Another car cleaning thread?

Conanius · 11 May 2006 at 00:43

Well, its clear the sun is out as everyone seems to cleaning and taking pictures !

im getting quite into this car cleaning lark, and I want to make sure im using the best stuff I can without going crazy.

Ive heard a lot about these clay bars, and was just wondering if anyone here had used one, and if so, what they thought of it. all/any details appreciated

MarkST · 11 May 2006 at 07:49

Hi.

I havent used mine yet, but will be later on today when i will be detailing my dads Mondeo. I will hopefully be getting plenty of pictures and do a nice little step by step of what i done.

Mark.

paradigm · 11 May 2006 at 09:43

Used a clay bar on my saxo after it was a year and a bit old. Washed the car (Meguires NXT shampoo), then dried the car (flexi-blade & chamois), then clay bar and Quick Detailer. The clay bar pulled off ALL of the tar spots, "marks" that I thought were un-removable, and basically made the paint as smooth as glass. I then polished the car with Autoglym Super Resin Polish, then waxed with Meguires NXT Tech Wax.

Was superb afterwards

eidolon · 11 May 2006 at 09:56

I found the clay bar to be rubbish but I guess my paintwork was probably pretty good anyway.

My recommendation would be to spend as long as you can stand doing the Meguiars Stage 1 Paint Cleaner (ie 3 or 4 times) as the better the prep work the better the final finish. If you polish or wax over bad paint it will still look bad.

After you've throroughly cleaned the car, polish it with Autoglym Super Resin then seal it with Meguiars NXT wax. That's what always worked for me

spirit · 11 May 2006 at 11:27

someone should make a sticky on car maintenance:

this link should be in there

http://www.guidetodetailing.com/articles.php?articleId=9

or maybe

http://www.guidetodetailing.com/topics.php?topicId=17

Conanius · 11 May 2006 at 23:09

eidolon said:
I found the clay bar to be rubbish but I guess my paintwork was probably pretty good anyway.

My recommendation would be to spend as long as you can stand doing the Meguiars Stage 1 Paint Cleaner (ie 3 or 4 times) as the better the prep work the better the final finish. If you polish or wax over bad paint it will still look bad.

After you've throroughly cleaned the car, polish it with Autoglym Super Resin then seal it with Meguiars NXT wax. That's what always worked for me

cheers for the advice all, but yours seems to be the best considering what I already own steve

is the standard '3 stage' meguires polish and wax ok? ive got zymol wax if thats any betteR?

eidolon · 12 May 2006 at 08:41

I personally didn't like the Stage 2 Meguiars on black paintwork, found it left the car greasy looking although I've never tried it on any other colour so it might be great on silver.

I just found Autoglym Super Resin gave a really deep shine without any greasy marks, it does however produce that nasty white dust so you've got to be careful not to just slap it everywhere. Try the Megs first and see how it goes, lots of people rate it so it was probably just my incompetence

I've never actually tried Zymol wax so I can't really comment. I've tried their shampoo and wasn't all that impressed, smelled nice but that was about it really.

Scottland · 12 May 2006 at 18:09

Sorry to barge into this thread uninvited. What products are best to touch up black paint? I've got a few marks on the paintwork, the odd scratch, some swirl marks etc & being black it really stands out.

It'll no doubt "T-Cut out", but whats the best I can get from my local Halfrauds to remove the scratches, and the something to polish/wash with?

ta