When I did my Zaino detail on the TL in august, thanks to patrick's help (exceldetail), I discovered accidentally a great way to kill a bunch of gunk that I was previously unable to remove. I tried everything from mineral spirits to goof-off to almost everything.

I bought some Chemical Guys Citrus Wash and Gloss and make a quick solution to spray the car down with so I could ensure it was clean, and lo and behold it ate through this gunk like it was nobody's business!

Here's the start of this DIY:

Supplies:
Chemical Guys Citrus Wash and Gloss
Multi Purpose Sprayer
Water
Q-tips
Paper Towels




- Take your sprayer and fill it with 30 oz of water
- Next add in 1 oz of Chemical Guys Citrus Wash and Gloss
- Close up the sprayer and shake!

Now your solution is ready, and this is a good muti-purpose solution. Spray it anywhere on the exterior of the car and it'll be sqeaky clean since it's super concentrated. Chemical guys states (see in the photo) 2 oz for 1 gallon will give superior cleaning!

This is the trunk lid of my 2004 TL:






And the drain channels on the side:



Surprised , right?









Well now to the cleaning!

Take a paper towel and ball it up. Then put it at the end of the drain channel like the photos below. This will keep the solution from spreading everywhere and as well help out later on:



And now take the sprayer and lightly mist on the top edges (so it dribbles down) and the little corner on the side channels:


This is what it should look like after spraying:


Then take a Q-Tip and start agitating! I didn't have any brushes to use so I used these, a brush will make it faster of course!







And then take another towel and wipe the area down, you'll need 2 towels to make sure it's dry.

Just as a comparison, Befores and afters:






Also take a look a little lower:


Take a q-tip and clean!


After:




And now it's time for that nasty trunk lid!

- The paper towel that was used as the block will now help you out! Take it out and lightly run over the crusted area on the trunk lid. This will help pre-soak it, and you'll be surprised how dirty the blocking towel will get!



Now it's time to soak a Q-tip a little bit. Hold the Q-tip right up to the sprayer and lightly spray, rotate the q-tip and should start turning yellow:



Once soaked, pick and area and start agitating!


Wipe the area down and check your progress:


On the trunk I cleaned a once inch section and then started doing the rest of it. The welding end (that's circled) is a great point of reference to see how much a difference is made:




and now here are some perspective views of that!



and when you get all of that middle area done, you'll have those pesky corners!


Man that's dirty!!!

Take the sprayer and spray lightly about 4 inches up from the corner along the weld line, this will cause the solution to dibble down and slowly soak into the grime/gunk.

Then take your trusty q-tip and start cleaning!

After:


I know it may not look as good as it should, but with a bit of time and elbow grease it should be as good as new! It was kinda hard for me to hold a camera and the q-tip to show how everything was to be done, and as well I rushed slightly because it was HOT out here!

Remember to stay hydrated if you attempt this!!!! Also if you have senstive skin, wear gloves!

 

Thanks man, this should help out alot of the new guys!

 

Did I fail to mention ?
That looks time consuming and yes, thanks for sharing. Its bound to help others with this laborious task...........Looks like your ahead of most of us in similar shape!

 

Thanks for the tip, I will have to give that a try.

I was thinking the same thing about the Sonic Scrubber, it was made for a task like this.

 

CS, way to get down and dirty with the Q-Tips!

 

It happens, i didn't have any good automotive brushes and the Q tip was the next softest thing that was in my aresnal. Patrick, I may have to buy one of those scrubbers, but I hope someone isn't going to use it as a tooth brush at home....

 

That scrubber is way too powerful to be used as a toothbrush. Once you turn it on you should know it's no toothbrush...

 

I would have used my wife's toothbrush. LOL

 

 

Wife's tooth brush

Nice writeup CS

Nothing I hate worse than cleaning the cracks and crevices

 

just as long as you don't go and put it back where u got it from after you are done...

 

^^or kiss her afterwards.

 

And just how many times do you think our wives have used our TB to scrub something other then teeth, unbeknownst, only to give it a quick rinse and put it back?

 

^^thats not funny.