Cleaning Cladding

[Anita]

My cladding has a bit of streaking from the last hard rain. Does anyone have ideas on what to use to clean cladding thoroughly (to get off all old product buildup), before putting on a treatment?

[thebear54]

Hey Anita,
I found the best thing to get the cladding ready for a new clean look is plain old fashioned dish washing detergent in warm water. Dish detergent(non scented) will remove any kind of grease from anywhere. Works real well for me.
John

[Heraclid]

I'm going to try exactly what thebear54 said tomorrow. I have a pretty unnoticeable but still undesirable set of spots of whitish residue on my rear cladding that normal washing and my typical cladding cleaning regimen haven't gotten rid of. Not sure what it's from. But I know dish detergent strips wax and grease, so I'll give it a go and see if it can strip this stuff. You'd be surprised what a clay bar will take off too, but I'm not sure about using it on cladding for two reasons - the cladding is slightly textured, and I'm not sure the spray lubricant that comes with it is okay for cladding. Anyway, will do the dishwashing detergent thing on the cladding tomorrow and then try Mother's Back-to-Black for the first time. Don't really feel a need for another product, but lots of people like it a lot so just in the off chance that I like it better than what I'm using, I figured what the heck.

[Anita]

I guess this leads to another question that has been puzzling me. My cladding has whiteish streaks that run from the very top edge of the cladding piece and runs down in a thin line. Is that from the product i put on the plastic or is it something that has run down from above? Has anyone else had this and pondered that question?

[Moncha]

is it originating from any specific point like seams, drain points etc...?

[thebear54]

Like most people who wash their cars, I used to not wash all the seams and door interiors. I got the streaking too. Really bad when I owned black cars(which ain't never gonna happen again...black looks great,but a pain to keep clean).
The residu from road dirt and air pollution sound like the culprit here. So wash all of the the car, not just the surface areas and give those areas a good coat of wax. Just my 2 cents.
John