Spidey

I recently noticed these three huge spiders making their home right in front of my apt. They build these massive webs and sit right in their middle. They have sorta become my friends I think :-), when I head out, if I find one missing, I wonder where it's gone to, prospecting some other site or some such (they probably have multiple residences). A couple of days back, I think some of the landscaping people must have walked through and cleared some of the webs out, in the evening, one of them was busy rebuilding it's web. Looks pretty cool.

 

I don't have any high magnifications lenses that can focus close, so this is pretty much the best I can currently do. The rest of the photos are here.

Pro-Blend

 I  had ordered a couple of these from US plastics, but the site says that it is back ordered. Further searching revealed that Grainger also carries them and the local Grainger store on Kern St in Sunnyvale had it in stock. If you decide to get one from there, have them search for "Chemical dispensing" and locate the item. Do note that it comes in 1 gal and 1 qt sizes, so get the correct one for your needs.

This thread describes how to use it. I have 1 gal jugs of "Optimum No Rinse" and Chemical Guy's Microfiber wash. Totally looking forward to using it. Simply pouring from the 1 gal jug is next to impossible to do cleanly when you have very thin liquids.

Another alternative when you don't have to measure (I need to as the ONR and the MF detergent specify dilution ratios), you can also use these simple spouts or these pumps. I have the spouts on order from CGs as well just to keep them around as they look useful.

Pad care

Following my recent headlight polish job, I was left with three used pads: the tangerine one was particularly dirty and looked saturated with polish (looks like I used more than needed). I needed to wash these fellows and started a new google search for this. Found some useful links

• Use a Pad Washer if you want to spend 140$ or more and have the need and space for it
• Make your own following DIY pad washer
•  Use a brush to clean the excess gunk off the pad (which works best if you have a rotary which I don't. The random orbital is apparently not useful with a pad brush)
• Press the pad into a terry towel and then turn the polisher on: This also has some negatives as some say it deposits lint from the towels onto the pad.

However, using cleaner solutions and the grit gaurds I already had lead me to the following process which worked out very well in cleaning everything out nicely

• Fill a bucket with some water and add some Chemical Guys Citrus wash (Any shampoo might work here. I used the citrus wash following the citrus components in the pad cleaner link above).
• Soak the pads and use a pad cleaner brush to brush stuff off: worked somewhat decently
• Now place the grit-guard at the bottom of the bucket. Hold it in place with one hand and with the other, drag the pads on the grit-guard along it's outer circular edge. This more or less replicates the expensive pad washer mechanism for the weekend warrior. In the future, I think I will skip the brushing step and directly drag the pads on the grit-guard.

Restoring headlights

The first thing I have wanted to do in my renewed desire to see all my wheeled babies shine is to conquer an old problem which I have never been able to solve properly: clear up the yellowed headlights on the prelude (and the accord while I am at it).

I had at one point, decided to do this as after washing the prelude, the headlights were the only sore spot. I proceeded to research like crazy and obviously failed in hitting the right links as I decided to do (following "well" researched net articles and posts):

• Sand the headlights down
• Use a microfiber applicator (small sponge covered with MF) and my stock of random Meguiars scratch remover polish to plenty of elbow grease.
• Stand back and marvel (never got here)

The sanding required that I go to ACE and search their sand paper sections and get sheets of 2000 grit wet/dry sand paper (I think this is all I bought as it is all I have left) and a sanding block (something with a gripper which can hold a piece of sand-paper locked into two edges (wrapped around the bottom and the edges are on the sides). The result of this as of today, looks like so.. (looks worse in person than in the photo).

Following my new detailing bible from detailed image, especially their headlight care section, I decided to use my newly acquired Menzerna polishes (Power Finish and Super Finish) and the new 4 inch Lake Country pads (Yellow regular and the Cyan and Tangerine Hydrotech pads) for the job. I only had the 2000 grit wet.dry paper lying around and decided to see how far I could get with the polishes alone. I realized that unlike clearcoat and paint, the plastic of the headlights is very hard and would require some work to polish. Still, I was hopeful as the inspirational links promised very good results with my plan of action.

On the prelude I taped the trim and then used the Cyan pad with the Power Finish polish followed by the Tangerine pad with the Super Finish polish. I cleaned out/buffed with a microfiber towel after each polish stage. The Porter Cable polisher was set at speed level 4 or 5. The results were very good. Please forgive the different angles, but each headlight looked like the right one does: pretty clear.

Once this was done, I started on the Accord. After fighting with it for a while with the Cyan and Power Finish, the headlights still looked pretty bad. It looks like the wet sanding done several months earlier on the Prelude must have helped. It was already getting cold and I was getting tired, so I did a few passes with the 2000 grit paper (the links from DI indicate the need for progressive 1000, 1500, 2000 and 3000 grits, each done in X first and then Y to produce a hatched sanding pattern) and decided it was done.

Accord before the cleanup

After Wet Sanding

Once wet sanded, I cleaned them up with water and then proceeded again with the Cyan/Tangerine combo (I also hit it with a yellow pad, the most cutting power I had before I decided to sand as the Yellow+Power Finish were not enough), I finally got this..

Note that the hazy/dull sections are actually reflections of the apartment complex. It came out looking pretty good. Will not compare with new headlights, but for a 10 year old plastic piece that has lost it's UV protection and has been battered by billions of tiny projectiles: the old mama looks good again!

Very satisfying day all in all. Folks with yellowing headlights who also have access to polishing compounds should definitely try this: makes a big difference. You can use elbow grease if you don't have a polishing machine. Chemical guy's also has a "Headlight Restoration & Protection System-GlassyLite" listed in their glass care section. I also see other headlight restoration kits being sold at Pep Boys and Auto Zone but have no experience with either.

Detailing cars aka new money pit. Rewarding though!

I have been suddenly and inexplicably been taken with the desire to restore all our cars to their new-car glory. The paint on the Accord and the Prelude have been pretty much neglected for a decade so doing this now is kinda pointless. I am also busy with lots of other things in life. However, this I feel is something I have to do. The other motivation for this vehicle appearance refresh is the feeling that I have to sell the Prelude sooner than later and I wanted to clean it up for the new owner and all that.

I have collected a whole bunch of tools over the past several years so I do have a random orbital buffer, bunch of pads, polishes, sealants etc (know most of the buzz words, see..). However, I restarted my research and now have come to a different set of conclusions or atleast want to start from a different point.

The inspiration for the born-again detailer mojo was this: Ask a detailer thread. This started a whole other list of related searches which lead me to bookmark

• What does Polish unitl it looks clear mean?
• Detailed Image's Auto Detailing Guide (Huge resource)
• Detailed Image's Ask a pro blog (Another huge resource)
• Paint Repair Clinic 
• ONR the definitive thread 
• Leatherique Leather Care How To 

These have made me change how I do stuff as far as keeping the hondas clean which I'll document in subsequent posts as I have another post to add before I forget (or get busy).