Basic Road Salt removal tips.

[Detailers Domain]

Subject: 2009 Audi Q7 TDI - Daily Driver
Requirement: Remove Salt and Grime and protect before Winter Storm Nemo!

Exterior

- Wheels were prepped with Sonax Wheel Cleaner and cleaned up with various brushes
- Tires were spritzed down with Adam's APC
- Wheel wells were cleaned up
- Washed with a mix of Adam's Car Wash and Adam's APC
- Wolf's Decon Gel
- Wash down and rinsed
- Door jambs were cleaned up
- Nano Scrub AutoScrub
- Dried
- Tires dressed
- Masking
- Paint Measurement
- Sonax 5/4 Fine Abrasive Polish - Uber Green Pad - Rupes LHR 21ES
- Sonax Polymer NetShield
- Inspection with Fenix, 3m Sun Gun, Infratech, and natural sunlight
- Wheel wells were cleaned and dressed
- Rubber and Plastics Treated
- Exterior windows and mirrors cleaned and sealed
- Exhaust tips cleaned
- Windows were autoscrubed, cleaned, and sealed

Products used

Links to products used -
Exterior
Adam's Car Wash
Adam's APC
Sonax Full Effect Wheel Cleaner
NanoSkin AutoScrub System
Sonax Fine Abrasive
Sonax Polymer NetShield
Adam's Super VRT
Adam's Metal Polish 1
Adam's Metal Polish 2
Adam's Glass Cleaner
Adam's Glass Sealant

Tools used
Uber Wool Wash Mitt
Uber No Name MF Towels
Rupes LHR 15ES Random Orbital Polisher
Rupes LHR 21ES Random Orbital Polisher
Griot's 6 inch Random Orbital Polisher
Uber Buffing Pads
Defelsko Paint Meter
Fenix TK35
Brinkmann
Kranzle Pressure Washer
Uber Foamer Attachment for Pressure Washer
2 Grit Guard Buckets with Caddies
Uber Firehose Nozzle
Metro Air Force Blaster
RoboReel Power Extension Cord

Briefing on Road Salt and what it can do.

A salt and sand mixture is frequently spread over roads before or after a snow or ice storm. Salt lowers water's freezing point, causing any ice already formed to melt even though the air temperature remains well below freezing. The sand helps keep the salt in place, plus it adds a bit of traction to wet and often slushy roads.

While road salting helps people travel safely, it has drawbacks. It can cause major body and undercarriage damage to your vehicles unless you take extra care and precaution.

If you're one of the many who must travel the saline streets in the land of the ice and snow, we have some great tips to help protect your vehicle from the ravages of road salt.

The best time to prevent salt damage to your vehicle is before the first snowflake falls; a little care will help keep the rust away.

Take a look at some of the basic steps to prevent long term damage from salt.

• To start in late autumn, thoroughly wash every inch of your vehicle, including the underside.
• Apply a wax or sealant to the vehicle's paint for protection thru out the winter months.
• Seal the undercarriage, paying closest attention to the brake and fuel lines, as these are the most susceptible items for rust and corrosion and make your vehicle unsafe if they fail.

Further tips to protect your vehicle throughout the winter months.

• Keeping your vehicle as clean as possible during the winter will go a long way to cut down the damage done by salt and sand.
• Wash as much as possible throughout the winter months. Make sure you get to the undercarriage cleaning as well as traditional car washing.
• If weather permits you can do this at home if not get to a coin operated wash bay. Begin by spraying down your vehicle using a garden hose equipped with a high-pressure nozzle, moving from top to bottom.
• Be sure to get as much dirt, grime, and salt from beneath the wheel wells, under the bumpers, behind the fenders and in any other areas prone to salty slush splashes.
• Follow with a warm water (if possible), car wash scrub down, using soap made especially for car washing (we have been using a mix or Adam's Car Wash and Adam's APC in our Foam Cannon for the and its done well cutting all the dirt and salt off the paint. As you know dish soap strips your car's wax. Use a wash mitt or a sponge.
• Don't neglect to scrub all the rubber, trim, outside door seals, tires, and the wheel.
• Rinse thoroughly, making sure to remove all traces of soap.
• Make sure everything is dry. Carefully dry the edges of the doors inside and out, including the undersides of door handles, all hinges, plus the hood and trunk edges. This helps keep them from freezing shut. Protect them as well, you can use your favorite wax or sealant use a rubber seal dressing like 1Z einszett Gummi Pflege Rubber Care to keep the seals protected and from freezing.
• Make sure you wax or seal again after each wash this will ensure car is protected.

Before shots
A lot of salt build up.




Wash - Wheels - Tires - Wheel Wells -Decon - Pre Soak - Wash - Autoscrub - Polish - Seal

Sonax Full Effect Wheel Cleaner




Wolf's Decon Gel working well, nice long dwell times





We have found that Adam's Car Wash and Adam's APC solution works well to help cut salt and grime off the paint in colder temps (ratio for the foam cannon - 2-3 oz of Adam's Car Wash 2-3 oz of Adam's APC - fill the rest with water)


Wash




Rinse


Cleaning up the Aluminum Roof Rails on Audis can be a pain but we were able to improve them using Adam's Metal Polish 1 and 2


Close up


We did a one step polish to improve the gloss on the car using the Rupes BigFoot LHR21ES an Uber Green Pad and Sonax Fine Abrasive Polish
(sorry no photos)
Afters






Update:
Beading shots of Sonax Polymer Net Shield after the blizzard

Extremely tight beading

[THE TECH]

Nice!

[Detailers Domain]

thanks!

[positiveions]

Thanks for the info about removing the salt. Looks clean.

[Detailers Domain]

no problem.

[JulieDriving]

Terrific! You know your stuff.

[sensi09]

Nice job.

You mention sealing the undercarriage. How would you go about doing that?

And how does Wolf's decon gel compare to iron x? Thanks

[Detailers Domain]

wolf's decon gel is great the difference is longer dwelling times, some people love it and some people prefer quicker reaction from the Iron Cut.

as for sealing the bottom of the car before we mount snows we would use opti coat to coat over the brake calipers, wheels, suspension pieces etc.

everything under our later model cars will mostly be covered.

[M3 Esq]

Nice write up, thanks. We are lucky to have a DIY car wash in my town so I try to take all of our cars there weekly. They put down so much of that salt brine and sand mixture it will get caked on if you go even a few weeks without washing. I just use the sprayer to clean the salt off of the body, they I try to get as much of the underneath parts as I can. It has worked well for me so far.

[Detailers Domain]

that should work out nicely.