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The Yum Cars range on the bench at the Alpha Details studio
Car Wash

Why We Added Yum Cars to Our Shelf: A Chemist's Take on the Range

Why a chemistry-first detailing store in Melbourne added Yum Cars: the founders' story, what the safety data sheets showed, the range in order of use, a 3pH wash system and the Serum ceramic coatings.

Bilt HamberIron remover comparison at Alpha Details Melbourne

The Best Iron Remover in Australia? A Chemist Compares Nine

Nine iron fallout removers we stock, compared from their safety data sheets: thioglycolate chemistry, pH, concentration, odour, dwell and price, plus which one to use on paint, wheels or indoors.

ChelatorsPaolo carrying an armful of Bilt Hamber products at the Alpha Details studio in Heidelberg West, Melbourne

Chelators, Solvents and How to Read a Safety Data Sheet

Nobody markets a chelator. There is no bottle on any shelf in Australia sold on the strength of its sequestrant package. And yet the chelator, the solvent and the builder are usually the differ...

Car WashLabocosmetica Primus, Purifica, Neve and Semper lined up beside a Mercedes SLR at Alpha Details Melbourne

Car Shampoo and Surfactant Chemistry: The Four Families, and the Beading Trick

Every cleaning product on your shelf is built around surfactants — and the electrical charge on one end of that molecule predicts most of what the product will do to your car. Learn four famili...

ChemistryPaolo Recinella machine polishing a car in the Alpha Details studio, Heidelberg West Melbourne

Polishing Compound Chemistry: Abrasives, Fillers, and the 8 Microns You Have to Spend

A polishing compound is a different kind of product to everything else in the cupboard. It is not lifting soil off a surface — it is abrading the surface itself. Once material is gone it is gon...

ChemistryPorsche 718 on the hoist in the Alpha Details workshop, Heidelberg West Melbourne

Car Glass Cleaner Chemistry: What's In It, Why It Streaks, and Why Glass Polish Is a Different Mineral

Glass is the one surface where "cleans well" is not enough. A glass cleaner has to remove the film and leave almost nothing behind, because any non-volatile residue becomes a smear the moment t...