See what Spray Nine Heavy Duty can do for you.

My garage is my happy place, and in additional to all the tools, tapes, and spare parts there is a shelf inside stocked with every chemical imaginable. Lubricants, sealants, rust removers, paints, grease, oil, and powders; you name it, I’ve got it. And every single bottle or can is used for a very specific and singular purpose. If I’ve got a stuck bolt, I reach for penetrating oil, if it’s glue residue, then up steps a solvent. And when I recently had the gnarly job of cleaning 30 years of grease and muck off our Porsche project’s engine, I grabbed the bottle of heavy-duty cleaner and degreaser Spray Nine.

When I removed the engine from the Porsche, I discovered that it was so caked with a thick layer of black grime on every surface that it would need some sort of action hero-esque cleaner to have any hope of ever seeing it clean again. In the pantheon of action stars, the 80’s were king and gods walked among men.  So it’s a good thing Spray Nine is basically the Carl Weathers of cleaners. This heavy-duty degreaser was about to be pitted against Predator-level road grot. Spray, bristle brush, and rag in hand I walked into my own private dirt jungle.

With the amount of time and effort we are putting into this restoration, it just wouldn’t do to put a greasy engine back into our newly painted body shell. No, this thing had to be made sparkly and ready to eat off of to match the level of beauty that’s going to be present on the outside.  But it would take some serious effort to get the engine there.

30 years and at least 3 different state’s worth of dirt had accumulated and turned into a thick, gelatinous substance that until now was unknown to science. Luckily, it was no match for the grease cutting biceps of Spay Nine. Spray, bush, wipe. Section by section, surface by surface shiny aluminum began to be revealed and displayed. It broke apart the dirt clumps, dissolved the oil, and wiped free the brake fluid with ease. I had scheduled the whole weekend for this cleaning job, and rewarded myself for finishing in day by watching Rocky, Rocky II, and Predator back to back. This is why I use Spray Nine – it simply works well and lets me get back to my 80’s movie life.

 Half and half, before Spray Nine and after

Take the challenge below and score yourself a $3 coupon for a bottle:

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The Roomba has been around for a few years now, but that’s always been more of a toy than a serious floor cleaning solution. Much like the villain from any 80’s Schwarzenegger movie, they are too weak and ill-tempered to truly be effective. Now Samsung, the company behind the leading Android smartphone, curved HDTVs, and even laptops has stepped up to the plate and given the world (and us to test) the POWERbot. Just imagine, a vacuum cleaner with a name like a Power Rangers monster. Yeah, you need this.

But looks and a cool name will only get you so far in this world, does it actually suck (in the good way)? We challenged the Samsung POWERbot to carpets, wood floors, area rugs, and tile entrances. Across every surface, this little Skynet scout didn’t hesitate to scramble over it and destroy any dirt it found. You can also forget about watching it endlessly bump into the same object as if it was some existential barrier. This sucker has 10 sensors that map out the room it is in and automatically plots the most efficient pathway to get your floors all clean and spiffy. It is actually frighteningly impressive to watch this machine replace what was a uniquely human task only 5 or so years ago. Next to this thing, commuting via jetpack just sounds exhausting and not worth the trouble.

Other household drones could learn a lot from the POWERbot, from it’s ease of use and design to it’s functionality. Nothing seemed to fluster this little robot. Not even when I  poured out a box of corn flakes right in front of it and loudly questioned the chasteness of its mother. Samsung’s little vacuum just plugged away and patiently ignored my taunts, like it knew it’s kind would soon be in charge…

But that day is not today. For now, you can enjoy as the Samsung POWERbot cleans your home, puts up with your pranks on it, or even gives your cat a ride. We may not have limitless energy, moon bases, or instant pizza quite yet, but by God we can have floors cleaned by a robot in this future that we’ve crafted.

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What I do know is that Mothers hooked us up with their NuLens Headlight Renewal Kit so we could test it out. I’ve always been pretty skeptical of these kinds of kits ever since they first started appearing a few years ago. But we here at FactoryTwoFour are men of science, so we rounded up an old Honda with beat-up lenses and got to testing.

Our mule is a 2004 CR-V with fairly, but not extremely, faded and scratched lenses. Mothers’ kit is pretty straight forward. You tape off the area to protect the bodywork paint, then attach the spongy buffing dome to a cordless drill. Dribble on a nickel-sized dot of the restoration compound and get buffing. Even if you take it easy with the RPMs, there will be fine compound splatter sent all over. All. Over. Don’t have a nicely washed vintage car parked next to the vehicle you’re working on. Ask me how I now.

I didn’t think the damage or yellowing to the Honda’s headlights were all that bad, so I was surprised when the buffing wheel and compound didn’t make that much of a difference. It looked ever-so-slightly shiny-er, but still very faded. Luckily, the Mothers kit included additional options for “highly-damaged” lights. If our Honda’s lights count as highly damaged, woe be unto you if your headlights are so far gone they look like yellow fog lamps.

For severely scratched lenses, Mothers provides three graduating sanding discs – 800, 1500, and 3000 grit. The process is much the same as the buffing ball, save for now you are wet sanding so now you need to keep a solid film of water on the lens as you sand away all the pits and scratches.

Going from disc to disc, the Honda’s headlights got worse (because now I’m scratching away whole layers of plastic) to just generally hazy all over with the 3000 grit. Now its back to the soft buffing ball to finish off. Did it work?

You know, it actually did. I had my doubts, but after the full restoration process, the lenses were left pretty near perfect and smooth. I definitely and completely recommend picking up the Mothers headlight restoration kit if your headlights are looking a bit yesteryear. All in, both lamps took me about 2 hours, but that included camera set up and testing on different portions of the lens. If you dive right in, you should have new headlights in about an hour. Then your car will look brand new again, and valets will stop pretending their lot is “full.”

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