*** The Car Cleaning Thread ***

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shaank said:
Does anyone have a car dryer (leaf blower kinda thing) ? Are they worth it? I like the concept of a contactless drying method, eyes are on the Carbon Collective Airforce 1. But, it's £180, is it actually any good?
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I got a motorcycle dryer that is quite powerful and it does blow out water from hard to reach areas and can dry the car out no problems.

but it works MUCH better when you've got a very hydrophobic coating on as the water just runs off.

I agree with @Steedie I have gone and invested in raceglaze 7ltr filter now for final rinse down and will leave drying for now.
 
Interesting! I've never even heard of this raceglaze filter before, just spent too long reading up on one and now I want one. I don't even live in a hard water area, but the water marks left on my Porsche Cayenne (it's black) do my head in. This would solve that and it's cheaper than the air dryer.

Thanks guys!
 
Morning all

can anyone recommend a polisher kit?

There are a fair few around the £60/£90 mark just want to make sure I get the best for my money

Thanks
 
We have had new road surfaces and speed bumps recently, there was more tar on my car than on the roads it seems! Thankfully I had some left over Autoglym Intense Tar remover which made light work of the paint.
 
Hi guys, i need to quickly wash my car tomorrow (F-Pace SVR) - I have the following to hand, its not a perfect combo but its what i have. I wont have much time so this is what i plan to do (please correct or suggest a better order if this is wrong ) :
  1. Wash down car with pressure washer
  2. AB Magifoam the car and leave for 20-30 mins
  3. Claybar panels (have a meguair's clay bar lying around so will use that )
  4. Carpro Iron X to clean the wheels (never used it before, but the bottle says can be used on body work too - shall i just leave it for the wheels)
  5. Shampoo car ( using 2 buckets) - i have meguiars gold class shampoo or CarPro Reset to use - which is better ?
  6. Pressure wash car
  7. Dry car with towels
  8. Then apply CarPro Hydro2 Lite to body work. Do not have any sealant for the wheels - can this be used too ??
Dont have time to polish or wax the car so thought hydro2 lite a good quick option. Having never used it before - do i just spray on after washing? - their website says can be sprayed on a wet surface and washed off, or applied to a dry surface and wiped off. Which would give best results ???
 
You need to wash it before you clay that’s for sure! Iron X before clay on body to help, just a light mist okay for a new car.

isnt hydro2 applies wet anyway, dry after you use that, not before
 
Yea HydrO2 is best applied to your car after it's wash, but still wet. Otherwise you'll have to dry it again.

You don't need need to leave pre-wash on for 20-30 mins, 5mins is fine, 10 at a push while you do some brush work.

I wouldn't bother claying the car unless you are planning to polish it, claying will add micro swirls to your paint.
 
Jonnycoupe said:
You need to wash it before you clay that’s for sure! Iron X before clay on body to help, just a light mist okay for a new car.

isnt hydro2 applies wet anyway, dry after you use that, not before
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Thanks for the quick replies Jonny and LiE.

If claying will add swirls (and i don't have a machine polisher to polish) then i think i would leave the clay for now. The paintwork is in great nick to be honest as the car is only coming to a year old and done 7k only.

So just to confirm, order should be:

Pressure wash
Pre-wash / magifoam 5-10 mins
Iron X whole car and Wheels - wash after 5 mins
Shampoo car
Pressure wash
Hydro2 Lite while wet, then dry

Would you use Rest or gold class as the shampoo ?
 
I’d be tempted to use reset at a strong dosage as you don’t know what coating has been applied previously, then gold class for future maintenance washes.

Normally with iron x I tend to do the bottom half of the car as I’ve never really found much above that, but I tend to keep my car fairly clean.
 
Doobedoo said:
I’d be tempted to use reset at a strong dosage as you don’t know what coating has been applied previously, then gold class for future maintenance washes.

Normally with iron x I tend to do the bottom half of the car as I’ve never really found much above that, but I tend to keep my car fairly clean.
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ok ill use reset as it will the first time i wash the car.

I think ill plan to get it detailed and PPF applied possibly on the front Bumper, bonnet, mirrors done at some point, as the front end of the car is quite large and imposing and likely to get a lot of dirt/chips on motorways etc
 
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Quick question, I have washed my car, clayed it, dried it. But I don't have any IPA at the moment, could I use some diluted citrus based all purpose cleaner as a pre wax wipedown?
 
visibleman said:
Picked up the same colour/spec, same reg/year as well oddly enough, a few months back and definitely, it isn't the easiest of colour to spot; looks almost black until the light hits but it's an amazing colour when it does :cool:

Back on topic, Autoglym have a sale on for anyone wanting some of their products.
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This is probably the most colour I have even seen on it!

colour.jpg
 
Can anyone recommend the best 'beginners' pressure washer please?

I had planned on getting the local detailer to do a correction + ceramic, but sadly he's closed due to COVID. In the mean time I just want to keep it clean ish until he's open again to ceramic the whole car.

So best pressure washer around £100? If it comes with a foam lance great.

I guess I'm looking at:
Pressure Washer
Foam/Shampoo/Some easy wax/sealant
Wash Mitt
Towel?

Thanks for any help! I'm not fussed about the power, just reliability and ability to take a foam lance.
 
Chris1712 said:
Can anyone recommend the best 'beginners' pressure washer please?

I had planned on getting the local detailer to do a correction + ceramic, but sadly he's closed due to COVID. In the mean time I just want to keep it clean ish until he's open again to ceramic the whole car.

So best pressure washer around £100? If it comes with a foam lance great.

I guess I'm looking at:
Pressure Washer
Foam/Shampoo/Some easy wax/sealant
Wash Mitt
Towel?

Thanks for any help! I'm not fussed about the power, just reliability and ability to take a foam lance.
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karcher k2 compact is probably one of the better under £100 pressure washers.

lance -; https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/UK-750ML...188294&hash=item4d9e9d7afe:g:FgQAAOSwO5Vd5fgq
Autoglym polar kit https://shop.statuscarcare.com/prod...JK_uLPyuRtqTG1u5T5-74goBNMdMsOuxoCPDMQAvD_BwE
wash mitt https://www.cleanyourcar.co.uk/gtechniq-wm2-microfibre-wash-mitt
towel https://www.cleanyourcar.co.uk/cleanyourcar-huge-39-fluffy-39-drying-towel
 
grudas said:
karcher k2 compact is probably one of the better under £100 pressure washers.

lance -; https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/UK-750ML...188294&hash=item4d9e9d7afe:g:FgQAAOSwO5Vd5fgq
Autoglym polar kit https://shop.statuscarcare.com/prod...JK_uLPyuRtqTG1u5T5-74goBNMdMsOuxoCPDMQAvD_BwE
wash mitt https://www.cleanyourcar.co.uk/gtechniq-wm2-microfibre-wash-mitt
towel https://www.cleanyourcar.co.uk/cleanyourcar-huge-39-fluffy-39-drying-towel
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Thanks dude, have ordered some bits let's see how it goes:). I used to have a lot of car cleaning kit, but foolishly donated it all to a mate when I started doing a long commute and stopped loving cars. Moved house to fix that now though, but got no gear!
 
With time on my hands I decided to spruce up the Mrs's car today... A 12 year old vauxhall astra! I normally don't touch it because she likes getting it washed at one of those hand car washes at the local tesco when she's shopping, but since covid it's not been washed for 6 weeks and still used daily.

Gave it a quick wash and then set about scrubbing out all the muck and moss out of the nooks and crannies with a small nylon brush, so much black muck came out it needed washing again. Removed tar spots and then ran a clay glove over the bodywork.

Bodywork is rust free but lots of small scratches. Tcut got all the light scratches out, such as nailmarks behind the door handles, but the deeper ones will need more attention. I'm no expert at all and am only going to use what is in the house so tomorrow I'll fill the scratches using a cocktail stick (I have a touch-up kit of the correct paint) and on Sunday will give the car a coat of polish and that'll do.

The wheels came up surprisingly well, the little 15 inch wheels seem to have been protected by the high profile tyres and nearly all the dirt came straight off with a soapy wet cloth and brush, just a few stubborn marks left. I've got some 'wonder wheels' so will finish cleaning them tomorrow using that.
 
CarPro Reload question

I recently polished and coated my car with Gyeon Cancoat, today I gave my car a quick wash with CarPro Reset, beading is great, anyway after I dried I noticed a few high spots from the gyeon can coat and a few water marks, nothing to bad.

I have some Carpro Reload on order, would this help to get rid of high spots from the can coat and water marks, I read that water marks can occur after applying ceramic sealant, I only noticed a few marks today after washing, as said nothing too bad, but hopefully reload will improve it once I have it.

Cheers
 
Ended up washing my car yesterday with Fairy washing up liquid! Thought I had a massive bottle of car wash stuff I bought from Costco ages ago but coudn't find it anywhere. Did a surprisingly good job actually, i'm assuming it won't last as long as normal detergents though.
 
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