Help me clean my mum's car!

Stupot_

Stupot_

Stupot_

Soldato
Joined
20 Sep 2009
Posts
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Location
Portsmouth
Hey chaps, her bimmer's in a bit of a state. (Black, e46)

I washed it today and after about 3 buckets of shampoo I'm not happy with it! It hasn't been washed since before winter:/ We also have a couple of lime trees outside. Birds like to sit in those trees and relieve themselves.

Stuff that's wrong:

Wheels, Spent ages scrubbing these but there's stull a lot of ingrained brake dust.

There are a couple of areas where the lacquer on the paintwork has been damaged. about the size of a penny. I'm guessing these are due to droppings.

There is still sticky residue on the roof from tree sap. Feels like sandpaper when dry:(


I'd be pretty happy if I can fix up those things myself without too much cost. Although I'm not holding up much hope for the dropping marks.



Stuff I have to use are:

Turtle wax shampoo/polish
Turtle wax liquid wax stuff
Auto glym super resin polish
Sponges and raggedy cloth thing
Cotton polishing cloth

I've also just bought some autosmart tar and glue remover as recommended by mrlol here, it better work!;)

I'm hoping that the tar and glue remover will sort out the sap on the roof, will it work on wheels too? If not is it worth getting a wheel cleaner? (I remember we used to have some spray for the wheels, i think it was acidic, nasty stuff to breath in but got rid of muck well)


So... How would I tackle the bird poo mark? From my internet research, I could use some 2000 grit wet and dry paper to smooth it off, then use a polishing compound and finally wax it. Would the auto glym polish and turtle wax be suitable for this? Or would I need something better.

I would finally like to polish the whole car, do I need to get a block of clay before this? I've polished before but never this dirty, worried that if there's any grit left on, polishing will just damage it further. Anywhere I can get cheap clay if its needed?
 
For gods sake dont start sanding your mums paint if you dont know what your doing.

Now wait till an expert is along with the rest of the answers :)
 
where the laquer has failed there is nothing much you can do. You could possibly try a smart repair bloke in a van who might be able to patch it up

As for the ingrained brake dust, you want to try some brick cleaner. Its VERY VERY acidic, but great for a once only use to get your wheels clean. Once clean, keep them covered in Autoglymn EGP to help make cleaning easier in future.

if brick acid doesnt do the job, they will need refurbishing. You could have course try a polish car wash, but the alloy wheel cleaner they use is just about as harsh as brick acid anyway :D

as for the tree sap - autosmart tardis from ebay. Cant link now as i'm at work (no acess to ebay) but search on ebay and you can find small samples for a couple of £
 
When you do the wheels, jack the car up and take them off and do them one at a time, that's what I did with mine the last time, and what I might do this Saturday before the car show on Sunday. Having them off makes them far easier to clean the inside of them, also makes it a lot easier to seal and polish them.

Also, Autoglym do a polish other than the super resin one which is specifically for dark paints, called Ultra Deep Shine, it's what I use on my car, and comes up a treat.
 
Last edited:
MrLOL said:
where the laquer has failed there is nothing much you can do. You could possibly try a smart repair bloke in a van who might be able to patch it up
Click to expand...

I don't think the lacquer has failed, it's just been eaten away slightly - I has something similar on my 328ci and I expect it could have been improved with some 2000 grit paper. You could see 'ripples' in the lacquer but it hadn't gone right through.
 
he said it was damaged due to bird droppings

Photos ive seen of lacquer damage on t'interweb has usually been beyond repair. Would need to see photos to say for definate :)
 
MrLOL said:
he said it was damaged due to bird droppings

Photos ive seen of lacquer damage on t'interweb has usually been beyond repair. Would need to see photos to say for definate :)
Click to expand...

And like I said I've had bird dropping damage that could probably have been removed with 2000 grit. It depends how long it's been left on the paint.
 
Cheers guys

Wicksta said:
And like I said I've had bird dropping damage that could probably have been removed with 2000 grit. It depends how long it's been left on the paint.
Click to expand...

Mmm quite a long time! It is a bit of a mess. I'll try and get some pics later.

Mrlol I bought some of that stuff you suggested:)
 
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