STAFF CARS AND TIPS...

Comments and tips from the Autochem team

2005 SS Commodore VY, 1972 GTR XU1 Torana, 1999 BWM 540 saloon, BMW RS1100 motorbike, 1954 BSA Bantam 125, Mazda MX5 roadster, Suzuki300 Quad Bike, 1965 Mini Cooper 998, Holden Rodeo Double-Cab Ute, 1929 Austin 7 convertible… lots more!

As the National Sales Manager of a paint and panel-beating supplies company, it is extremely important to me that my car looks showroom new at all times. Customers judge me on the way my vehicle and I are presented.

Regular washing is the key for me - between once and three times a week, depending on the types of roads I have been on. As you can imagine, achieving a great finish quickly and easily is the key when you wash this regularly.

Stuart Jordan and I have worked together since the Seventies. Always testing, formulating and experimenting with car care chemicals, using his knowledge as an industrial chemist and mine as professional panel-beater, spray painter and Automotive Sales Manager.

“AUTO-CHEM BLAST OFF”® in conjunction with my Karcher water blaster, is the best product combination we have put together by far during my 40-odd years in the automotive trade. The time taken, total cost and non-scratch or - swirl finish cannot be matched by any competing product. Couple this with the incredible results our erazer™ CLAY-BAR and AUTO-CHEM QUICK-SHINE® can give on “polluted” paint (with almost no effort) and we know we have a real winner!

As a counterpart to my daily driver SS Commodore, I recently restored an XU1 Torana, undertaking all the work myself. The objective was to create an original (54,000 miles pre restoration), driveable, collectable, piece of Australasian motoring history.

I intend to drive the car, on an infrequent basis, to suitable shows and industry events, whilst preserving its originality and value by minimising the miles covered. To this end the car is kept in a heated, internal garage. I have stopped covering the car since I like to admire it whenever I walk past it! Visitors find it a great talking point too.

Consequently the car needs a gentle, touch-less wash and dry every two to three weeks to remove dust. This gives me an opportunity to start the car, back it out and warm the motor up which, along with washing, I consider essential maintenance. Then I apply AUTO-CHEM "BLAST OFF”®, and rinse with my water blaster. Finally, I thoroughly dry the car with my AUTO-CHEM ULTRA MICROFIBRE TOWEL® to ensure a streak free shine, and prevent any water being transported back in to the garage when I put it away.

The whole operation takes less than 10 minutes (mostly drying) and provides by far the best economy, value and satisfaction of any product I have ever used. And, believe me, in my long professional association with the automotive repair and refinishing business I have tried ‘em all!

My tip is to spray really dirty wheels with 50/50 “BLAST OFF” and water from a trigger bottle. Leave this on for 5 minutes and water blast off. This will remove really stubborn dirt.

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Harley Road King, Jeep Grand Cherokee, Honda CB750F, 1964 BSA Bushman 175cc, 1946 3-wheel Hyster (Surely not! That’s a vintage fork hoist. There’s a story here).
‘Bike and Car nut from way back!

I regularly use my Harley for touring, and as you can see from the photo I like to keep it looking pristine for the show and shine events I also attend.

Cleaning a bike presents problems that car owners don’t have to deal with. It can take longer to clean my bike than it does my 4wd Jeep due to heaps of chrome parts, the fiddly chrome engine and knuckle-barking inaccessibility of many components. Areas such as the rear tyre and swing arm, front forks and running boards traditionally needed to be sponged or cleaned with a brush - a slow, backbreaking process.

This is one of the reasons I formulated AUTO-CHEM "BLAST OFF”® The water blaster fan gets into places that I simply could not access easily with my traditional brush and sponge methods.

I give it a quick wash and dry after every decent ride, and always after a wet ride. Short rides get a spritz up with AUTO-CHEM QUICK-SHINE® and my AUTO-CHEM ULTRA MICROFIBRE TOWEL®, so that every time I go out for a ride I know the Harley is looking its best.

My tip – Never water blast into the wheel bearings or head-races. Angle the jet to glance away from these areas, since grease can be displaced too easily, resulting in short lives for bearings and seals. Even a jet from a garden hose can do the same damage.

Tip number two. If you have dull black paint on your engine, make it look new again by spraying with an aerosol silicone oil. The type used for tyres is fine, with a petroleum solvent. The solvent and propellant flash off quickly enough to not damage the paint (do it on a cool engine, though), and silicone oils have the property of self levelling, so an uneven film will creep and spread over the surface to give a glossy, bright finish where there was not one before.

Spray it on chrome too, and it will hide scratches. It lasts a long time and, next time you wash the bike, it will help shed the dirt. AUTO-CHEM "BLAST OFF”® will remove the silicone, along with the dirt, but AUTO-CHEM "BLAST OFF”® itself makes tired plastic and engine paint look blacker and brighter anyway. The silicone oil adds to this effect - especially useful when you are going on a long ride and might encounter road works and wet clay.

Do not leave thick films of silicone oil on the paintwork, though. A bit of speckled overspray on paint is ok, but wipe it over to remove most of it. The remaining spots will, as mentioned, spread themselves over the entire surface and add to the appearance without doing any harm to the paint. But it is possible for silicone oils to enter the structure of some paints and ‘plasticize’ or soften them, because the thinner oils have something of the nature of a solvent.

A thick oil is best, because it stays on longer in rain and is generally more tenacious.

It will, of course retain more dust than dry paintwork, but fine dust is encapsulated and hidden by the oily film, and I think the anticorrosion protection and enhanced appearance and dirt-shedding properties make the use of heavy silicone oils well worth while.

They are a problem when it comes to repainting a surface, causing a thing called ‘fish eyes’ in the paint, so be sure to tell the painter you have used silicone, and he will remove it with a solvent or alkaline wash, before sanding and repainting.

‘57 Ford Zephyr Highline, 2004 Toyota Prado 4WD, 1992 Isuzu Bighorn 4WD.

I am an active member in the Auckland Zephyr Zodiac Consul Car Club, including committee duties, and a regular participant in car rallies and Club events. My main need in a car washing and care system is the ability to give the car a quick wash before I go to an event, and then a pre- storage clean to get the grime and bugs off before the Zephyr goes back in the garage. My two 4WD’s are also easily done with our Auto-Chem system.

I am always short of time, so being able to wash and polish the car and immediately jump in and drive to a meeting is a real plus – no setting-up, gumboots, soaked trousers, wet knees when you do it my way. This cannot be done with an old-fashioned brush or sponge, bucket and hose, I can tell you!!

My tip is that, the more you clean the car (especially a 4WD, which can be very mucky), the more the paint is conditioned by the film-forming agents in AUTO-CHEM "BLAST OFF”® to repel dirt the next time. The very first wash of a filthy (especially with clay or lime) 4WD will probably need some extra wiping with a very wet Micro-Fibre towel to get the AUTO-CHEM "BLAST OFF”® under the sticky film and treat the paint. Subsequent washes will be easier and easier, as long as you do it once a week and not every 6 months.

In Australia this is not so applicable, since it is wet roads and muddy off-road driving which bonds the film of filth on. Dry dust is easily removed, on a less frequent basis. The exception is Outback bull-dust in Australia, which comes off easily when dry but can be difficult when dampened, even by night-time dew.

2002 3-litre BMW Z3.

Here’s my best tip. I pour the beer while someone else cleans my car!

Seriously, though, the wheels on my car look nice but they are a real pain to clean. BMW have special front disc pads designed to give filthy wheels in less than 3 days! Previously there was nothing for it but to brush between every spoke. Hard on the back too!

AUTO-CHEM "BLAST OFF”® cleans the wheels perfectly if done every week, and in two years I have never needed to apply a brush. AUTO-CHEM "BLAST OFF”® causes water to flow off the long bonnet, leaving minimal drying. Incidentally, do not omit to towel the car down with our AUTO-CHEM ULTRA MICROFIBRE TOWEL®. It takes no time and removes any missed film, whilst spreading the gloss coating from the AUTO-CHEM "BLAST OFF”®. Just as importantly, it prevents water spotting, as the droplets dry and leave dissolved solids in tap water behind

Here’s my second best tip. Do not blast the car more than necessary, because this removes the water-displacing film that the AUTO-CHEM "BLAST OFF”® has put on. Watch closely and you can see the effect. Just blast evenly in long overlapping strokes, passing quickly over each section. The water film will “break” and sheet off. Keep blasting and you will lose the film - forming agents and not see this effect.

Use the damp towel to remove any vestiges of road film, which are attracted back to the paint by static charge, like nylon when it comes out of the dryer.

"Jeep Wrangler 4.0 L. Anniversary Model"

My automotive stable includes a ’63 Ford Thunderbird and a ‘58 Pontiac Star Chief as well as my daily driver, a Toyota Landcruiser. I also have Ford V8 powered Jet Boat, and VW Dune Buggy, and all receive the AUTO-CHEM "BLAST OFF”® treatment regularly.

The Pontiac needs regular cleaning as it lives in the Auto-Chem workshop and I like to keep it uncovered for display purposes. Cleaning is super easy with the water blaster, AUTO-CHEM "BLAST OFF”® and my extra large Microfibre towel (there is a lot of acreage of paint on this vehicle to dry).

My best tip is for older classics, which might not be completely waterproof. I only ever clean up to the windows and then give the roof a quick spray, as I don’t like to force water into the doors via the window seals. Older electric windows need extra care and don’t like to be wetted. This means that I give the side windows a detail with the damp AUTO-CHEM ULTRA MICROFIBRE TOWEL®

The Landcruiser is a different proposition as it is often put through its paces off-road and comes back from a day's activities covered in mud and sand.AUTO-CHEM "BLAST OFF”® works well, although sometimes the really stubborn clay needs a scrub with a soft brush. Again, as Wes says, the more often you use AUTO-CHEM "BLAST OFF”®, the better the paint is conditioned by the film-forming agents, and the easier clay comes off the next time. You can smooth roughened (“polluted”) paint with our erazer™ CLAY-BAR and AUTO-CHEM QUICK-SHINE® spray and this helps to ensure the dirt will not stick, next time out in the mud.

Equally, I find AUTO-CHEM "BLAST OFF”® good for the jet boat. Although used mostly in fresh water, after a run in the sea I like to give the two pack custom paint a thorough clean, along with the interior. A quick wipe of the painted surfaces and a rinse of the interior and I am ready to put the covers back on. I know that I am safe in the knowledge that the salt has been removed, and my chrome work and motor will be free from corrosion next time I look.

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