washing a car

Diagro

Diagro

Diagro

Soldato
Joined
3 Jun 2012
Posts
11,259
Hey

I decided to wash the car today as the rain held off a little.

I had planned to snow foam, rinse, bucket and mite, rinse then dry.
followed by a polish with super resin polish and to finish some simonz wax.

but I got as far as the last rinse as the heavens opened.

I thought.. oh well at least that's 2 months of grime off.

went out and came back, rain stopped and it's dry so decided to rinse her down and then polish. But.. upon drying I could feel all dirt and grit still on the car so stopped drying in case I caused scratches.

obviously I failed at washing it... no idea how.

what do you all do? I have read about a "clay bar" will that help? All the dirt I feel is around the front doors and the bumper. I presume it's stubborn tar and stuff.

I want to keep this cars paint work in a good condition, there are a few minor marks on it but what is there is swirl and scratch free and I want to keep it that way.


so what do I need to do to get this paint properly clean so I can go to town and polish it followed by a decent wax to protect it over jan/feb
 
Diagro said:
Hey

I decided to wash the car today as the rain held off a little.

I had planned to snow foam, rinse, bucket and mite, rinse then dry.
followed by a polish with super resin polish and to finish some simonz wax.

but I got as far as the last rinse as the heavens opened.

I thought.. oh well at least that's 2 months of grime off.

went out and came back, rain stopped and it's dry so decided to rinse her down and then polish. But.. upon drying I could feel all dirt and grit still on the car so stopped drying in case I caused scratches.

obviously I failed at washing it... no idea how.

what do you all do? I have read about a "clay bar" will that help? All the dirt I feel is around the front doors and the bumper. I presume it's stubborn tar and stuff.

I want to keep this cars paint work in a good condition, there are a few minor marks on it but what is there is swirl and scratch free and I want to keep it that way.


so what do I need to do to get this paint properly clean so I can go to town and polish it followed by a decent wax to protect it over jan/feb
Click to expand...

Chances are you could feel the small particles that got dumped on it in the rain and between you washing it and getting ready to polish it.

Use a clay bar before drying the car to clean any contaminants from the surface of the paint before drying and then polishing/waxing.
 
Ah yes your right. I bet that rinse wasn't enough to remove them.

WI'll have a look online for this clay bar, and when back from holiday I will give it a go.
 
Should really use a fallout remover like ironx and a tar remover like tardis before using a claybar to minimise damage.
 
A clay bar is not a substitute for proper cleaning/rinsing, more for getting the few bits of crap that nothing else shifts, such as tar spattering and obvious fallout etc.

Clay bars are awesome though, and don't take that long to use and make a significant difference to a never-before-clayed car.
 
Another vote for the Farcela clay mitt here, makes claying light work! I can also highly recommend Bilt Hamber korrosol for fallout removal too.
 
Now it's something I've considered but does claying really give that much of an improvement appearance wise? Or is it more about paintwork preservation?
 
Dis86 said:
Now it's something I've considered but does claying really give that much of an improvement appearance wise? Or is it more about paintwork preservation?
Click to expand...

It's not something to use as part of a routine maintenance wash, but when you're prepping the car for a good polish it's worth going over it with clay to make sure the paint work is really clean. It's also something that's worth doing on a car that's not been well looked after.

For regular maintenance it's worth having to remove stubborn contaminants from sills, bumpers, windscreens and wheels, but not something you should need to use regularly.
 
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