Pressure Washing a Clio's Crusty Nooks & Crannies

While soaking a dirty car in chemicals is all well and good, is it really necessary or can you potentially save yourself time, money and precious shelf space by simply using pressurized water instead? So while some people wouldn't dream of attempting to strip back a deeply ingrained car without first dousing things with deep greaser or the like, others might not see the sense in blindly spraying expensive product before at least trying to remove the dirt with just water. And while I sit somewhere in between those two pre-cleaning camps for the sake of a video I haven't planned, as it was the interior of this neglected Clio I was initially looking to clean over the course of a couple of days but couldn't because of an iffy forecast, instead thought I'd first see just how much grounding, greenery and brake dust I could relatively safely strip back from its wheels, exterior seals, nooks and crannies with pressurized water alone, before potentially taking advantage of chemical cleaning power and physical elbow grease. Now although this highly scientific last minute test would involve me pressure rinsing parts in arguably a far too up close and personal fashion, when dealing with cars that have been neglected for years some of the rules have to go out the window or you won't get anywhere, but I wasn't too worried about the impact a close quarters pressure rinse might have on this particular car as it was already covered in bumps, dents, scuffs and scrapes, but obviously adjust your pre-rinse in proximity according to the power of your machine and the condition and value of the car being worked on. You could argue that if you soak the crusty bits in chemicals first then you might not have to dedicate as much time to blasting things in such close proximity, and while there may well be truth to that, in my experience even with chemicals applied, chunks of green cack that have quite literally taken root won't simply be washed away in one fell swoop and will need a fairly forceful pressure rinse one way or another, so prior to exposing the car, yourself and the environment to chemicals, which may or may not work, why not try and get as much of the dirt blasted off with water first? Pressure rinsing anything automotive from just a few inches away is never ideal, but this isn't routine procedure, as once the deeply ingrained dirt has been forcibly removed, outside of general maintenance washing it shouldn't technically need doing again, so a one-off breach of any seals in the process isn't worth losing any sleep over. Just focus on getting the unsightly dirt removed with the pressurised water if you can, then deal with any overspill or ingress afterwards. Splash back whether pure, dirt-tainted or chemical-infused will always be something you'll have to contend with when pre-cleaning a neglected exterior like this, even if using a dedicated lance over a stubby gun to put a bit of distance between you and the surface, but it's the nature of the job, so outside of donning safety goggles and a hazmat suit, both of which would likely get you done in by North Face ninjas around these parts, just have to grit and bear it, but a poverty spare cose water swish and a twist loop towel dry once done can serve to quickly refresh your neglected surfaces too. Now with all that pro pre-rinse propaganda said and done, if you do manage to remove most of the dirt with water you'll still ideally want to follow up with a suitable chemical to strip back what a contactless clean can't, and although I tend to get trigger happy on camera whatever the weather, apply and product at this subsequent stage should make for an unmeasured undertaking compared to completely dousing layers of heavy dirt up front, plus when you're going with a suitable brush to agitate afterwards, you won't be drawing gritty chunks of cack directly over the surface. I tend to use a standard bristled item for areas like rubber seals and plastic trim, and a super soft joby for painted parts to try and keep any abrasive impact to a minimum, with these particular short handled items being supplied by CA Detailing whose whole of interior swagger had to put trying out on hold for the time being, but you can still get 10% off anything of theirs with the code GURU10, and by the more time you've spent up front with pressurised water the less time you should technically have to spend doing this, necessary or not it always makes for some satisfying shots so make sure to capture a fair few for your viewing pleasure here. When it comes to other kinds of stubborn dirt like baked on brake dust you'll be lucky to shift that with water alone regardless of how pressurised, and will almost certainly need to apply a suitable chemical up front to break it down like an active fallout remover type product which visibly reacts on the surface or even a good old acidic cleaner which is what was ultimately needed to get the faces of these multi spokes sufficiently stripped back, demonstrating that despite what I've been saying in regards to deeply ingrained organic dirt, not all contamination is created equal. Although a subsequent contact wash with a relatively gentle shampoo product to successively tie everything together should be a comparatively straightforward affair, it might still call for a fair bit of elbow grease to lubriciously cut through any remaining light but stubborn contamination, but it's necessary for not only that reason but also as a means to neutralise any heavier chemical residue you might have missed before moving on to finishing things up so make sense to spend a bit of time even if you pooped from the previous pre-cleaning sessions ensuring everything is thoroughly wash mitted over from top to bottom and while it might not be necessary it often makes sense to keep your chosen all-purpose cleaner, citrus degreaser or traffic film remover to hand to give the suds a little extra bite for those excessively stubborn patches. Finishing things up for me here involved the quick application of a lance dispensed ceramic sealant which would serve to instantaneously add gloss, shine and slickness, all things this particular car had been sorely missing for many years as well as superficially seal up all of those previously stripped back and swished out nooks, crannies, cracks and crevices so would definitely recommend doing similar especially if you're against the clock and haven't got the time to enhance and protect panel by panel and for those that aren't really aware this semi-sudsy product counter-intuitively doesn't clean but instead takes advantage of the all-encompassing nature of a foaming product to quickly get all surfaces thoroughly exposed to protectant while you watch me wrap things up with a twist loop towel dryer the Clio's now hydrophobic exterior surfaces and a water-based dress of its budget land sale tyres I'll go ahead and reiterate my thoughts on approaches to removing ingrained organic dirt for those at the back that weren't paying attention so if you have a suitable pressure washer then as long as you don't mind a bit of splash back I'd say it generally makes sense to see what can be removed with water alone first and to what extent the compacted nooks and crannies can be opened up to subsequently receive some chemicals for a more complete clean. Now of course you don't want to be working within millimeters of the surface for extended periods but hitting the most heavily soiled parts in targeted fashion shouldn't in my experience do any serious or irreversible damage. Other dirt like brake dust and traffic film would almost certainly benefit from a dedicated upfront application of an appropriate chemical but that's a subject for another video as it was primarily the green stuff that I was looking to focus in on here. Obviously it'd be best to not let your car get to the point where it needs pressure washing and chemically dousing to within an inch of its life but saying that if no one neglected the cars then I'd have nothing to film or bang on about. Now I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on cleaning such organically contaminated components as outside of using an algae dissolving patio cleaner don't really know what else to tell you but either way on that ill-advised bombshell I'll see you on the flip side of my painstakingly editing best of the year montage.