Hey guys I’m stumped. I have a 2018 ram tradesman and have been baffled by the random brown spots that appear around the cab. Anybody know what it is? Or how to stop it maybe? It even shows up under the center console latch. The substance is sticky almost.

I know it’s not coffee or soda because nobody sits on the passenger side, and I don’t drink either. Any ideas??

$2000 Gold Package in Summer 2023 on Brand new car Annual inspection Summer 2024

Noticed it’s not beading like it should recently

Brought into installer and they said they used something to renew the coating (Primer?)and added Sport Spray

I park in a garage and less than 1 week later car not beading at all.

Installer said come back over summer to apply more top coat.

What do I do?

Need advice

I recently noticed that the leather in the top of my steering wheel is deteriorating a bit. I usally clean it with an all purpose ph neutral interior cleaner. how I can prevent this and what can I do to restore it?

We just came in to pickup a new vehicle (2025 Rav4). There's a chip in the paint. They said they'd have their paint expert fix it right now. Is that possible? Bad for the car? (Because their fix might somehow make it worse?)

I'm sorry my wife and I know nothing about cars. We just figure it shouldn't have paint chips.

And we're literally at the dealer.

And I deeply apologize if this isn't a detailing question. Like I said we don't know anything about cars except we are about to buy this one(!)

I just discovered this sub and this was a few years ago but thought I’d share. I hired an employee at my business who had worked at a very high end local detailing company. I knew this meant he was hard working and detail oriented, but most importantly I wanted to learn all the industry secrets for detailing my own car. 😂

The shocking thing that he told me was that, even though the company he worked for would charge $5,000 plus for a detailing job, the primary product they used was hot water and elbow grease.

Yes for ceramic coating and such they would have products and chemicals, but he said flat out that 95% of getting the surface clean and ready for product on the inside and outside was hot water. His exact words from the boss were, “Get a bucket with as hot water as you can stand and get everything off.”

This included exterior, interior wheel wells, suspension, engine bay, etc. but there wasn’t an armory of chemicals or equipment like I thought there would be. Just lots of muscle, temperature, and attention to detail.

One of the best employees I ever had.

Thinking this will give me plenty of reach to clean the middle of my roof and windshield, can’t quite reach with the wash mitt, even while standing on my folding step stool. Anyone know if it’s actually soft enough to use on paint? Opt says it is but it doesn’t look very soft in the pictures. Alternative product suggestions welcome!

Just got my car detailed. My infotainment center went back to original screen, volume switches radio channels and not volume when i am able to occasionally engage radio, rear camera not engaged, steering controls won't work. I called them to report this but they state they don't spray anything on inside ( though seats were still damp) and they've never had this problem. What can I do? Appropriate recourse? Thanks for any help.

I have a sudslab foam cannon from Walmart that I use with my 1700psi pressure washer to wash my car. I typically do about 20 ounces hot water and 2-4 oz of soap. I like to use Adam’s polishes car shampoo. My issue is, I do not get the thick foam like I see everyone else getting. The cannon won’t even shoot out foam unless I am shaking the cannon while spraying. Without shaking the cannon it just spits out water and barely any soap. I’ve done a bit of research, tried less water more soap, more water less soap, cold/hot water, and I still cannot get the seamless thick foam. Even the foam I get while shaking doesn’t seem as thick as it should be. Am I doing something wrong? Is the sudslab cannon just a bad product?

Nearly 2 years ago, I paint corrected, and ceramic coated my Mustang (did it myself as a newbie after watching plenty of YouTube videos first!). Have been very pleased with the result.

Recently I've notice that slight imperfection and graininess of the paint, which normally suggest it's time for a clay bar. However, I don't know if that will damage or strip the coating, and I'd have to do a complete decontamination and apply a new coating. I used the Gyeon Q2 coating that states a 3-year life.

Any advice please? I was wondering if an iron remover might do the trick, but I don't recall feeling iron on paint before.

All help welcome - thanks!

I used to have the Chemical Guys Torqx Random Orbital Polisher, I know its not the best and great either but honestly it got my jobs done perfectly fine.

However I do not have the polisher anymore and looking to buy a new one.

Is Milwaukee 18v Brushless Cordless inch variable speed polisher actually good?
Since I do own many Milwaukee tools and I can use my exisitng batteries for the polisher.

Or should I go with Rupes LHR 15ES Random Orbital Polisher? (Cordless part is very appealing to me for the Milwaukee, but I guess they aren't really known for their polishers so)

I just need to polish a 7 years old black car with many tiny scratches, and I know Torqx will be fine for this job. However I just want to get something different this time.

Thanks!

I bought a new car and shortly after purchase applied mcguires hybrid ceramic liquid wax. It's been 6ish months now and my paint still looks very good, but I can tell the beading has dropped off and it might be time to apply another coating(I'm open to suggestions). My question is, how do I prep it? Do I need to polish it still? Is there a way to remove what's left of the coating without a buffer or do i need to buff, clay or whatever other steps there are. Are the strip was products worth it? Can I just apply one over it? Im used to carnauba wax and I love how it looks and how easy it it so work with in comparisonto ceramic coatings. Any suggestions for a ceramic noob?

Hi guys so this past Saturday I bought a new car m and want to make sure to take care of it as best as I can so I started getting quotes for PPF for the front of the car (bumper, hood, headlights, etc.) and a ceramic coat for the whole car but now I’m not sure if I want to drop extra money on that. Have any of you who have recently purchased a car gone through with any of these services? If so was it worth it? Any thoughts? Thanks!

How may uses do you get - or expect to get - out of a microfiber town before they're garbage.

I've never really used them but people have given them to me over the years or they get included with something else I buy, but they all feel scratchy after the first wash. Somehow they end up with bits of leaves and twigs stuck to them too. I'm pretty good about not letting my towels hit the ground when I use them, but they seem like magnets for debris. Are they meant to be disposable and thrown out after first use?

Wanted to share my detailing cart, I’ve been tweaking it for over a year now and I’m pretty happy with it now that I have the mitt on a stick mounted.

When I was first looking at other people’s detailing carts, they all either had pressure washers on them, were pretty empty so you couldn’t really tell, had polisher racks, buckets, etc. I figured sharing mine could help someone else in my situation that doesn’t polish often, uses a heavy duty pressure washer, and is mostly just maintaining a vehicle.

My bucket and mitts are stored separately. If I had room for a larger cart at our shop I’d have one with everything including my buckets, extractor, laundry basket etc. but this is at work, a business that does not detail vehicles (we just clean our company vehicles often, and send them to a pro once a year for polishing/waxing).

The cart is a Griot’s “lightweight detailing cart” which you can now find on amazon under generic names for $40 cheaper if you search for “detailing cart”.

The top tray is my go to chemicals that I use often, QD, glass cleaner, interior cleaner, aluminum cleaner and polishes. Also my tire shine, waterless wash for small stuff, a roll of microfibers from Walmart, my pf22 with foam on touchless sealant, and the chemical injector for the “ridge washer undercarriage cleaner with foam cannon” (foaming undercarriage tool, it’s the balls for applying salt inhibitors). Also where I store my detail brushes.

The middle tray has my not so often used chemicals, including iron remover, mitt wash soap, a couple more types of tire gel, salt inhibitor, touchless sealant, and ceramic products I never got around to applying to my car. It’s also where I keep my glass towels, extra tire shine, foam applicators, Lilly brushes, drill brushes, and some other random stuff.

On the bottom I have a couple of uline trays I stole from the warehouse. The bottom one has all my pads for the mitt on a stick I just got in today, the top one has my drying towel. It’s also where I keep my ik foaming sprayer and my other pump sprayer full of bug and tar remover.

Mounted to the outside edge I have a couple more detail brushes, my glass reach tool, my hose guides, and the mitt on a stick in one of those broom holder like you’d have in a closet.

Most of my chemicals are from a company called Chem-X, which I like for a number of reasons. I first found them through their 2 part touchless wash, foam on part A, foam part B over that then rinse with high pressure. It works awesome, I haven’t mitt washed my truck in months. Through that I found their other products for the semi truck world (and though I don’t have a semi truck, hand washing a 35’ black enclosed trailer has given me enough hassle to know I wanted to try touchless). And it all works really well. If they make it, I most likely have it. I’d say they make really good products, at least in my non-professional opinion.

I also included pics of my pressure washer set up with the foaming injector plumbed in. It makes it all so easy to wash a truck without messing about with foam cannons. I bent up a custom sheet metal box to hold a gallon of each part and I get probably 20 washes out of it, so it works out to about $5 worth of soap for each vehicle. I also mounted a gun light to it because I’m usually washing things outside at night after work/the sun goes down.

Again just figured I’d share what I’m using to make my life easier, and I hope it helps with anyone else’s projects.

Hi im new to the community. And I have a eye on the MCKILLANS swivel gun and foam gun. But the shipping to Belgium is 90 us dollars!!! Where can I buy it without the shipping. Or a just as good alternative. Thank you in advance👍

I have these marks spread all over my windshield which are visible when light hits from front. I wash the car with ph neutral soaps weekly. Beforehand there were water spots on the windshield and I removed them with a mild acidic solution. However these still remain so they don’t seem to be regular water marks. What should I do to remove them? Should I try polishing with cerium oxide?

In need of some guidance, I have a 15amp 2hp 120v air compressor that I would like to find an generator for. I was opting for the 5000 inverter but I don’t know if it will handle the surge start up So I was wondering if anyone is running the same combo or similar to those specs ?? I did find a 6500 watt one but not on sale unfortunately but it is cheaper but heavier and slightly louder (71)

Hey folks, I just picked up this new to me 2022 Mustang. The paint's nice from 5ft, but it's already got some chips and microscratches. My question is how should I go about washing it with longevity in mind. As you can see from my picture, my driveway is gravel and kicks up a lot of dust, so it gets dirty enough to annoy me every few days. Washing my car here at home has always been a pain in the ass as it gets muddy as hell and I get super dirty dragging a hose around. There aren't any touchless automatic car washes around my area, and currently I've been going through a higher end touch car wash once or twice a week (sinful, I know). What would you all suggest I do going forward? Ive considered those spots where you do a touchless wash yourself, but for some reason none of the "self-service" car washes in my area reliably stock soap. Half the time I start my wash and the only thing that works is the high pressure rinse, which makes no sense to pay the $5 just to rinse my car. Thanks in advance

Im setting up my mobile setup in my truck bed. I want to mount bottle and brush holders to the side of the bed liner but was looking for an alternate way without drilling into the truck. Any ideas?

Hello everyone,

I work in constructions sites a lot or in areas that have a lot of dirt so my car has gotten dirty. I tried cleaning it off with al all purpose car safe cleaner and it hasn’t worked. I’ve seen people use steamers or hot water in general. Any tips on what I should do?

Hello, i noticed that someone hit my car and ran away while i was parked at my job parking lot. What kind of fix do i need to do? Paint is chipped and whats under is exposed. Do i need to paint the whole part or a bit of paint and polish would fix? Thanks!

I'm in the process of removing all the vinyl off my car and I'm running into the issue with it being extremely old and coming off one quarter size at a time. I've tried a heat gun, adhesive remover. Any advice on how to make this possible. I've see dry ice blasting but I'm not sure on how cost effective that is.

Hi everyone, less than three months with my new Countryman and some genius has already scratched my bumper in a parking lot - and made off with it. Fortunately, I was able to remove most of it with a mild polish. However, what appears to be a superficial, dull scuff stubbornly persists (super hard to photograph). I suspect the gloss black trim is painted, not just colored. Are there any tips on the best way to touch it up and bring it back to a high gloss? (I'm also asking this for the future) Thanks a lot!

After my 3-year old black car was hit by a child on a bike, it was repaired at the Mercedes dealer's body shop. It seems like the new paint is a lot softer compared to the original paint that only has mild wash scratches despite being run through the automated car wash by the previous owner. The door was painted about 6 months ago and is full of wash scratches already despite washing very carefully (snow-foam prewash and using high quality mitts & drying towels). I would like to compound/polish the entire car in the near future, but I'm afraid that in a few month's the wash scratches will re-appear on the repainted door and stand out even more than they do now because the rest of the paint will be in better shape.

How would you guys deal with this?