TRANSCRIPT
Hi folks, welcome to another winter in New Jersey. It’s 24 degrees outside, a little bit warmer in the shop. We have the 125 machine here. We’re going to do a video of cleaning this, or at least half of this, dirty, salty car.
This is what we get here in the Northeast. It snows a little bit. They put down tons of salt. It gets sprayed up on the car. Nobody washes their cars for a while, so this is what we get. On a day like today, we can’t wash the car outside. If you can get water to flow, it’s going to freeze on contact. Your shop, your driveway—it would be an ice skating rink if we tried to wash this car the conventional way.
So we’re going to do the car. With the 125, I’m going to do half the car. We’re going to go front to back. I’ll explain as I go, but we have a 125 machine set up here. I have some towels ready to go. I’ll swap my towels out as they get dirty. I’m going to use this horsehair brush. As I get down to the lower part of the car, I’m going to use that to scrub.
Inside our chemical tank, we have Optimum No Rinse as our cleaner. So that’s what we’re going to use as the car wash. And again, this is water only for the boiler. So we’re pretty much ready to go.
We’re going to start top to bottom. I’m not going to do the roof. I want to keep my towels on the roof just for demonstration purposes. I’ll do the windshield, work my way down the car. I’m not going to rush. You’ll decide if washing the car with steam is for you. But we are going to get this car clean. You can see the before. You’ll see the after.
I’m just going to walk my way through it. I’ll stop periodically as I think I need the machine to regenerate its pressure, and I want to wipe down or describe what I’m doing in the video.
So let’s start. I’m going to take my brush. I don’t need it right now. I’m going to put it in my pocket, and we’re ready to go.
The cracks and crevices—I can blow out with steam that way. Or, if I choose, I can put my brush. Now again, putting the brush on or taking it off the nozzle when there’s very little steam coming out of here, that’s when the steam is the hottest. You have to be careful with that.
This brush is brand new and it’s clean, so I have no problems going along the cracks and crevices with the brush to do a little bit more scrubbing. Now this is just steam only.
Now, as we come on glass, this is a common question we get asked all the time: Is the steam going to shatter the glass? The answer is no. So we don’t have to worry about it on the glass. We’re not going to create enough heat to shatter the glass.
This car is pretty frosty, but we’re nowhere near creating enough heat to shatter the glass. So if you want to scrub the glass to get the windshield clean, the side glass clean, the mirror glass clean, you’re not going to break the glass by doing that.
So I’m getting the cracks and crevices. Now I want to introduce some chemical. Our injection pump comes on. It’s going to fill the hose with cleaner. It’s going to mix with steam, and it’s going to be pretty wet. So now this is where I need the help of the cleaner, the Optimum No Rinse.
As everything gets really wet, I’m going to go back to steam. Now again, this is my back button. The back button is for our cleaner. It fills the hose with chemical. Now I go back to steam. And I am pretty wet. But I want to be wet.
The buzzing noise we hear—that’s the chemical pump. My hose is filling up with cleaner. As it starts to come out pretty wet, I go back to steam. I’m nice and wet. I have plenty of power.
Now my steam pressure has dropped a decent amount at this point. I haven’t really given the machine a chance to recover. We’re down to about 70 psi on the gauge. But I still have enough wetness to work with.
So now I’m going to put the gun down. I’m going to do a little wipe up. This gives me a chance to wipe up the area I just did, as well as let the machine regenerate its pressure.
We can’t use this like a diesel machine. We can’t use this like even our 240-volt 155 machine because we’re working with 120 volts. We need the machine to regenerate its pressure, and we have to do a section at a time and wipe up.
So again, I’m only doing the center of the hood, the center of the bumper. And I’m working my way back. Now I’m creating a little bit of wetness on the ground, but not so much that it’s going to be a problem. If your shop is warm enough, or if it’s warm enough outside, it’s going to dry fairly quickly.
Now I have the front part of the roof done, windshield, hood, headlight—which needs to be restored, but it’s clean. The bumper, the grill, all that’s clean. Now the machine is back to almost full pressure, so now I’m going to continue.
I’m going to wait on the wheels. To clean the wheels, I’m going to spray them with Optimum Power Clean—that’s my all-purpose cleaner of choice. We’ll do that in a little while. Then we’ll use the steam to rinse the wheels.
But now I’ll work my way down. I’m going to do two panels—the fender and the door—all in one shot. Same thing: wipe up, let the machine regenerate its pressure.
Cracks and crevices—I want to get the salt out of the cracks and crevices first. Now I want a little bit of cleaner here because this is really dry, caked-up salt.
Now, if we look at what we have so far, this puts on a nice show because of how cold the car is. We’re starting from top to bottom. I see some videos where people use steam on the outside of the car and just wave the wand around. That will eventually get the car clean, but it’ll take forever. We don’t want to take forever—time is money.
This car is really dirty. We’ve got to get the car done. So back to cleaning.
This panel is actually very clean now. So we’re working from top to bottom. I blew most of the salt out of that molding. Now I’m going to do the lower part. You can see the amount of wetness we have on the ground—it’s really dirty down here.
The steam also helps with bugs and tar on the bottom of the car. If you have a bug and tar remover as a cleaner, you can spray that on and use the brush with the steam to help remove them.
Now, as the machine regenerates pressure, I’m using a lot of no rinse to help get this clean. My towel is getting dirty, so I’ll use this as my dirty towel for the lower part of the car.
So two panels are done—fender, front door. We’re looking pretty good compared to the back. Obviously, I’ll stay away from this rust spot. You have to be careful with rust or protruding moldings.
Now, moving on to the quarter panel. I’ll clean the cracks and crevices with steam, then introduce some cleaner. There’s a lot of tar here, so I’ll use Optimum Power Clean to help.
After that, I’ll move on to cleaning the wheels using Power Clean and steam. These wheels aren’t very intricate, so it should be quick. I’ll wipe up any excess moisture on the ground before finishing.
Now, looking at the finished result, it took longer than using a pressure washer or garden hose, but on a 24-degree day, you’re not using water. The car is now clean enough to move on with the rest of the detailing—whether it’s claying, buffing, or spray waxing.
