Wednesday the 25th of September will forever be remembered by all Virgo's and cleaning freaks throughout the eastern states of Australia as the day of total havoc and mayhem. From the depths of South Australia a deep low pressure system whipped across the Australian desert and stirred up a very unique dust storm. A huge wall of talcum-fine red particles rolled through from Sydney to Bundaberg, 1000km north. The day became a dark red haze as the sun disappeared in the mass of airborne dust.
In the midst of all this, our head quarters in Buderim copped it badly. We quickly shut up the shed that houses close to 50 cars that had just been prepared for a big tour with a national Bristol rally the next morning. But, the dust found its way in via the whirly birds on the roof and we soon had a very special 'Aussie red carpet' laid out for their arrival. It was mayhem the next morning after the dust settled - we only had 2 hours to clean close to 50 cars with only 2 people to do it...
Our method of cleaning is one we have been using for years, derived from when we would return from car shows with the cars covered in a layer of fine dust. We think is the best and safest way to effectively clean them down, especially in this circumstance. With this particular dust storm we see a lot of people using water to wash down and hose off fine red dust. This is usually great as long as it does not get the red dust (which becomes a fine red mud when mixed with water before it becomes rock hard when dry) in the door jams or cowl panel as it will slowly bring on rust due to it's quite high oxide levels.
So, if you do wash, make sure you really flood the car to wash away all the dust. We use the method below on our cars and had great success at bringing the shine of all the cars back with no damage to the painted surface.
STEP ONE: Blow the majority of the dust off the cars with a fine compressed air blower.
STEP TWO: Sweep the floors, so it does not blow back up on the cars after they are clean!
STEP THREE:Spray on the Bowden's Own Body Detail spray. When applying the first coat just lightly run a Bowden's Own buffing microfibre cloth over it using absolutely no pressure, turn it over after each pass, so the dirty section is not in contact with the paint.
STEP FOUR: Let the microfibre work at picking up the dust - a good microfibre cloth should do it with no fuss. Then, after you have gone over the whole car, do it a second time with a new Bowden's Own microfibre buffing cloth gently buffing it to a beautiful and clean shine.
As the pictures show, we got the Gullwing and the rest of the cars looking great, its a nice and easy way to clean with no damage to the paint or cars! With the weather services calling for more dust storms over the next few months, keep this technique in mind for the next time we get one of these rare Australian events.
Love your car,
Dan Bowden
Share
