Dodgy Detailing Tools - I Raided Amazon & eBay!

Ever wondered whether those weird and wonderful looking detailing tools that pop up on the likes of Amazon and eBay actually work or not? Well I've just sacrificially spunked £100 on 10 of the most dodgy looking, so stay tuned to find out. So having done a dodgy detailing products video a few years back, thought it was probably about time I put some similarly dodgy detailing tools to the test too. Now all but two of the items featured here cost an Ayrton Senna or less, so we're never going to break the bank, but I appreciate plenty of people are detailing to a tight budget, so thought I'd go ahead and put my life savings on the line so you don't have to. Starting with the bits and bobs designed for use on the interior then, as it was still a bit damp to be putting the exterior stuff to the test, grabbed my snazzy new telescopic windscreen cleaner to help ease myself into the day's dodgy exploits. After being spritzed with some glass cleaner then, it was first worked around the corners of my rear window to try and get a quick feel for it. Being a six footer I can pretty much always reach the edges of interior glass from wherever I'm attacking it, so usually just grab a towel or two and get cracking. However this item is primarily intended for use on the windscreen and there are a few gauges that can make cleaning mine by hand a bit awkward, so gave it a go up front too. As you can see it slid behind the factory pods no problem, making things a bit less tricky than when towel cleaning, and while I probably should have wrapped one around the tool for some final buffing, guess it's hard to break the glass cleaning habits of a lifetime. Either way, if you're not as slim and supple as me and have trouble tending to the see-through parts of your inner sanctum, something like this might actually be worth a go. Next up was this universal set of vacuum cleaner straws designed to prevent you from sucking up priceless family heirlooms while ridding your car's interior of crumbs. Now granted I was wielding it mostly in the compact cabin of my 370, but still it just felt too big and clumsy for my liking, plus its sucking skills were pretty poor, and to be honest any heirlooms knocking around my interior aren't that priceless anyway. I can see its intended usage and while it's not a bad idea, this particular execution of it just ain't for me. It was then these microfibre vent dusting tools, or as I like to call them, chopstick brushes. So they're designed to simply slot into your vents to dust, clean or dress them, which to be fair for the most part they do quite well. While they might not fit all vents, they seem to work okay on mine, although the microfibre cover can come loose if you're not careful. I doubt I'd go with something like this over a towel, soft brush or even suitable vacuum cleaner attachments, but I won't bin them just yet and will keep a couple handy just in case. An antibacterial tub of goo originally intended to remove keyboard clogging crumbs from the computers of lazy gamers was up next, and for the sake of a few quid it does technically work at safely encapsulating loose debris from awkward areas of a car's interior, as some of it is quite computer and keyboard like. But unless vacuum cleaners suddenly disappear off the face of the planet, can't see myself offering a full interior slime decon any time soon. The last thing I picked up for potential interior use then was this small soap dispensing brush, which while designed to be filled with dish soap to scrub pots and pans, thought if topped up with an all-purpose or interior cleaner instead, might work for spot cleaning without the need to have a trigger spray handy. A light bit of pressure on the rubber grip dispenses a short sharp squirt of whatever's inside, while the brush part below can then be used to work it into whatever needs cleaning. It was actually quite effective when first being put to use on an old floor mat, and while the bristles are probably a bit too stiff for use on most leather, still gave a panel of the old V40's tough hide a once over to test its versatility. So a potentially handy tool let down by the fact we as car cleaners would be using a non-concentrated liquid cleaner, which after four or five squirts is gone, so probably best to keep it under the sink with the furry liquid instead. Now that it had dried up a bit it was time to give the exterior cleaning bits a go, and first to be put to the test was this generic gun designed to hook up to your hose pipe and give you projectile suds without the need for a pressure washer. Once connected and with the little container filled with straight snow foam, the dial on the top was clicked to full soaping capabilities and the cheap plastic trigger was pulled. So as you can see there were certainly some suds created but nothing particularly impressive considering I was using a dedicated snow foam product, but that wasn't the main issue for me as I wasn't really expecting a thick blanket of foam to be honest. It was the fact that it went through the soap so quickly that put me off. So in order to get an acceptable level of suds you need to have the dial on full blast, which means unless you're super quick with your application, if you want to get a whole car adequately covered you're likely going to have to top it up halfway through, which means more water, more time and more product. If you can't afford to shell out for a pressure washer and proper foam lance and are happy just to quickly get some suds on the car before contact washing, you might be satisfied with the performance of a product like this, but I couldn't realistically see myself using this over a dedicated foam lance or pressure sprayer for example, unless for whatever reason I had no other choice. Moving on to dodgy contact washing equipment now we have this extendable microfiber mop thing I thought might be useful for the hard to reach areas of an exterior as not everyone's as long limbed as me. So after being dunked in a bucket of suds it was wiped over the surface of the ropey V40 as there was no way I was testing something like this out on the silky smooth paintwork of the Nismo. Despite feeling as if I was mopping the car with a kitchen cleaning appliance it actually worked quite well and allowed me to reach over and wash the far side of each panel without having to walk around to it. Despite that I personally preferred utilising the rubber hand strap once the pole had been detached as it just felt a bit more familiar but I guess it would be the extendability that gives something like this its appeal as I could perhaps see it being put to use on things like caravans and conservatories more so than cars. Now if you fancy something that will do most of the scrubbing for you how about this car auto rotating detailing brush water spray brush wash cleaning tool set UK or as I like to call it the Swirl-O-Matic 3000. So using the water flow from your hose a set of plastic gears are driven which in turn rotates a microfiber noodle wash head while shampoo is simultaneously dispensed from the incorporating canister. After budging it in suitably dodgy fashion with what I had to hand as I think I've misplaced one of the connecting bits it comes with got cracking with it again on the old V40. Now I've got to admit I was worried someone was going to drive past clock me waving this thing around and conclude it was a complete fraud but still I stuck with it long enough to at least grab a few entertaining shots for you and to be honest I wasn't as horrified as I thought I would be. Yes it's about as gimmicky as it gets and you're gonna get wet feet washing a vehicle with this thing but there's no denying it did a surprisingly good job at soaping up and scrubbing the surface. Obviously I wouldn't realistically advise using this to wash your pride and joy with but I could potentially see it being useful in other situations where swirl-free washing isn't a consideration. Either way it was just a bit of fun for the sake of the video and I don't know about you but prior to my Amazon and eBay raid had no idea such a thing even existed. If you then need to effectively rinse your Swirl-O-Matic suds off and don't have a pressure washer to do so then this handy metal gun designed to make the most of your hose pipe might be just the ticket. It claims to be able to shoot 15 feet and while as much as I'd love to soak my neighbours from across the street that wasn't actually one of my purchasing prerequisites. Unlike a pressure washer with a fan type spray pattern this comes with a radial nozzle which works fine but perhaps isn't as effective as something flat but it still felt better than your usual cheap plastic guns and while it isn't going to miraculously turn your hose pipe into a pressure washer it was likely the most pressurised and precise feeling hose gun I've ever used. I just can't help but think with a slightly longer shaft and a fan shaped nozzle it could have really hit the mark. Still assuming it doesn't fall apart after a few uses think it's just about worthy of my detailing tool bag as I do sometimes perform a quick hose rinse when dragging out the Last and by very means least then was a collapsible bucket that I'd gone for to see if it was worthy of replacing my 50 quid Swisswax one which has started leaking but quite evidently it wasn't. Yes it collapses nice and flat and I guess you could use it for your wheel brushes or something as you certainly ain't getting a grit guard or wash mitt in there but in all honesty you'd be better off just using it for trick or treating this time of year. And that was that as after wielding the dodgy detailing tools for about four or five hours felt I had to go to ground before someone spotted me. Now if you're interested in any of the items featured here you can find them or very similar dodgy examples linked in the description below for your perusing and possible purchase in pleasure but be warned these are far from the best quality dedicated detailing tools so waste your money at your own risk. Either way cheers for tuning in let me know your thoughts on dodgy detailing tools and I'll see you again soon.