Monte carlo wheel bolts. Plastic covers.

[DieselMonte]

Wonder if you could get some wax or back to black crap to stick to them? They're painted metal wipers so maybe a bit of polishing by hand could bring them up, provided the paints not lifted like felix's has.

[Ootohere]

For all the years the issue has come up with the wipers on Mk2 Fabia it is only some, not all and it can be one wiper and not both.

No idea about the actual alloy of the wipers that do have the aluminium type corrosion rather than rust.

Test them with a magnet.

http://briskoda.net/forums/topic/369788-rusty-wiper-arms

 

 

 

.

 

 

Edited 11 August, 2021 by e-Roottoot

[nta16]

1 hour ago, DieselMonte said:

They're painted metal wipers so maybe a bit of polishing by hand could bring them up, provided the paints not lifted like felix's has.

Yes as they're painted so you can use whatever polish you use on the painted body but if they're dull you could use something like a T-Cut style product that is a slightly more abrasive product (many liquid cream polishes are mildly abrasive).  Take care with T-Cut style product not to over do it otherwise you're taking too much paint of and/or they might get duller.  After you'd need to use your standard polish or wax.

 

Always use the mildest cleaner or polish you can, certainly to start with and see what the result is before moving on to slightly more abrasive.

 

Black always stands out more on the car, paint, seals, tyres, just cleaning them, and the lights and number plates, and perhaps the windows can make the whole car look cleaner and you've not touched the bodywork.

 

I often clean only the safety items, the lights and reflective number plates, then sometimes also the windows and wiper elements  and people think I've cleaned the car when the bodywork and wheels are still dirty.  I clean the bodywork three or four times a year and then with great reluctance.

 

[DieselMonte]

I wash mine weekly and keep a fresh coat of wax on it usually. I've used bumper gel on the rear wiper and it worked great as its plastic. Might just give the front wipers a go of meguiars ultimate compound tonight.

[Ootohere]

^^^ Best plan.

I usually give wipers arms a rub over with Back to Black or what ever product i am using when in full 'Kerbside Auto's' mode.

(I was a professional Industrial then a car sprayer.)

As to the wiper springs, they might get a little petroleum jelly touch on them while i am doing the same to the battery terminals.

Harks back to what was a common practice when i served my time as a Motor vehicle engineer. 

 

PJ was always available for when bending customers over.

[sepulchrave]

5 minutes ago, e-Roottoot said:

...PJ was always available for when bending customers over.

 

Nowadays they don't care and just go in dry!

[Ootohere]

@sepulchrave 

Your error might be assuming all are the same everywhere.   Not even all Main Dealerships are the same.

 

There are owners and managers & Techs, Fitters, Mechanics around that do give a monkeys rather than just being cheeky money grabbing grease monkeys and do a proper job for fair money charged.

[mrgf]

6 minutes ago, e-Roottoot said:

 

Your error might be assuming all are the same everywhere.   Not even all Main Dealerships are the same.

 

I think it was a remark made in jest, as you do!

e-Roottoot, as you mentioned being an (Ex) In the auto trade, where do you stand personally, on the battery terminal PJ issue? I have known of applying either that or proper branded terminal protecting substances, ever since starting off on my driving career, back in the late 70's but when I purchased the Skud, The instructions/service schedule says "NO"! Leave the terminals clean and bare, basically. I wondered why, as this seems to flow against the current, so to speak but obviously, when in warranty, one does as requested. That said, a good, clean, well charged and firmly connected battery perhaps does not need the attention.

[Ootohere]

@mrgf

I never look at or touch terminals on new cars with covers and leave jump starting them to others.

 

With my old cars or motorbikes they still get a little clean with a wire brush and smeared with the Vasoline i have on my finger after giving the wiper blades a bit of a moisturising, and the springs a fondle. 

(The wiper blades then get cleaned off before going back on the screen.)

[nta16]

1 hour ago, DieselMonte said:

I've used bumper gel on the rear wiper and it worked great as its plastic.

I also use the (Autoglym) bumper gel on rubber seals and the metal wiper arms with an inch (or so) cube of clean old sponge, it gives a better finish but doesn't last long enough.

 

[nta16]

Years ago I read that modern battery posts don't need Vasoline or the like, can't remember now if that was on a manufacturer's or supplier's site.  I used to use Coppergrease IIRC.   Personally I don't like the spray stuff over the clamps as most are sticky and hold on to grit/muck/crud.

 

But I'm not an expert in anything or technical or have any mechanical aptitude - I did once, for a short time work in the motor trade and my general experience was, at that one place at that time, that some there at least including the owners, had little high regard of their customers and the service manager treated customers, internal and external, as something he'd just trod in and this attitude no doubt influenced the others he commanded.  I know not all are like that, some get so fed up with it they set up their own business and often they have more business than they can cope with so are difficult to book in with or get in as a new customer.

 

[DieselMonte]

46 minutes ago, nta16 said:

I also use the (Autoglym) bumper gel on rubber seals and the metal wiper arms with an inch (or so) cube of clean old sponge, it gives a better finish but doesn't last long enough.

 

Stuff I have is called bumper gel but its not Autoglyms stuff. Same stuff likely just a different brand. Its in a 5l drum but I put it into an empty 500ml waterbottle with a sports cap on it. Easier to use as I can just pour out a little bit onto a foam pad. Instead of it coming out in one great lump.

[nta16]

I don't know if Autoglym make their own gel or not.  It used to be green now it's clear and smells like peardrops(?).

 

Decades back I got a 5 litres of Autoglym engine cleaner, ten times concentrate water it down so 50 litres, I gave loads away and now I'm just about running out.  I used to know someone who bought a Autoglym wagon franchise, he made so much money on it he got a second wagon and two people to sell the stuff whilst he played golf.  I don't know if that's still the case now but the prices are still very high.

 

I went to a (free) demo a wagon seller was doing for a local car club (in the pub car park of course) and after he offered to sell at discount and boy were they good deals and he was still happy with the money he took.  This was well before the hobby of polishing and detailing took off so much, shows the profit.

 

 

[DieselMonte]

Of course there's money in it. I've been buying the big megs gold class car wash at 26euro per bottle of it. Margins must be insane with detailing stuff.

[nta16]

Our local club went over to Meguiars at Daventry a few years back and although they didn't charge for the visit or demo they obviously expected sales from it and weren't giving any products away, or offers IIRC.

 

Autoglym many years back wanted an association or to sponsor our national club but it was never followed up.  At the NEC international classic car shows for a few years our stand was next to first Autogly, and then Meguiars national concours completion stand and on set up day I saw a car being rolled off a trailer with bubble wrap.  I was told you'd never start some of the cars as the fixings were all lined up for cosmetics so might weep fluids, I don't know if that was true but could imagine it as even at outdoor shows the inside of tyre treads were polished.  This was all before "detailing" was big.

 

Recently the club has been offered a few places with Xpert60 car cleaning products (I've never heard of them but I'm not into such) for some training and tour of their manufacturing place, usually not open to public but at a reasonable donation to charity,  

 

IIRC it must have been in the late 1980s as IIRC it was on my white Skoda Estelle 2 130 (5-speed) I once put four different polishes on the four doors to see if I could tell if there was any difference.  IIRC Autoglym, something like a (£2 tin) Turtlewax and a couple of others one was Raindance IIRC.  I couldn't see or feel any difference and I can't remember one lasting more than the others.  So by that the cheapest (£2 tin) Turtlewax was best value, and easiest to use, of course there's more to it than my basic test..

 

I used to spend two days cleaning  and polishing a car, not detailing then, or to even local-Sunday-village-show standards  but wheels off, seats out sort of thing, on acquiring a used car or before selling - those days are long gone!  I now use the carnauba wash 'n' wax type products, when I can be bothered which isn't often as the cars are outside 365/6.

 

Edited 11 August, 2021 by nta16

[DieselMonte]

I've used xpert 60 wheel cleaner before. I think they call it indigo 10? Top notch stuff but decently expensive. Its similar to stuff like iron off. Probably best to use cheaper wheel cleaner for a normal wash and then bust out the xpert 60 stuff for when they get bad.

I agree with you on the turtlewax, I used to use megs ultimate wax and it was phenomenal. Got a tub of turtlewax hardshell for 9 euro last week and waxed both my car and my mothers. Same as you I've not noticed much difference between the turtlewax and the megs ultimate wax regarding the finish. The turtlewax was a bit of a ballache to buff off compared to anything else i've used. Waxed my car saturday and had to use it that evening. Drove it through a rainstorm, parked it outside and the next day the car still looked spotless, you would have sworn I had just washed the thing! Hopefully it lasts a while.

[Ootohere]

My mate that was an Autoglym rep swore by the Bug Off 'Active Insect remover' stuff as their best product to use for cleaning anything. 

But then he maybe had a shed full of it.

 

For getting big dubs / road grime off without messing about this is the proper stuff. 

 I have had years of expensive polishes and waxes and now i just have Careplan stuff in bulk.

 

Edited 11 August, 2021 by e-Roottoot

[nta16]

5 hours ago, DieselMonte said:

The turtlewax was a bit of a ballache to buff off compared to anything else i've used.

You might be too used to faffing (being polite) about with expensive overpriced stuff to just follow what's on the tin in a very easy get it done fashion.

 

Some stuff is better but demising returns regards value and cost come in, very, very, very early, you pay for the costs of marketing and snobbery.  I used to be a hi-f nut and the demising returns were a lot more expensive but less of a factor than beauty creams.

 

[nta16]

TFR - good for cleaning but not for protection - I am not an expert in any of this - or anything else.

 

I went on a cleaning part of a Citroën website and suggested a bit of basic cleaning of the car and the detailers were horrified but I was addressing the average owner like me that can't be arsed with spending hours washing a car - and I've nothing against those that spend or pay for hours/days of cleaning, as I put I've done I've myself, only because I'm so slow and inefficient.

 

I know of, not the people personally other than to nod to, those that spend thousands of pounds annually on a cleaning and detailing contract for a single car but you can guess the value of the car, and that it's worth the investment.  But always remember regardless of their position or wealth, they're just just the same as the rest of us, most between good and bad, and to avoid my more earthy sayings, as our US friends would say 'put their pants on one leg at a time'.   

Edited 11 August, 2021 by nta16

[DieselMonte]

Polishing the wipers did a good job.

I use carplan trade valet wheel cleaner, I dilute it by half because as I said, I wash my car weekly so it never gets too bad.

TFR is great stuff but it strips any sort of wax on the car so I stay away from it.

[nta16]

Looks good to me.

 

I can't think what you'd use to keep the rust or corrosion off the points about the hinge pins, other than perhaps a little light oil to help with lubrication.

Edited 12 August, 2021 by nta16

[sepulchrave]

22 hours ago, e-Roottoot said:

@sepulchrave 

Your error might be assuming all are the same everywhere.   Not even all Main Dealerships are the same.

 

There are owners and managers & Techs, Fitters, Mechanics around that do give a monkeys rather than just being cheeky money grabbing grease monkeys and do a proper job for fair money charged.

 

Your error was assuming I was being serious, you really can't read people at all so you should stop trying and confine yourself to factual comments about the subject matter.

 

I'm being serious now btw.