Updating My Car Cleaning and Detailing Knowledge!

So it has been a while, but yes I still have the Lexus as my daily/weekend driver – going strong with no problems.  And so much so, I haven’t bothered to make any mods to it, both in the name of keeping the Toyota reliability as well as not finding any real inspiration to mess with a very good car.  This, combined with my crazy workload this year, means I haven’t had time to really touch either of my cars.  

Here is the item for my testing today, the SUMAHO Mamoru Kun product (rated a 9H in hardness on the JIS scale)

Recently however, I was checking out the parts review section on Minkara, when I came across a series of owners of different cars talking about a product, originally designed to protect cell phone displays, that was proving to be effective against protecting the piano black finish that seems to be increasingly popular these days in car interiors, against scratches, dust, and for some people, reducing the appearance of fine scratches. This spray, called SuMaHo Mamoru-kun, also is supposedly good at protecting the glass Navi displays from dust and scratches. (I suspect this is some kind of ceramic glass coating spray…)

I even found one review where the reviewer also recommended using a certain brand of microfiber cloth, along with purified water, to do the initial wipe-down, before applying the Mamoru Kun spray.

As I am never one to shy away from a good idea, I went out and got the coating, the microfiber cloth, and the purified water.

Translated as Super Strong Cleaning Cloth.  To remove stubborn oil stains, fingerprints, accumulated dust.

Sealed to keep dust free.

And most importantly, Made In Japan quality!

Japanese purified water. Actually tasted pretty good...

 

While the IS-F really doesn’t have any piano black touches – at least mine does not – it DOES have this silver carbon finish, as well as the now dated touchscreen. So I figured, why not try this out next time I am waiting in the car to pick up the wife or kids? Might as well keep up with the newest advances in car cleaning and protection, right?

Such an opportunity came up just today! Luckily I had already collected the items I needed, so...

Opened Mamoru-kun to reveal this tiny spray bottle and some cloth

Water on the Super Strong Cleaning Cloth

Maybe a bit hard to see, but the touch screen was a bit dirty, so I got to work...

Meanwhile the instructions are SO Japanese. Manga-easy to read...

After cleaning, spray on the product:

Then use the smaller of the included cloths to spread around. Let dry. 

The package contained 4 of these tiny cloths

Result is hard to show by photo. However on the silver carbon part, I could see that it was immediately much shinier. I am guessing that the spray stuff is a ceramic sealant. 

Hard to tell, but just wiping the dried sealant off, I could immediately tell the difference as the cloth moved around much easier.  Super slick!

For comparison, I did not apply this liquid on the silver carbon on the front doors. 

yep, felt strangely rough compared to the sprayed surface

And I am glad I did not spray these, it is tactile evidence that the spray stuff works! The center console feels super slick, and I think some of the small scratches are much harder to see. 

Lighting isn't outdoors like yesterday so...
(yeah I don't know why the ignition switch seems to be green either)

And the final result is - as you can see, super clean Navi screen - to be expected - but what was very interesting was, because this product is designed for cell phone screens, as a side benefit to leaving the surface super slippery as described above, it also means that fingerprints are not easily transferred to the glass.  Whatever oils do end up, can be easily wiped off with a microfiber towel. 

And, if you look very closely at the screen, while the surface seems very smooth, clean, and smudge free, I can see which parts of the screen seem to have been used more... maybe. Or just bad lighting.

In any case, I am curious to see how long this lasts. Will report back - this car has been neglected, cleaning and detail-wise, for too long so I am eager to get back into checking out new techniques, tools and products. Stay tuned!