In the background of Garage Style Magazine is a small army of people who keep things humming along very smoothly. One of them is Christina. Recently, she couldn’t pass up a deal on a brand-new Chevrolet Colorado pickup. Finished entirely in jet black, it looked like something Darth Vader might use to go camping. But, she had little choice as the other Colorados on the lot weren’t interesting to her, so all black it was.
Black is a tricky color – it shows everything, it’s absolutely merciless. But when it’s clean, it’s hard to beat. When she took delivery of it, she didn’t notice right away all the swirls and streaks and so on – which was weird, the window sticker mentioned it had been ceramic coated, and usually ceramic coated cars are absolutely flawless. Brand-new cars are normally fairly close to flawless too, but there it was, a new truck with swirls and mars aplenty.
The dealership was no help, so we turned to the folks at Griot’s Garage. They set us up with a plan of attack that involved extensive instructions and a few of their tools and chemicals. Christina is looking forward to sharing the experience in the coming weeks to help you really spruce up your own vehicle, swirls and mars or not.
Meanwhile, it’s a great time to start thinking about tools and chemicals you might like to have to enjoy the first cleanup of the season. From my detailing days, I remember one trick above so many: if the glass, brightwork, wheels, and tires are clean, so long as the body is also clean, the car will look infinitely better. It can be a car in primer, and so long as it’s just washed up with sparkling glass, brightwork, wheels, and tires, it’ll look much better. So, I’ve long kept wheel and tire cleaner, and good glass cleaner around, and it’s often been from Griot’s. I’m a huge fan of the Water Spot Remover, glass polish, glass polishing pads and Premium Glass Cleaner. Check those out, along with other glass-cleaning related items here.
For the wheels and tires, their Heavy-Duty Wheel Cleaning Kit is a great place to start, and having the Long-Reach Wheel Scrubber Brushes on hand is a good idea. Iron and Fallout Remover is good to have on hand too, along with basic Wheel Cleaner. The Compact Bendable Wheel Brush is fabulous, I’ve found the large one to be a little too big for most jobs, but I think it depends on your wheels. For the tires, their Tire Scrubbing Brush is really great and the 3-in-1 Wheel-Tire-Mat Cleaner can take the place of the Iron and Fallout Remover if your wheels aren’t that bad. See their tire cleaners here.
So, there’s a good start to the season – wash the car, clean up the glass, wheels, and tires, and it’ll seem like you did a lot more. Meanwhile, stay tuned for Christina’s major correction article.
