Hey guys, I'm Larry from ammonyc.com.
And today, we're talking about the top 10 detailing mistakes
that kill your car.
That's all coming up today on this episode of Drive Clean.
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Mistake number 10 is a very common one
and extremely dangerous.
That's using an Armor All type product on your floor mats.
A lot of times I see guys-- they pour Armor
All just like this.
And they scrub it into the mat.
Makes it look nice and shiny.
But when you're driving your car, it gets on the bottom of
your shoes and then on your brake pedal.
And lots of problems can happen.
The best way to clean your rubber floor mats is simply
with soap and water.
Scrub them down, dry them, and put them back in.
Now, mistake number nine is using the wrong products on
the interior of your car.
Take, for example, this carpet.
If I were to use car soap on it, we'd have suds forever.
And we could never get it out.
That would actually cause mildew.
What we want to use is a foaming agent that's actually
designed for carpets, just like this one here.
So give it a little shake.
Now you see that foam right there?
I'll take a scrub brush, go opposite directions, put that
to the side.
Take your clean towel.
Mop it up just like this.
See how I'm twisting?
That's going to pull all the dirt out of the carpet and
into the microfiber towel.
Now, if I had used the wrong products like this one right
here, it would've been foaming for days.
And then you put it back in the car.
It's going to create mildew.
That's why you use the right products for the right job.
Mistake number eight is using a solvent-based tire dressing.
As you can see, it's a bit liquidy.
But when it comes out, it's extremely
shiny, just like this.
But what happens is over time as you're driving, you get a
ton of tire sling.
What I recommend is a tire gel.
Right here we have a perfect example.
As it comes out, watch.
Now that's tire gel.
It's very sticky and very goopy.
And when you put it on, put it on with an applicator
pad just like this.
Let it sit for a minute.
Tap it off.
And then when you drive, no tire sling.
So remember that.
The most common mistake I see is mistake number seven.
And that's washing your car improperly with
these nasty old rags.
Now, what happens is if you were to use this on your car,
all the dirt would be trapped on the outside.
You'd essentially be scratching the paint.
What I like to use is a mitt just like this.
It's nice and clean.
And what happens is all the dirt gets trapped inside.
And then you can wash it off in your second bucket.
So big thing here is when they get dirty, throw them away.
Mistake number six is definitely the most annoying.
And I'm talking about the glass.
What's going to save you is using the right towels.
Here I have a microfiber towel.
And here I have a microfiber window towel.
As you can see, the pillars or the plush on this is much
thicker than these over here.
This is what's going to save you.
The first thing you want to do is take your window cleaner, a
few squirts on a microfiber towel just like this.
Go straight lines, straight lines.
Then I like to go to the top of the glass, pinch it, pull
it all the way down just like that.
Now, just before it's done, take a dry microfiber towel
and just buff off the rest.
And that'll make sure that you don't have any streaks at all.
Inside the windshield is one of the most annoying parts of
the car to keep clean.
It's awkward, difficult, and usually not clean after the
first pass.
The trick is to use your right hand upside down and lay
across the passenger seat.
Also, try to avoid spraying window cleaner on the
windshield because the mist or the drips have a tendency to
leave water marks on the dashboard.
If you're thinking of quickly wiping the dash after the
drip, I pretty much guarantee window streaks after that from
the dirt and the oils picked up from the surface of the
dashboard and then smeared again on the window.
Believe me, it's a losing battle.
Now, one of my favorite mistakes is wiping your car
without any lubrication.
Now, let me back up a little bit.
I have a friend of mine that got a bird poo, unfortunately,
on his beautiful BMW.
And the first thing he thought of was wiping it with this
nasty thing.
You might as well use a scuff pad to get all that poo off.
And unfortunately, he put a bunch of
scratches in his paint.
So next time, I gave him a good tip.
If there's bird poo, dust, or anything else on this paint,
use a spray wax.
It acts as a lubricant.
Just hit it a few times like this.
Then use a microfiber towel--
lightly, one direction.
That picks up any of the dirt, dust, or poo.
Flip the pad over, and then just lightly buff it clean.
Look how beautiful that looks.
That's one of the biggest things I see at car shows is
guys using something that's improper on their paint.
So do everything you can to avoid that.
Mistake number four is the one I get the most emails about.
And that's, of course, about the different types of soaps.
Each of them has its own purpose, but not all of them
are best for your car.
So we're going to start over here.
Anything like hand soap or dish soap is really great
stuff, but it's not always good to use it on your car.
Now, occasionally, I do use it if I'm looking to strip the
entire car of all of its wax.
And then usually I'll compound or polish or do
whatever the car needs.
Now, for a normal wash, like a Sunday morning wash, you don't
want to use something like this.
It's really harsh.
All right, well, the brightly colored soap here is generally
$4, $5, $6.
And you find it on most auto parts store shelves.
And that is not also the best stuff you want
to use on your paint.
Now, a lot of times, these can be just a little bit too
aggressive for what I'm looking for.
Now, over here, I have very specific paint soap and very
specific wheel soap.
Now, the paint soap does not remove any of the existing
layers of protection on your paint.
Now, if you move over here, this is a little bit more
aggressive because wheels have brake dust that's really warm.
It's really hot down there.
And they get embedded into the metal.
So you need something a little bit more strong, let's call
it, than something you would use on your paint.
So this is the gamut of different soaps you
would want to use.
The hand soap, stick with the hands.
The car soap--
I don't know.
If it's $4 or $5, I'd think twice.
Really, you want to focus on soap that is specifically
designed for paint and soap that's specifically designed
for your wheels.
Mistake number three is more annoying than it is harmful.
And that's forgetting to double check your paint after
you wax your car.
Now, as you can see here, wax is embedded in all these
little bolts here.
And I missed a little area right here.
So what you want to do is take your brush.
Hit it with a little spray wax.
Rub it off on your leg.
Now get in here and just agitate all this stuff out.
Now, again, it's not the end of the world.
But there's nothing worse than pulling up to a car show and
forgetting a big stripe of wax.
You'll look like a nut job.
So clean it out just like this.
There we go.
And this little guy right here, since it's dried-- see,
it's a little bit dry--
it's hard to get off.
So quick little spritz of spray wax, one wipe, and
you're good to go.
Mistake number two is using a product that leaves a greasy
film on the interior of your car.
We don't like to use that for two reasons.
One, it actually blinds you as you're driving, and no one
wants that.
And two, it acts like a greenhouse effect.
So the light comes in through your windshield, gets trapped
underneath the greasy part, heats up the vinyl, leather,
or plastic, whatever it's on, and actually dries it
out and cracks it.
And no one wants to replace any of those things because
they're really expensive.
So instead, what I use is a product like Lexol.
And what you do is you put it on a microfiber towel, just a
few squirts.
So what this is going to do is protect and
condition your leather.
But it's not going to make it shiny.
So you put it on just like this.
It's going to soak in.
Let it sit for a minute.
Turn your microfiber towel over, and clean it off.
And you're going to get a nice matte finish.
None of that shiny stuff.
We don't want that.
Leather conditioner is a great product.
But what I don't use it on is the shifter knob and the
steering wheel.
Try to avoid those, because you don't need any accidents.
All right, the number one biggest mistake I see is using
the same bucket to wash your paint that you do your wheels.
Now, the two of these should be very, very separate.
What I do is use two individual buckets.
As you can see, one is black and one is white.
I can never confuse the two of them.
The black one I like for the wheels.
The white one I use for the paint.
Now, the big thing here is you want to use nice, clean, fresh
mitts to work on the paint.
And you can use some nice, clean, fresh wash mitts to
work on the wheels.
But the difference is you never want
to interchange them.
The wheel mitts never hit the paint and the paint mitts
never hit the wheels.
Separating the two of them will make your car stay clean
and shiny without scratching it.
That's the number one thing.
If you take anything away from this video, you do that.
Your car will look fantastic for years to come.
Bonus tip number one is always use a grit guard.
I use it in my wash bucket and in my wheel bucket.
What happens is all the dirt comes down and gets trapped
underneath here.
So when you're using your wash mitt, and you can scrub the
top of it, all the dirt will fall out and fall into these
little holes and not come back up into the wash mitt and then
back onto your paint or back onto your wheels.
This is a great item.
It's about $4 or $5, maybe $6.
And it will save your paint every single time.
Bonus tip number two is something I
often see at car shows.
And that's the car duster.
As you can see here, one is extremely dirty and the other
one is clean.
Now, I don't like to use these at all.
But if you absolutely must, make sure you take this piece
off right here.
And you can throw it in the wash and clean it,
just like I did here.
And if you're going to use it to clean dust off, the way you
want to use it is to just have it barely touch the surface of
the paint as opposed to doing this--
smashing it down and rubbing it in.
That never works.
So again, if you have a little piece of dust here and you
want to use this, just barely touch the surface.
Now, I try to avoid car dusters altogether.
What I use is a great spray wax that acts as a lubricant.
Hit it a few times just like that.
The first swipe cleans it off.
The second swipe is to buff to a shine.
Now, what I'm using here is a spray wax that adds another
layer of protection.
So I'm constantly adding layers after layers.
That's much safer and much better for your paint than any
car duster will ever be.
All right, guys, that's my top 10 mistakes.
I'm sure there's a whole lot more.
And I bet you, you have a ton more.
If you do, put them on the comments below.
I'm Larry from Drive Clean, and you've been watching The
Drive Channel.
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