detailed question

[Brett Dikeman]

At 12:58 AM +0000 2/23/02, Chris Dyer wrote:
>Getting ready for my spring interior detail. To lower my Q-tip budget

To lower your q-tip budget and use better qtips that'll stand up
better anyway, order some low-lint electronics qtips from MCM
Electronics or similar.  I have a box of something like 3000
Chemtronics low-lint long-wood-handle double tipped qtips; it was
well under $10.  They sell all the Caig stuff, and had a 100+ bit
driver package I liked for about $20, so it was convenient for me.


>, can
>the rectangular venty-vent things in the vents (the things that aim the air)
>be easily removed w/o damage? It'd be nice to pull them out and dunk 'em,
>wipe out the openings, replace.

On the later type44's, you pull down to make them pop out, but I
believe the vents on the 5000 came out by doing the same thing, just
to the side of course.  Push it all the way to one side, and use the
pads of your fingers on the side of the vent that's "out" and just
pull to try and force it to turn some more.  It should pop out
without a great deal of fuss.

I found the best results were obtained by removing all the vents,
cleaning them with diluted simple green or P21S total auto wash(the
orange stuff) and a paintbrush(my favorite detailing instrument is a
fairly cheapo, white boar's hair brush, 1 inch, trimmed to about 3/4
or 1/2 its original length.  Works on eveyrthing from dusting to
washing paintwork hidden behind the doors, detailing the engine,
etc.)  Rinse, pat down with dry cloth so the metal pieces don't
totally rust out, and set somewhere warm+dry.  Come back in a few
hours, and with qtips, do all the surfaces with vinylex.  Get 'em
pretty wet, but not enough to form pools/puddles etc.

Now, set them to dry for about a day.  You'll find them a deep, rich
black with a great shine.  Buff 'em slightly with a clean cloth to
get rid of any stickiness and subdue the shine a little.  Oh..a
slight dab of gel lube(I have a little tube of some sort of clear
stuff that doesn't evaporate and REALLY stays put) will ditch the
"CRACK!" you get every time you move a vent.

This took quite some time and I did go through about a dozen or two
swabs, but that's why they call it detailing :-)

B
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