*** Car Wash / Valet / Detailing Thread ***

Soldato
Joined
4 Feb 2004
Posts
13,362
Location
Fife, Scotland
whilst on the subject of windscreen coatings

i applied Glaco something

when i get a film on the screen (more visible during early mornings in winter)

you could see squares over the entire windscreen

pics don't really show it, but you can just about make out some of the squares

when car is fully warmed up , in summer you cant see it at all

after how ever long, its now finally gone (even after the coating had weakened)

DkYg8q8.jpg




GRhWpZI.jpg

Had something similar last year when I first started using the AG three stage stuff. At the time I couldn't work out if it was the Snowfoam, Polar Wash or the Polar Seal causing it. So I started to deliberately keep the Polar Seal away from the windscreen and it reduced it considerably, although you can't help but get some running down off the roof onto the windscreen during application so now and again, it happens again albeit not on the same scale.

I ended up claying the windscreen and using the Glaco Cleaning Compound to get rid of the marks. As you say, they could make driving at night tricky particularly when the windscreen wipers swept over the glass so I was glad to see the back of them.

As I said earlier, I see loads of YT videos of various different spray on protector wax products being applied all over the car including the windscreen, and whilst it is nice to see rain beading off the glass at speed, they still to my mind have the potential to leave a film or streaks all over the windscreen. So these videos on YT of apparently 'professional' detailers spraying the stuff all over the place, puzzle me to an extent.

Anyhow, these were the marks I had (pictured in daylight, granted) - not to dissimilar to yours, minus the 'squares'.

qtisdh4-jpg.475215


o2irafv-jpg.475216


fxl2bkz-jpg.475217
 
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Man of Honour
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21 Nov 2004
Posts
45,209
Forgot how good bilt hamber snowfoam is, and I haven’t even got the touch less stuff. I try not to do contact washes in the winter, comes up 90% as clean as a contact wash would. Amazing stuff. Took about 10 minutes to thaw out the pressure washer first. How that Nilfisk pressure washer is still running I’ll never know.
 

V_R

V_R

Soldato
Joined
17 Jan 2007
Posts
9,735
Location
UK
Forgot how good bilt hamber snowfoam is, and I haven’t even got the touch less stuff. I try not to do contact washes in the winter, comes up 90% as clean as a contact wash would. Amazing stuff. Took about 10 minutes to thaw out the pressure washer first. How that Nilfisk pressure washer is still running I’ll never know.
I was going to do that myself today, but I think the cold killed mine. Looks like a new pressure washer is needed.... :/

K4 proabably.... But that means I'll need new hoses, MJJC adapter etc. :rolleyes:
 

V_R

V_R

Soldato
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Well it was in the shed, but the it's been making funny noises for a while and it's had some abuse, so I'm not overly surprised.
 
Soldato
Joined
24 Jun 2011
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Sheffield
I only have a cheap Karcher K2 which is going on 7 years old.

Not sure if it helps that I make sure all water is out of it after use during cold periods, ensuring it runs dry and quickly switching it off followed by an additional press of trigger which ends up releasing a small amount of water at pressure.

I’m sure I once read to do those steps in the manual many years ago in terms of storage best practises.
 
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Man of Honour
Joined
21 Nov 2004
Posts
45,209
I was going to do that myself today, but I think the cold killed mine. Looks like a new pressure washer is needed.... :/

K4 proabably.... But that means I'll need new hoses, MJJC adapter etc. :rolleyes:

Thought I had knackered it tbh. First I switched it on and forgot I hadn’t connected the hose. Then I switched it on to find the outlet hose was frozen. Those nilfisk washers are built tough. Just enough water could trickle through to thaw it out.

Is it too cold to clean the car do we think? I'm dying to clean mine, its filthy but its so cold!

Wasn’t too bad here, 3C or so, fine once the pipes thawed. I’ve washed it on a Friday evening after work in the past as the temperature has dropped and the water has frozen onto the car :p

Roads are going to be crap on Monday, so a contactless wash was good enough.
 
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V_R

V_R

Soldato
Joined
17 Jan 2007
Posts
9,735
Location
UK
I only have a cheap Karcher K2 which is going on 7 years old.

Not sure if it helps that I make sure all water is out of it after use during cold periods, ensuring it runs dry and quickly switching it off followed by an additional press of trigger which ends up releasing a small amount of water at pressure.

I’m sure I once read to do those steps in the manual many years ago in terms of storage best practises.

Yeah I do that. As I say I think it was on the way out anyway. It was my dad's old one, a Bosch Aquatech.
 
Soldato
Joined
14 Apr 2014
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Sunny Sussex
Will keep an eye out in that case, what can I expect the pay for a 5L bottle? Prices seem to vary

The Bilt Hamber website will have the RRP

It is good but not a miracle worker. Did the car which was absolutely drenched in road salt grime and whilst it got all the gritty stuff off no problem it really needed a bilt hamber shampoo with a mitt after.

It isn’t, but IMO there’s no value in buying an inferior product if you can just wait a little to buy the better one :)
 
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