I remember the first time Freiburger said we needed to Comet wash a car. We hadn’t started CarJunkieTV yet, but it wasn’t long beforehand. During the next two years I’d Comet wash several cars, trucks, vans, and more with and without him. I had never heard the term before we met, but have used many a cardboard container of Comet to was my old junk and bring out the best in the patina.
If you aren’t familiar with Comet washing, you will be after this video but the basics are that you use a good wet sponge and water, along with a lot of Comet sprinkling, to wash/scrub/buff the oxidized layers off the top of an old paint job. It does a great job at also diminishing surface rust, but not in a way that is going to make it all shiny fresh steel. Think of it as a way to smooth old paint out. If you run your hand across the hood of a really heavily patinad hood, roof, or decklid, it’s got some grit to it. Using Comet to wash it will take a lot of that grit away and make for a much smoother and more uniform finish. It does not make a patina paint job “shiny”, it does not protect it more, it’s just to give it a good wash and make it look more consistent.
Check out the video below and see what Freiburger’s tips and tricks are, along with some testing of other common cleaning products to see how they compare to Comet. I’ve tried a few others as well, and I can tell you that in my opinion Comet offers the best flexibility. It also does wonders on pitted and slightly rusted chrome.
Video Description:
It’s the legendary Freiburger Comet Wash! I didn’t invent it, but may have mainstreamed it—and it’s a big YouTube search term so I figured I should get in on the action with the definitive guide to improving old car paint with Comet. I’ll do a head-to-head shootout with other cleansers including Ajax and CLR, plus show you examples of how to do it using a number of my project cars.
