Glass sealants

Good glass sealants for car is normally hard to get. The purpose is also some times not all that clear.

I drive around 50000 km a year and I think the safety is the issue.  The safety when you drive in rain and get a meeting car head flashes in your face and you for an instant of second loses the control.

done

As you could see the rain is going away from the windshield without the wipes. Only when you are directly behind another car the rain mist makes it a bit hard but as soon you are with a free highway the sight is clear.

That´s why I put the No1 Glassguard 51 on my cars front window.

It protect you from the blur and gives you a free sight!

It’s a two (2) component product that will give you a clear view for another 8 months.

Two bonus effects is that you don’t need the wipes when you are driving in rain over 70 km/h and up here in the permafrost it’s much easier to take away the ice on the windows when you have applied No1 Glassgurad 51.

Even some times there are no  ice on your car window when you neighbour is struggling with his car 06,45 in the morning.

Detailing in the economic crises

I was in Gothenburg, Sweden and attended in a car detailing class on Master level in Volvo Car Corporations own facility.

Volvo is launching a car detailing education for all Volvo whole sellers around the Nordic countries with Lahegas detailing line No1.

The classes is divided in two different levels, Basic and Master. It’s a two days class on each level. Theory and practice is equal important for a good en result

 

 

Here is the class student taking care of a deep scratch with spot water grinding and foam polishing as a final step.

 

 

 

 

Business in selling new cars is less in this economic crises and Volvo was determine to get new business to cover the lack of new car selling. They saw this business case as one of the most interesting.

 Normally their whole sellers out sourced this kind of business to local detailing centres. But now they decided to take that business by them self.

 

 

No wool pads in Sweden just foam in different colours with different hardness.

 

 

 

 

 

We are currently working with the Swedish Volvo whole sellers. Next are Norway, Denmark and Finland.

Carwash in Netherlands

I had the opportunity to visit some car washes in Holland and Belgium last week. I was on a business trip and schedule some visits. 

There wear two major differences from our Scandinavian way of wash a car in a roll-over machine.

Manual prewash

This guy was standing in the queue to the car wash and prewashed all cars first with high pressure then a brush.

Nylon brushes

Then the car moved in to the carwash and the  roll-over machine was equipped with nylon brushes! Today most of the EC market is using carlite brushes. Soft foam, similar to sponges, but in stripes. Not so aggressive to the paint finish as the nylon can be.

Spring has arrived to south of Sweden. Here is a photo of rapeseed on a field outside of my hometown.

Nice to know that summer is on it’s way.

Oil-separator

 

is a topic in many countries were the government is focused to avoid to much oil in the waste water from car washes.

I was at a meeting with one of the big player in car wash in our region. They have invest substantially in building new and improved oil separators but still there are car washes were they do not full fill the regulations.

The conclusion was that it has to be the chemicals.

I stated the difference between detergent and detergent.

Alkaline, petroleum and micro emulsions are all called detergents but they are totally different if you see them in a strict chemical point of view.

They also react differently in the oil separator, no questions about that. Micro emulsions are the biggest threat. Petroleum based detergents with emulsifiers is second then the ones without emulsifiers. Alkaline is the best from this  point of view.

Petroleum based detergents without emulsifiers has a big problem to penetrate the water film that is very common on cars in winter time.

We have added an additive to the detergent on the right side so it can penetrate the water film on the car so it will react and solve the contamination, read asphalt and tar, on the surface in a efficient way.

Our laboratory did a short film and the left detergent is a normal petrolium based with emulsifiers and the detergent to the right is without.

done

Some water is added first then the two different petrolium based detergents. The difference in speed of seperation between the two is huge.

 Herobiol Flash is the name of this new imporved product, to the right in the film, that could help many carwashes who has problem with the outgoing wastewater.

Foam or wool pads?

Thats the question that many detailer is keep asking them.

Buffing with wool pad is a faster and cooler way to take away scratches and imperfection in the paint. But on the other hand if the paint is a bit soft or sensitive the wool could make your day a bit sour.

Foam is the most common in Scandinavia if we talking detailing on the aftermarket. But to remove scratches you need compounds and the heat from the friction between the pad and the paint. If you are not educated in this you could create a lot of holograms and swirls from you buffer.

On top of that the different and constantly change of paints makes it not easier.

The development of a foam that cuts fast and efficient without leaving swirls, if right handed, is a top priority for us manufactures.

There is some blended pads with both foam and wool but the are not that common, not were I have been.

The technique is a key issue. If you angel the pad towards the paint you always should go over it flat before you leave. Clean the pad frequently. Use clay before you start to prevent hologram is also a common way.

Lahega has launched a new 165 mm wide foam pad with a new  foam technique that cuts well and leaves a minimum of holograms. This pad comes in two different styles. Orange for medium cutting and black as a swirl remover.

Good luck!

Education

Education is the key to success in many ways

But the change of detailing workers in different garages is a big problem.

As  managers all over world putting money in different educations and then two weeks later the detailer looses interest and move on to another job.

Today’s paints and all problem around detailing  is a big problem because the customer expect a good result worth the money he is paying.

One help with this is a new two headed orbital polishing machine. It’s look like the old Cyclo but is more variable in different tasks it could perform.

 

done

This machine together with special designed foam pads will manage detailing without making swirls and holograms on dark and sensitive paints.

Two different products No1 Fastcut 13 with an orange foam pad and No1 Finishcut 18 with a black foam pad could save your company a lot of work.

Last week I was educated 13 Norwegians in detailing and some of them hadn’t hold a polisher in there hands before.

We worked on a black BMW with this tool and did some good results.

If they had used a single rotating machine the had for sure done some good swirls and holograms in the paint that would given me a some hard work to take away .

Strange looking keypad in Denmark

The other day I was working in Denmark. When I stopped at Statoil to refuel, I became a little nervous, because my tank card did not work.
I was sure that it was going to work in Denmark, but no…
The card-reader accepted the card, but said the code was wrong, even though I entered it correctly, I thought.
After the second attempt, I looked closer at the numbers where you key in the code.
The figures were not in the same way in which I am used to. The pattern was on the keypad was for me in the wrong way.

In Sweden all numeric keypads which I know of starts with the number 1 on top left and ends with number 9 bottom right. (ATMs, tank machines, alarms, laptops, mobile phones etc.)

What does it look like in other countries?

Fantastic

new product from our laboratory.

Do you want to to wash your car, Not!!!!

Then this i something for you!

Well I have to show of a bit and let you see a fairly new product that could put some of us out of business….

This new product is named No1 Surftec 68 and is bottled in a aerosol can. Just spray and let it dry!

Then it will protect and give a self cleaning water repellent surface.

I drove 2500 km before I took this photo in Norway with Scandinavian winter climate!

Half of my rare side is done and the other is not. You have to figure out which half…;))

New car deliverance

In many counties special companies are taking care off new imported cars deliverance clearance.

No question about there are some difficulties about this clearance business such as:

• removal off transport wax
• removal off transport plastic covers
• glue residues after stickers
• break dust
• acid fall out residues
• etc…

I visited a major wholesaler in southern Europe and they had some problem with:

• Glue recidues after stickers and plastic covers

 

In this case we solve this problem with a razor blade and No1 Herofix 49 on glass surfaces and No1 Herofix 49 alone on the painted areas.

Our distributor could solve the problem and are now in a better position towards his customer.

Limits and regulations of car-washes – heavy metals, oils and so on

Many carwashes recycle and reuse their water, yet after a while it gets too murky to use. 
Sooner or later it is sent down the drain on its way to the city sewer system, only now it is more concentrated with chemicals, detergents, dirt and heavy metals. Read more about this issue in this article by Lance Winslow.

What about Sweden then

In Sweden it came to a recommendation in 1996 as set out benchmarks for what the water that came from a car wash had to contain, or rather not contain.
There were also was limits of how much fresh water that was allowed to be used for washing a car.
That meant in practice that all new car-washes installed some form of water treatment orwater recycling system.

A few years ago,  the national targets  were  abolished and it came to an industry fact sheet instead.
Local regulations have since gone in different directions and it means that there are different limits for car-washes in differens cities and parts of Sweden.

Some municipalities cooperate and develop common rules for what to apply for car-washes.
Recently, the Västa Götaland, updated policy relating to vehicle wash.
It is available since October to read here.

Stricter requirements on emissions from past and demands for small car wash facilities from 2015.
This is the facilities that washes fewer than 5 cars per day and are not open to the public.
it should mean in practice that all the washing areas and spolplattor will be covered in the rules.

The requirements are also criteria for the car wash chemicals that may be used. As in so many other recommendations in Sweden for professional car wash as it applies to cleaning chemicals meet any environmental labels. Either the Nordic Swan or Kemikaliesvepet.

What about other countries

Of course, there are different requirements for car-washes between the different countries.
It is important to know that the conditions is different from country to country.  And some times inside one country as well
Examples of parameters that differ are:

- Type of dirt to be washed away from cars
- Availability of water
- Expansion of the sewerage and municipal sewage treatment plants 
- Culture of how to wash his car (Do it yourself, Tunnelwashes, frictionfree etc)
- Different kind of chemicals used
- National rules which affect the substances which are permitted in the washing chemicals

 If you want to read more about this topic here are some helful links to start out with:

http://www.epa.state.il.us/small-business/car-wash/
http://www.greenstampplus.com.au/downloads/GPG/VIC/GPG%203%20-%20Washing%20Vehicles.pdf
http://www.carwash.com/article.asp?IndexID=6636797
http://www.fundsraiser.com/dec00/how-to-run-a-successful-car-wash-fundraiser-environmental-concerns.html
http://www.al.com/news/huntsvilletimes/local.ssf?/base/news/122994091041630.xml&coll=1&thispage=1