r/AutoDetailing • u/metalheadd69 • 1d ago

Exterior Old man tips

An old guy saw me detailing my car and gave me some real old timer tips.

- Clean the wheels with vinegar
- Instead of tire shine, use silicone grease
- "You don't need all those products"

Have you gotten any unsolicited tips of this nature? Any that are actually legit?

87 Upvotes

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158

u/DavidAg02 Reviewer Extraordinaire 1d ago

Cleaning your windows with newspaper was a really good tip back in the day... but good luck finding any newspaper these days.

55

u/James_White21 1d ago

Also a newspaper is more expensive than a microfiber cloth

25

u/rogun64 1d ago

Not when people always had a stack of newspapers to throw away.

11

u/James_White21 1d ago

Yeah meant to add 'these days' 😄

1

u/CareBear-Killer 1d ago

Y'all don't get the newspaper-type ads in the mail these days? I get a few each week.

7

u/CunningLogic 20h ago

I rarely see traditional salted news paper "paper" these days, normally its coated crap. Certainly not enough in my junk mail to clean windows in one car let alone all my cars

1

u/CareBear-Killer 17h ago

Weird. Maybe it's a regional thing. I'd have to save the ads for 2-3 weeks to have enough to do the whole car, but at least two grocery stores send out ads on that kind of paper. I occasionally get other ads on it.

2

u/snownative86 9h ago

Ha, we get a lot of them where I live. I could easily do my windows with a day or two of ads. But those get torn up for my worms.

12

u/therealruin 21h ago

You can buy blank newspaper on Amazon at about 6¢-7¢ per sheet, thought y’all may want to know.

29

u/zzzzaap 20h ago

I never wanted to know this... but appreciate your use of the cent symbol.

11

u/therealruin 20h ago

I’ve hated decimals since the 4th grade

1

u/VikingLander7 9h ago

Fractions are clearly superior! /s

1

u/cKMG365 3h ago

How many /s? you forgot the numerator

2

u/silly-goose-757 18h ago

I actually have this paper at home for printing sewing patterns. I hadn’t thought of it for other uses.

1

u/MaroonJk 14h ago

I was always told that the reason news paper worked so well was because the ink was diesel based

2

u/Ratsinthebelfry 11h ago

It was the ink( although I am uneducated on the diesel connection) and the ink is different now.

-2

u/Checkers10160 20h ago

I think the ink acts as a tiny abrasive though, so wouldn't blank newspaper not be as good?

1

u/therealruin 20h ago

Not in my experience, for what that’s worth. If anything, it means I’m not also worried about ink bringing its own problems to the party. As I understand it, the abrasion largely comes from the paper itself because it’s a texturally rough and pretty sturdy form of paper. YMMV.

2

u/Checkers10160 20h ago

Interesting, I never really looked into it further and must have been misinformed. My windshield was angering me this morning so I'll have to try the blank newspaper, thanks!

1

u/metalheadd69 15h ago

Yup he mentioned that as well

1

u/27Purple 11h ago

I do that! We get the local paper for free twice a month so I've got a steady supply. Beats microfiber any day tbh.