What's In DFB's Cabinet?

[ECSIII]

What’s the best way to clean the honeycomb pattern plastic grille on the front of a 2022 Mustang GT? The parts of the grille on both sides where there’s a solid back to them seem to be particularly difficult to clean, especially when bug splatters are involved. I’m guessing a soft wash brush of some type is the answer, but which ones have proven most effective for this purpose and are there other alternatives?

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[HoosierDaddy]

I occasionally use an ultra-soft synthetic brush for these areas too, basically using them as duster. I will also use this with a vacuum in my other hand to extract the dust as I brush.

DETAIL FACTORY Ultra-Soft Detailing Brush Long Handle 24cm (detailingshed.com.au)

Thanks for the tip(s). Ordered another brand on Amazon. Love real-time supply and demand in action. Saved 35 cents by ordering blue instead of red. LoL

 

[MAGS1]

What’s the best way to clean the honeycomb pattern plastic grille on the front of a 2022 Mustang GT? The parts of the grille on both sides where there’s a solid back to them seem to be particularly difficult to clean, especially when bug splatters are involved. I’m guessing a soft wash brush of some type is the answer, but which ones have proven most effective for this purpose and are there other alternatives?

I use these and they work well. They’re soft so they won’t scratch up the piano black finish. I use them around the GT emblem on the rear panel as well.
Detail Factory Ultra-Soft Detailing Brush Set, Comfortable Grip and Scratch-Free Cleaning for Exterior, Interior Panels, Emblems, Badges, Gauge Cluster, Infotainment Screen https://a.co/d/5Mk9VMq

 

[DFB5.0]

What’s the best way to clean the honeycomb pattern plastic grille on the front of a 2022 Mustang GT? The parts of the grille on both sides where there’s a solid back to them seem to be particularly difficult to clean, especially when bug splatters are involved. I’m guessing a soft wash brush of some type is the answer, but which ones have proven most effective for this purpose and are there other alternatives?

The best way to deal with honeycomb grills is to never drive the car, and therefore prevent them getting dirty. I manage to do this, not often by choice, but it's not all that practical.

On the earlier S550's, these areas were unpainted matte black plastic. This allowed the option of using a stiffer and more effective boars hair brush.

For the 2018+ S550's, Ford decided to use gloss black finishes in these areas. These trims are very soft and will mar with even the safest of cleaning methods and tools.



I would be using the ultra soft Detail Factory brushes, perhaps even the Curveball version.




You would use these in combination with a bug remover, APC or even soapy water. If you dont want to invest in one of those brushes or if they didn't remove as much as desired, the other option is very simple and probably not very sexy.

Take the end of detailing brush, or even a pencil, and wrap it in a microfiber towel.

Then work your way around the grill, moving the towel around as needed. Again, use a bug remover, APC or soap to help things along.

It's a tedious task for sure, but once clean, you can then use a spray and rinse type sealant (Gyeon Wet Coat, Carpro Hydr02) to make things easier to clean next time around.

 

[DFB5.0]

Took delivery of two orders yesterday.

First one being from a favorite supplier -

This order was prompted by a video from Sandro at Car Craft. In this case, he was showing how to detail door jambs, in the process using these plastic drop sheets to protect the interior while working.

https://www.waxit.com.au/products/un...o&_ss=e&_v=1.0



Next, the blue Lake Country SDO pads in both 3.5 and 5.5 inch sizes. These are cutting pads that I have seen used for glass polishing, which would be for when an aggressive rayon glass pad is not needed.

https://www.waxit.com.au/collections...ue-cutting-pad

Staying with pads, I added a black 6 inch Shine Mate pad for wax application. And the white Scholl Foam Puck was intended to replace the applicator that comes with P21S Polishing soap, sadly it's too big to fit neatly inside the lid. Never mind, it will get used somewhere.

https://www.waxit.com.au/collections...hing-pad-4-6-7
https://www.waxit.com.au/products/sc...oam-paint-puck

Next, another product to fuel my soap addiction. Shine Supply Shift is a pH neutral soap that "contains no silicone, sodium lauryl sulfate, waxes, polymers or any other additives making Shift simply perfect for washing vehicles protected with ceramic coatings or vehicles with matte paint". The sniff test reveals a subtle lime fragrance.

https://www.waxit.com.au/products/sh...ply-shift-soap

Auto Finesse Aroma is a bubble gum scented air freshener. This is your classic car wash fruity scent.

https://www.waxit.com.au/products/au...pray-bubblegum

Bulking out the order, I grabbed another bottle of Carpro Clarify. I have missed the strange banana scent of this product.

https://www.waxit.com.au/products/ca...y&_ss=e&_v=1.0



The second order was from Obsessed Garage.

Ordering from Obsessed Garage is an occasional luxury for me in Australia, mainly due to the shipping costs involved. I only order stuff I can't get elsewhere from OG, the Drying Aid in particular is well worth the expense of getting it landed here.

Drying Aid | Car Paint Protectant | Obsessed Garage

Included in the order were some Pressol bottle labels. Now that Pressol sprayers are locally available, I'm looking at expanding to include a couple more in my collection, complete with appropriate labels. I also have another idea in regard to those labels.

https://www.obsessedgarage.com/colle...ousehold-label

I also ordered another "wash" bucket vinyl; this one will be used for my towel laundry bucket.

https://www.obsessedgarage.com/colle...cket-vinyl-set

The RaceGlaze XL brush is replacement for my well used lug nut brush.

https://www.obsessedgarage.com/produ...l&_ss=e&_v=1.0

As it was only early spring when I ordered, I thought I would get some use out of a "Dialed In" jacket. Ah well, next winter. The shirt won't be a problem though.

https://www.obsessedgarage.com/colle...39017474162839
https://www.obsessedgarage.com/colle...38834717327511

 

[DFB5.0]

Bloody weather! It's the middle of Spring and yet we are back to wearing coats and warm hats. Today was a lovely twelve degrees with rolling showers, a thunderstorm and some hail for good measure. And now the sun is shining through the window as I type. I have not driven any of the "special" cars in weeks, the rain just won't stop falling. At least I got to wear my new OG jacket!

It didn't stop me from indulging in some detailing and garage tinkering.

The order from Obsessed Garage that I had been waiting on for nearly three months meant I could finally make use of a Pressol bottle filled with Brake Buster. I wanted to wait until the OG label arrived so I could attach it while still new/clean.

Double action sprayers are brilliant for high use chemicals like tire cleaners as you achieve the same result with half the trigger actions. I also ordered this bottle with an industrial sprayer head owing to Brake Busters harshness.

https://detailingshed.com.au/product...cb89654b&_ss=r
https://detailingshed.com.au/product...cb89654b&_ss=r

Soap of choice today was Shine Supply Shift.......

https://www.waxit.com.au/products/sh...t&_ss=e&_v=1.0

Shift is a pH neutral soap that contains no gloss enhancers or conditioners. That suits me just fine, I want a soap to be a soap and nothing more. I really, really like this product. The foam is of the runnier type, but still clings to the car very well. I LOVE the scent too, its not too dissimilar to P&S Absolute, spicing the air with a heady aroma of lime and coconut. This will be a product I will re-order for sure!

Drying aid of choice today was Carpro EliXir on a Gauntlet towel.

Onto the glass, I'm trying out a different method today. This involves priming a microfiber applicator with glass cleaner, in this case The Rag Company Pearl Applicator Sponge and Carpro Clarify.

https://carcareco.com.au/product/pea...icator-sponge/
https://www.waxit.com.au/products/ca...y&_ss=e&_v=1.0

You then use the applicator to wipe the glass with cleaner and then follow up with a dry waffle weave towel.

This method is brilliant for interior glass cleaning too, offering a more ergonomic action and saves getting glass cleaner everywhere.

Finishing the interior off was a few generous sprays of Auto Finesse Aroma.

https://www.waxit.com.au/products/au...a&_ss=e&_v=1.0

I also applied the "Wash" decal to my laundry bucket. I feel so much better now!

It's now raining again with thunder booming across the skies. Please, stop raining soon...................

 

[GT 550]

I left this to soak for 10 minutes, the higher pH of Snow working to break down the mud and road film.

I've been reading a bit about high pH alkaline and low pH acidic soaps. A lot of the info I've come across suggests using low pH for mud and high pH for road grime.

I may be interpreting this wrong or reading too much into it but it seems you used a higher pH acidic soap for both?

I have a filthy Everest with a healthy coating of mud/dirt (not heavy caking just liberally covered) and road grime after a 3k km road trip that was in part on dirt/muddy roads. It doesn't have ceramic coating and I was thinking about starting with a foam of Descale and then one of Lift or similar before using a pH neutral soap wash.

The Everest is used for highway driving quite a bit and due to the weather regularly wears a coating of road grime which (if the above is correct) means using something with high pH like Lift regularly that I understand isn't recommended as I don't want to be up for a rewax/seal every couple of weeks so I'm wondering if there's a way around that.

Grateful for your thoughts.

 

[DFB5.0]

I've been reading a bit about high pH alkaline and low pH acidic soaps. A lot of the info I've come across suggests using low pH for mud and high pH for road grime.

I may be interpreting this wrong/or reading too much into it but it seems you used a higher pH acidic soap for both?

I have a filthy Everest with a healthy coating of mud/dirt (not heavy caking just liberally covered) and road grime after a 3k km road trip that was in part on dirt/muddy roads. It doesn't have ceramic coating and I was thinking about starting with a foam of Descale and then one of Lift or similar before using a pH neutral soap wash.

The Everest is used for highway driving quite a bit and due to the weather regularly wears a coating of road grime which (if the above is correct) means using something with high pH like Lift regularly, which I understand isn't recommended as I don't want to be up for a rewax/seal every couple of weeks. Is there a way around this?

Grateful for your thoughts.

To be honest, I did not know that regarding acidic being good for mud/dirt and alkaline being good for road grime.

In general, when you go above or below pH neutral 7.5, you get an increase in cleaning ability. Both acidity and alkalinity can have the potential to strip or weaken a wax or sealant.



In the post you have quoted, I used alkaline pH 9.9 soap as a pre-wash soak before switching to a pH neutral 7.5 soap for the contact wash. This way, you are not agitating the alkaline soap and potentially harming your wax or sealant. Having said that, if you use a protective drying aid, you are effectively replenishing anything lost anyway.

Unless the car is very dirty or neglected, there is merit in using soaps from the pH spectrum, as in Acidic Descale and Alkaline Lift to do the heavy lifting, followed up by a more gentle pH neutral soap.

However, if it's just to maintain a car that has gotten dirtier than usual, there is probably not really a need to use all three.

In your case, I would pre-soak with Lift, allowing it to dwell for as long as possible, then pressure wash the whole car. While you won't remove all of the bonded road film, this step without agitation will generally remove a fair degree of it. The follow up contact wash with the pH neutral soap is then safer because most of the dirt is removed.

 

[DFB5.0]

Two filthy Ranger's to deal with this week. Compared to last weeks chilly 13 deg c, the sun was out and an almost perfect (for me) 25 deg c and a light breeze. Perfect detailing weather then.

Wildtrack was first, muddy after traveling into flood affected property. Thankfully, the old mans property is being covered by insurance, but there is still plenty of stuff to clean up beforehand.

I used a decent variety of product today dealing with this car. Brake Buster straight up for the tyres and in the foam cannon for wheel and wheel arch cleaning. I've also got Gyeon Wet Coat to refresh the wheels and some McKee's Rubber Mat Cleaner, which I use to deal with the floor mats during the wheel cleaning phase.

Because of the terrible state the roads are in at the moment, both from floods and general neglect, they have been spot patching a lot. As such, there is a lot of tar being deposited on cars at the moment. I chose to treat these tar deposits as I moved around the car cleaning the wheels, TarX softening the tar before being blasted away with my pressure washer.

The rest of the exterior was dealt with a pre-soak with NV Snow, then a contact wash with the lovely Shine Supply Shift. I also need the assistance of some Koch Chemie Insect Remover. I also needed to apply some Wet Coat to the lower panels of the car, it's about time to reapply an LSP to this car. OG Drying Aid was teamed with a Gauntlet towel.

The interior needed more than the usual wipe over with an interior detailer. Today's choice was the excellent P&S Express, teamed with a brush, towel and compressed air.

The seats were dealt with Bowden's Leather Love and a VLB brush. Gyeon Glass took care of the windows, Koch Chemie Guf went on the now clean floor mats and the interior spiced with Auto Finesse Aroma.

Circling back to the exterior, I sprayed the wheel arches with Hyper Dressing, using the same product on the side steps and mud flaps. I then dressed the tyres with Duragloss 253.

Next, it was onto my Ranger.

Now, having a single cab Ranger with a large tray means that people seem to like to borrow it when their useless dual cab pickups can't carry much more than a box or two. I mentioned the flood cleanup, well with the limited carrying ability of his Wildtrack, the old man grabbed my Ranger to collect up a variety of flood damaged items.

My Dad is in no way a clean freak. I would say that I don't know how we are actually related, but I know I got my "clean jeans" from Dads mother. Everything had a place in her home, move something and before anyone could notice, that thing was back into place. I lost her far too early in my life, I would have loved to have known her better.

So, it came as no surprise to have my car returned looking filthy. I would rather that than him attempting to "clean" it.

Similar process here, using Brake Buster to deal with the wheels, tires and wheel arches. A quick top up of Wet Coat as well. Rubber mats cleaned as above.

Exterior again dealt with a pre-soak of NV Snow, contact wash with Shine Supply Shift, Drying Aid Meguiar's HCD. Tyres dressed with Auto Finesse Satin. I have also been wiping the outside of the tray down with Carpro Ech20 lately as well.

Interior cleaned with a combination of Express and Koch Chemie ASC. Windows dealt with Gyeon Glass.

Four and a half hours. A bucket full of dirty towels. Two clean Ranger's. A tired DFB.

 

[GT 550]

The interior needed more than the usual wipe over with an interior detailer. Today's choice was the excellent P&S Express, teamed with a brush, towel and compressed air.

Compressed air...for drying or removing dust etc from crevices?

Now, having a single cab Ranger with a large tray means that people seem to like to borrow it when their useless dual cab pickups can't carry much more than a box or two.

This. Yes. Although they are actually good at some things...chewing fuel, obstructing view when reversing out of a carpark, clogging roads (not to mention having to add a trailer because the 'ute' can't carry anything)...the list goes on. I looked for a replacement for my BA tray top XLS and found that the single cab ranger lacks storage space for anything at all if you have a passenger and an FGX tray is ridiculous money. So I looked for a Ranger Supercab hoping to eke out a little bit of cargo capacity and holy sky high prices Batman, no doubt because they can actually carry stuff. So it appears I'm stuck with a stupid dual cab.

Can't believe you did all that in 4 hours.

 

[DFB5.0]

Compressed air...for drying or removing dust etc from crevices?

This. Yes. Although they are actually good at some things...chewing fuel, obstructing view when reversing out of a carpark, clogging roads (not to mention having to add a trailer because the 'ute' can't carry anything)...the list goes on. I looked for a replacement for my BA tray top XLS and found that the single cab ranger lacks storage space for anything at all if you have a passenger and an FGX tray is ridiculous money. So I looked for a Ranger Supercab hoping to eke out a little bit of cargo capacity and holy sky high prices Batman, no doubt because they can actually carry stuff. So it appears I'm stuck with a stupid dual cab.

Can't believe you did all that in 4 hours.

The compressed air in this case was to drive out the chemical residue left in the gaps, think speaker grills, window switches ect. As you say, it can also be good to get dust/debris out of areas a vacuum won't reach.

As for doing all that in 4+ hours, I have my process well-rehearsed and everything ready for action.

Funny you mentioning the options for those who don't want a double cab bro-dozer. And the price on basic single cab workhorses has skyrocketed over the last few years. I actually posted a thread elsewhere about this issue a few days ago -

New Gen Ranger Single Cab - Australian Ford Forums

For context, a double cab pickup is of no use to me. They are too high to work out of and the trays are just too small. You can't do this with a double cab.............

If I wanted to replace that vehicle, a car that cost me just over $30,000 in 2016, I'm looking at least $50,000. And that would be for a base model single cab chassis with povo spec vinyl floors and steel wheels. Just crazy money.

 

[GT 550]

Indeed. The sight of a dual cab towing a trailer because it's useless as both a passenger car and a ute does my head in. I'll visit that thread as I'm sure there was interesting discussion.

bro-dozer

 

[DFB5.0]

Indeed. The sight of a dual cab towing a trailer because it's useless as both a passenger car and a ute does my head in. I'll visit that thread as I'm sure there was interesting discussion.

I hate towing, so a big tray is what works for me. I also don't need to buy, maintain and register a trailer or find somewhere to park the dam thing. I have a pet hate for trailers!

I sort of laugh at the tradies who go and buy a Ranger Wildtrack or Raptor and think they are going to use it for work. A Wildtrack has even less load capacity or versatility owing to it's roller tonneau, so they end up towing a trailer to fit their tools in. You also have to have space to store that trailer when not being used.

The Raptor has reduced towing ability due to the coil rear axle. But hey, it looks tough though.

 

[DFB5.0]

Splashed out on a new chainsaw.....................of course I did...............................

 

[GT 550]

A chainsaw is now in 'DFB's Cabinet'?

Must be some severe dirt removal

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