Archives for October 2006

Autogeek’s Christmas countdown has officially begun. Christmas is 8 weeks from yesterday so we sent out a newsletter detailing Autogeek’s 8 Weeks of Christmas Savings. Every week a certain section of the Autogeek.net will be on sale or receive free shipping. A new section and a new sale will begin every Monday from now until Christmas Day. Save on gifts for friends and family or for yourself. Some of these items are rarely discounted so enjoy the savings while they last!

Specials will be announced in an email from Autogeek sent out every Monday to everyone signed up for the newsletter. Specials only apply to the section of the store announced in the email. The previous week’s special will end on the Sunday night before the new special begins. For more info, sign up to the Autogeek newsletter.

This week’s special is FREE SHIPPING on all the items in the Garage Accessories section of Autogeek.net.

Max is at the SEMA show in Las Vegas this week checking out what’s new in the automotive world. For those of you who may not be familiar with SEMA, here’s a brief overview of the event:

SEMA (Specialty Equipment Market Association) is the biggest trade show held in the field of automotive specialty products. It’s where car care companies unveil new products and industry leaders gather to see what the hot new items will be in the coming year. Participants include Meguiars, Mothers, P21S, Covercraft, 303, Lexol, Altec, Kimberly Clark, Kleen Wheels, 3M, and many more. In addition to booths and displays by some of the biggest names in car care, there are seminars, product demonstrations, and special events for the attendees.

SEMA is held each fall at the Las Vegas Convention Center in Las Vegas, Nevada. The show is divided into 11 sections, including Racing & Performance, Restoration Marketplace, Restyling & Accessories, and Hot Rod Alley. In other words, Max will be sending us some great pictures throughout the week. For photos from the first day of SEMA, visit Meghan’s SEMA thread on the forum. She’ll be posting Max’s pictures all this week.

We received the new Optimum Compound and new Hyper Compound, plus another highly anticipated new product from Optimum. Our lips are sealed until it hits the website, but look at this picture. A quick rain shower gave us a great photo op. This is a silver Mazda 6 belonging to one of us Autogeeks.
Optimum Products

The Autogeek Newsletter was sent out today with some helpful tips on protecting your vehicle during the winter, including product recommendations. Everything mentioned in the newsletter is on sale. If you want to know what those items are, sign up to the newsletter by going here. Click on that white button that says “Sign up for our Newsletter” and enter your email address. You will instantly receive a confirmation email. Once you’re signed up you’ll be among the first to know about new products, sales, and special discount codes. If you’re already signed up for the newsletter, there are winter car care tips waiting in your inbox.

Starting today, kits containing the Porter Cable 7424 or the Porter Cable 7424 HD Plus are $10 off the regular purchase price. TEN DOLLARS OFF. Sale prices are already displayed on Autogeek.net so you can just drop a kit in your shopping cart and go. No discount code necessary.

If you know anyone who’s been waiting on buying a Porter Cable 7424 Kit, send them this link http://www.autogeek.net/po.html . This sale is only for a limited time and only on Autogeek.net.

For a limited time, ClearKote products are discounted up to 25%!

The products to try are ClearKote Vanilla Wax Hand Glaze, Red Moose Machine Glaze and Carnauba Moose Wax. Pick up either ClearKote kit for $47.39 off the regular retail price of all its contents.

Max took delivery of a brand new fork lift on Friday. At our old facility, pallets were unloaded the old-fashioned way, box by box. Since moving to our new 7000 sq. ft. facility, Max didn’t waste any time getting the crew some help. Its a Crown SC 4000 Series with a 3000 lb. load capacity (that’s 500 Porter Cable 7424’s) and a max speed of 36 mph. You can’t tell from the picture, but the forklift has its own mini fan to keep the driver cool.

Next up for the warehouse, Segway’s maybe?

For a limited time, ClearKote products are discounted up to 25%!

You may have read about ClearKote Vanilla Wax Hand Glaze, Red Moose Machine Glaze and Carnauba Moose Wax on the forum. Here’s your chance to try them. Pick up either ClearKote kit for $47.39 off the regular retail price of all its contents.

http://www.carwaxblog.com/2006/10/36/

Duragloss Automotive Appearance Products are now in stock. There was some speculation on the forum that Max might pick up this brand and you were right. We got a huge shipment last week of 30 different products and gallon sizes of a couple of forum member favorites (according to our scientific Duragloss poll): Aquawax and Car Wash Concentrate. We look forward to seeing Duragloss reviews in the coming weeks!

Next to your paint, your engine is one of the most expensive parts of your car. It may even be the reason you bought the car to begin with. Remember how you just had to have that big block muscle car or that turbo charged power wagon? You spend thousands of dollars over the course of your vehicle’s life servicing the fluids, maintaining the paint and interior, replacing the tires, and everything else involved with car ownership. After years of ownership and tens of thousands of miles behind the wheel, what does your engine look like now? Does it look like the type of engine that a smooth running machine like yours should have?

Many people don’t detail their engines simply because they don’t understand the process of how to do it. Some of your concerns might be that you don’t know what you can get wet and what you can’t. You might be afraid of breaking something or staining something with a cleaning product. If your engine was going to melt if it got wet, then the bottom of the engine bay would be sealed and water would never be able to get into it. The truth is that your engine is a lot more resilient than you give it credit for. You can wash and detail your engine without much fear of ruining anything. You just have to remember that you are detailing and not putting out a fire. Don’t just soak the engine with degreaser and the break out the hose and high pressure. Engine detailing takes a little more thought than that.

First you should remember that you never detail a hot engine. The best time to detail your engine is in the morning when it has been sitting all night. If you throw cold water on a hot engine then you run a much higher risk of causing damage. There is also the risk of cleaning chemicals igniting and starting a fire. I have seen alternators catch on fire when people have soaked them with degreaser while they are hot. You definitely want to make sure the engine is cool before you start work.

Before you begin detailing, cover the alternator and any exposed filters. Those are the two areas that you really don’t want water or degreaser pooling in. If you cover your exposed air filter with a bag, then be sure to remove the bag before you start your engine. You might also want to consider any other areas of the engine that might not be water friendly. If you have done any custom work then you may have electrical connections or gauges that you want to cover. Just think about what you wouldn’t necessarily want to get too wet. You can always hand clean those areas after you get the rest of the dirt out. You can also detail your engine without covering those areas if you are going to be careful about it. Remember: this is engine detailing and not fire fighting. There is no reason to go crazy with your hose or cleaning products.

Start by degreasing the perimeter of the engine bay. A foaming degreaser is a good product to use. The painted surfaces are fine to use engine degreaser on. Make sure you get the fluid containers and hoses degreased as well. Those are areas that usually get extra dirty. Spray down the firewall at the back of the engine bay and be sure to get as far down as you can. Degreaser won’t do the whole job for you, but it will certainly make things easier.

To get the degreaser off you simply need to rinse it with a slow stream of water. You can use your thumb over the end of the hose to create a little pressure, but for the most part the degreaser will do the work and get the dirt off. Anything that doesn’t come off can just be wiped down. Again, don’t expect engine detailing to come in a bottle or a can. You usually have to wipe it down by hand in order to get the engine really looking good.

After you have rinsed what you can, the rest needs to be done by hand. It is best if you have a wash mitt that is specially designated for engine detailing. You don’t want to use the same one for the engine that you would use for the rest of the car.

Wash the perimeter of the engine and make sure that all the dirt is gone. You can also begin washing toward the middle of the engine where you may not have sprayed any degreaser. Some of the fluid containers and caps may need a little extra elbow grease, so make sure you get those areas as well.

Some areas may require you to use detailing brushes to get the grime off. Always use soft bristled brushes and never use brass or stainless steel ones. Those will scratch plastic and paint and really take away from the look of your engine.

You may need to mix some soapy water in a spray bottle to assist in your detailing. That helps get the areas that need to be hand detailed. You can also use a good quick detail spray to assist. Just have plenty of shop towels handy to wipe down the areas when you are finished. You may also want to designate a few microfiber towels for engine detailing. That helps a great deal.

If you can see dirt in you engine bay somewhere, then chances are that you can clean it. You might have to get creative with how you floss a towel through some hoses or how you use a brush to get a little extra reach into a space behind the battery, but you can usually figure out how to get the engine clean.

After you have cleaned all the dirt off, it is time to shine it up. You can actually wax the paint if you want to, but you may want to use a high quality sealant instead. The engine bay gets way too hot for a wax to last very long. A good spray sealant like Wolfgang Deep Gloss Spritz Sealant is a great product to use on the painted surfaces under the hood.

To shine up the plastics and hoses you can use a quality rubber/vinyl protectant. Wipe down the hoses and all plastic surfaces to make sure they are protected against heat and stains from grease or dirt.

Your engine will look so much better if you take
a few minutes and clean it up. A 10 year old vehicle doesn’t have to have an engine that looks 10 years old. Your vehicle can look as new as you want it to look if you take care of it and keep it clean.