases as they age. Of course, a hot engine causes it too, on the engine bay side of things.

The trick seems to be to hit it regularly. Once it builds up, you just move it around.

[Kaz-kzukNA1]

This is what I have been doing for…. wait, nearly 40 years!?
Feels like getting old….

While the items in use changed over the time, the procedure stayed pretty much the same.

While it's safe on NSX and most likely for other classic cars, please check the owner's manual especially for the modern cars as the glass may have special coating or pre-caution, etc.

Always deal with the water based dirt first and not from the oil based one.
Otherwise, you won't get good result.

You can also use the same process for the window glasses around the house.


The main cause of the glass dirt inside the cabin is the humidity absorbing the dirt and eventually baking it to the internal glass surface once dried out.

The dirt is brought into the cabin when you open the door, debris on your shoes, cloth, climate control in fresh mode, driving with window/roof opened, etc.
These are what I call the water based dirt.

The other main cause is the oil based ones.
The tiny oil like molecules float inside the cabin brought in by exh gas, road film, takeaway food, eating/drinking inside the cabin, smoking, etc.


Ideally, you want to keep the A/C On throughout the year and regularly use the re-circ mode although may not be possible for some.

I would prefer keeping the climate control in re-circ but after refreshing the blower motor fan and the heater unit, the cabin just gets too dry.
It irritates my eye as it's so dry that nowadays, I switch between re-circ and fresh whenever my eye starts feeling too dry.


When you clean/treat the leather or cabin plastic, rubber, etc, you could accidentally transfer the chemical or touch the glass.
If it contains any silicone, water won't remove it.


The following process may look time consuming and complicated but once you try it, it's easy.

You'll get used to it and for anyone saw my NSX at the event, you'll know that I'm happy with the result.


Items:
Soft water but ideally distilled water in UK.
Several microfibre cloths.
IPA (Isopropyl Alcohol), I dilute it to about 70%.


1. Water based dirt - initial cleaning
In Japan, I was happy using the tap water as it was soft and not much mineral left in it.
In UK, I live in very hard water area and thus, don't even use tap water for washing the car.
I have water softener but prefers the distilled water for cleaning the glass.

Always start dealing with the water based dirt first.
Never start with the oil one.
You will dissolve the oil dirt and mix it with the water based layer/film that you have actually introduced even worse condition.
You won't be able to lift this type of dirt using the distilled water.

Soak the micorfibre cloth with the distilled water.
The ideal dampness is not too wet but not too dry.
Just practice few times to get the ideal dampness.

What you want is, after wiping the glass (one glass at a time), you want to see some moisture left at the surface that won't dry out before wiping it off at the next stage.

Once you got the ideal dampness, wipe/clean one glass only followed by stage #2 immediately.


2. Water based dirt - drying/polishing
While the moisture left on the glass, use another dry microfibre cloth to wipe it off.

The image is removing/polishing the moisture containing the water based dirt lifted from the glass surface.

Repeat the set of stage #1 & #2 for one glass section at a time.

After going through this set (#1 & #2) of cleaning session on all glass area, they should be already fairly clean.


3. Oil based dirt - dissolving
I normally carry out the set of stage #1 & #2 every time when I wash the car.
Then, for the following process #3, I would just do it when I feel like the glass need it.
Probably about every 5 washes but I do wash my car fairly regularly as it's my everyday car but not covering many miles these days.

Be careful with the IPA even in diluted formula.
It's flammable.
Do not use IPA in spray bottle while inside the cabin.
You could cause serious problem to your nose, throat, body, eyes.
Wear gloves to protect your skin.
IPA may cause allergic reaction with repeated contact.

I use a lot of IPA while working on the circuit board but also during this pandemic.

From the point of not mixing the oil dirt into the water based one, you could use almost pure IPA without diluting it but I found it evaporates too fast hence 70%.
70 -80% should be good.

The idea is to break the oil film and lift it from the glass surface with the wiping motion.
Microfibre is great for this.
If your glass had lots of oil deposits on the surface, you should replace the cloth with the new one before moving to the next glass.
Otherwise, you will just transfer the dirt to different area of the glass.

It will dry out while you are wiping the glass but that's fine because you are lifting the oil based dirt while wiping, unlike the stage #1.

Re-apply IPA as required.

Once wiped the one glass area, get another fresh microfibre cloth and this time, wipe it in a way to polish the glass surface.

Now your glass should be really clean and free from any smear markings.

Because the glass surface is now so fresh, some people prefers to apply some sort of coating afterwards but I don't know good product.
I just leave it as is.
I clean the glass with distilled water regularly anyway.


Kaz

[NSXGB]

Awesome, thanks for the replies!

[Senninha]

I can see a project for you James … get some paint on the floor of the garage and cut down the risk of dust/debri getting under that cover

[Papalazarou]

I can see a project for you James … get some paint on the floor of the garage and cut down the risk of dust/debri getting under that cover

I know. Things I wish I’d done. To be honest it was just nice to have a garage after three years! However, if you’d like to bring some paint down, That would be good!

[Nick Graves]

Bit of a waste of time unless your floor is perfect.

I used some of these in the end:

https://duramat.co.uk/category/garage-floor-tiles/

They do heat expand/contract & ruche up a bit, TBH. And that's despite a generous expansion gap.