Making the company car presentable

Scott P

New member
I have to take one of the company Tauruses (or is it Taurai?) on the road this week. Due to a change in plans, I will have time to wash and wax it. Being a company car driven (and owned) by people who could give a crap, what should I put on it? I use the car a lot and therefore have to make it acceptable for me to drive. The windshiled has a thick film on the outside while the paint hasn't seen a lick of wax or poilsh in probably two years.



I'll most likely have my choice of the marroon 2000 or the champagne 1999 to drive. I'm going to clean the inside up with the wet/dry and the dash with some Armor All car cleaner. I just need to find somehting I can apply to the outside that is low effort, but tough enough. I will most likely use this product on the Mt Bike, my Weber Grill :o), and anything else I need a quick coat of wax on.



I'm thinking along the lines of NuFinish or Meguairs for the paint and some sort of polish for the windows. I think I can find my needs at Parts America or Target.



Any ideas? I'm not about to use my Zaino on the car, much less dedicate too many hours to it.



TIA



Scott P



(This car will be lucky enought o even see my good MF's) :D :eek:
 
Nufinish would be fine. Armor All car polish is also a very good cheapo product. Eagle One Wet polish is excellent and easy to use.



I bought some cheapo stuff at the dollar store so maybe look at those places for a decent wax. Why spend $5 on NuFinish when you can spend $1.99?
 
I headed down to the Advance Auto in da 'hood next to my office for supplies. They were out of NuFinsh (lord knows why), so I bought Mother's Carnauba Cleaner Wax and an applicator to put it on with. To justify the purchase, I also bought some E-1 A2Z wheel cleaner too, for my car.



I got to spend two hours this evening on a 99 champagne Taurus that hadn't been thoroughly cleaned in probably two years. I washed the car and was amazed by the sheeting action of the water. There wasn't a droplet to be formed. It really needed to be clayed, but I didn't feel like exerting the extra effort and using my Zaino clay on this car. I applied a coat of the California Gold to the whole car using my $0.99 terry applicator. The surface was as rough as I've ever seen on a car. I buffed it all with one of my 100% cotton towels from my pre-MF days. It looked better, but was still rough. I applied a second coat to the hood and it got a little better. I ran out of ambition to do the rest.



I spent the rest of my time vacuming the interior and cleaning the window glass. If it wasn't for my Viper Glass towel, I don't think I would've gotten the inside of the windows clean. I cleaned up all the vinyl and plastic with some Armor All AP cleaner to get rid of the dust and scuff marks. The car looks 1,000% better. Too bad it's that damn champagne color, or I could really see a difference for all my effort.



Of course, the minute I find any fries, popcorn or pretzel bits in it from a co-worker or boss, I'll probably kill them...:D
 
Champagne is a very difficult color to work with, but you can get good results out of it...with the right producst, and a good amount of time (probably a lot more than you are willing to put into a company car).



I own a Champagne Aurora, and have gotten a pretty good shine, IMO, out of it...although it took alot of work.



Champagne is an excellent color to trick your eye into thinking it's clean when it's not. About the only thing that shows up on it is tar, and really big, dead bugs. Dust and everyday dirt don't show up.:up
 
Aurorav8 said:
Champagne is a very difficult color to work with, but you can get good results out of it...with the right producst, and a good amount of time (probably a lot more than you are willing to put into a company car).



I own a Champagne Aurora, and have gotten a pretty good shine, IMO, out of it...although it took alot of work.



Champagne is an excellent color to trick your eye into thinking it's clean when it's not. About the only thing that shows up on it is tar, and really big, dead bugs. Dust and everyday dirt don't show up.:up



which is a killer...... my wife hasn't washed her car in a month (and Lord knows I haven't been taking care of hers like I should be...... I figure, why bother when she doesnt care??) :scared
 
Shiny Lil Detlr said:




which is a killer...... my wife hasn't washed her car in a month (and Lord knows I haven't been taking care of hers like I should be...... I figure, why bother when she doesnt care??) :scared



It is a killer...but I don't let the car get that dirty to begin with.



My wife has a white Chrysler that she doesn't take care of. And I kind of thought the same thing that you did...no point in spending the time and putting in all that effort for something she doesn't care about.



But I couldn't handle it after 4 or 5 months of neglect. So I decided to take it Sunday morning, and spend about 4 hours on the thing.
 
Get a bottle of Klasse All In One from www.tacscar.com (don't know if Tim at Tacscar carries the $10 bottle anymore) and use your PC to work out 3 coats, leaving the last on on a tad longer. Then use QD to remove final coat.



It's quick and easy, AIO goes a long way and it will give you a shine that is not only easy but will offer protection better than any carnauba wax.
 
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