*** The Car Cleaning Thread ***

Status
Not open for further replies.
grudas said:
I would not buy megs one, it is OKAY but not worth the money.

auto wheels is VERY good but also very expensive but you spend less time cleaning and messing with the wheels.

buy a 5ltr one and it'll last months. 1ltr is 2-3 washes max.
Click to expand...

I called Bilt Hamber to find out if there's any shops near me that sell their products and they mentioned one called slimsdetailing in enfield. I called them and they have auto wheels
5 litre for £52.94 in stock but out of stock of Surfex HD which I'd like to buy as well. So I think I'll probably order both directly from Bilt Hamber as they have the same prices as slimdetailing and free shipping over £60. Amazon works out more expensive.
 
Muska said:
I get significantly more washes than 2-3 from 1ltr of Auto Wheels.
Click to expand...
Guess I used too much! Thinking back yes I did :D haven't had any for a while.. kept trying random cleaners and nothing has been as good yet. Currently using autobrite and it's okay. Was like £25 for 5l. Quite like the carchem wheel cleaner/iron remover. Cheap and does the job on my not too dirty wheels as I often wash my cars.
 
I've worked it out and I get about 6 months from a 1ltr bottle, like you I clean my car often, at least once a week, the flip side of that being my wheels never have baked on crap so a spray and agitation always brings them up perfect again.

I've never tried any other product than the Bilt Hamber, it's just worked very well for me.
 
Muska said:
I've worked it out and I get about 6 months from a 1ltr bottle, like you I clean my car often, at least once a week, the flip side of that being my wheels never have baked on crap so a spray and agitation always brings them up perfect again.

I've never tried any other product than the Bilt Hamber, it's just worked very well for me.
Click to expand...

That's good to know. I certainly don't wash my car every week. Once a month if it's lucky. :p So even with more crud build up on my wheels, 1 litre should still give me a few months. I think I'll go for the 1 litre because thinking about it, I don't really want spend to £53 on 5 litres, it's a bit overkill for me considering I'm not as serious about cars as others here. Until I get my ferrari of course. :D
 
grudas said:
Guess I used too much! Thinking back yes I did :D haven't had any for a while.. kept trying random cleaners and nothing has been as good yet. Currently using autobrite and it's okay. Was like £25 for 5l. Quite like the carchem wheel cleaner/iron remover. Cheap and does the job on my not too dirty wheels as I often wash my cars.
Click to expand...

Get yourself a decent spray bottle which "sprays" rather than "squirts" the product (giggidy!)
I did this with BH Autowheels. The 1ltr spray it shipped in wasn't very good. I started pouring it into a better bottle sprayer and was able to get move even coverage of the wheel with each spray. More efficient that way.
 
Conscript said:
Get yourself a decent spray bottle which "sprays" rather than "squirts" the product (giggidy!)
I did this with BH Autowheels. The 1ltr spray it shipped in wasn't very good. I started pouring it into a better bottle sprayer and was able to get move even coverage of the wheel with each spray. More efficient that way.
Click to expand...
yeah that must've been the reason, I use different bottles these days and they "mist" rather spray which allows you to cover wider area with same amount of product, spray doesn't really work for product like this in my opinion!
 
My work mate helped me properly clean the car and wax it. We tried out the machine polisher and a meguiars ultimate polish on the bonnet but decided against doing the whole car as I reckon we would have been there all night.

4 hours later, its protected and looks amazing. A few little bits need touching up as we only clayed the front of the car which was full of contamination for some reason. The rest of the car was in pretty good condition so clay wasn't needed.

50050179331_daaa696e17_h.jpg

50050430482_378bd7ce88_h.jpg

50050432592_05afb8b1bc_h.jpg

50049609188_433680b49b_h.jpg

50050430517_9e7d546207_h.jpg

50050180036_70110ac6e7_h.jpg

50049608993_27685a4651_h.jpg


50050180436_4b609a8ea2_h.jpg
 
now that is what i call a valet !
nice work!

my car needs to be clayed, but im not bothered as its 12 years old and worth peanuts, i just keep it polished and waxed
 
ShiWarrior said:
now that is what i call a valet !
nice work!

my car needs to be clayed, but im not bothered as its 12 years old and worth peanuts, i just keep it polished and waxed
Click to expand...

Claying is a pre-cursor to polishing no? So if you're spending the time polishing it you might be doing more damage than good (esp if machine polishing) since you're not removing the deeper contamination and possibly dragging it around.
If you're going to clay, you should polish since you'll probably introduce marring in the claying process.
 
thats new to me !

thanks mate :)


Ive been doing it that way for may years
current car i have had 6 years now, i polish and wax twice a year

if i dont clay, ok to wash and wax or not ?
 
People were polishing without claying for years so it obviously works regardless, but if you're only polishing twice a year it's probably beneficial to spend the extra hour or so claying before you polish.

Of course. I'll only clay if i'm planning on polishing or if i can feel a lot of contaminants in the paint
 
Guys, being the lazy git I am, I only started to wash my car today since posting in this thread a few days ago. :p But it started pouring with rain so I didn't get past the wheels. Tomorrow's sunny so will continue then.

Anyway, I started on the wheels. I still don't have a degreaser but I believe snowfoam can help clean tyres and I have snowfoam. So I sprayed the tyres with snowfoam, let it sit a few minutes and then scrubbed and rinsed. There's a few areas of browning on the rubber. I believe I'm meant to repeat the process until there's no more browning. Just wondering if you think I'm wasting my time with snowfoam on tyres or carry on with the process?

Now for the alloys. I thought all the black grime between the spokes would just wash away easily but I was so wrong. I sprayed alloy wheel cleaner on but it did nothing to remove this black heavy dirt build up. It's certainly not the best alloy cleaner, but I don't even think bilt hamber would remove it.

It feels textured and I could barely scrape it off with my fingers. I decided to use oven gel and that worked almost instantly to loosen it. I was worried it was rust. I'm guessing it's years of carbon/brake dust deposit that has caked on? I bought the car in April and this is its first wash as it really hasn't been driven much.
This is what I was trying to get off,



This is it now, though I haven't finished the wheels yet.
 
Your using Oven Gel ? , for ovens ?

to use a wheel cleaner -

Spray over the wheel, leave it for 1 minute
use a wheel brush to agitate it all over
rinse off

repeat if necessary
 
Last edited:
ShiWarrior said:
Your using Oven Gel ? , for ovens ?

to use a wheel cleaner -

Spray over the wheel, leave it for 1 minute
use a wheel brush to agitate it all over
rinse off

repeat if necessary
Click to expand...

I know, lol, but the oven cleaner worked and the wheel cleaner didn't. This black stuff was baked on hard.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top Bottom