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

Invertigo said:
Got my car going for a correction and ceramic coating next week - any recommendations on simple top up products to use at home to keep it working well? Find myself with a real lack of free time most weekends so a quick and easy solution is my preferred, have used stuff like auto glym polar seal before for instance if that's any good?
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Have a preference for liquid crystal. I’ve used so many sealants and always come back to liquid crystal.


CarPro reset every couple of months, along with a regular wash using Auto Wash should do the job of keeping the ceramic coating in good condition.



Ceramic coatings are typically very strong and bond well to paint, and are chemical resistant. It’s unlikely you’ll strip it with a shampoo. More likely stripped through mechanical abrasion.
 
Quick wheel wash which I meant to post last weekend.
Car really needs a proper clean/detail, been neglected last year for various reasons.
In spoiler tags as could not be bothered to re-size.


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Tyre's cleaned, wheels washed with bilberry and sealed, trying to end that can, as although it is fast to apply it is not great.

Weather looks good today, window treatment with various Autoglym products
 
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Silly question?

Hot water to contact wash car or cold? I’ve seen YouTube people filling wash bucket’s with their power hose?

I’ve always opted for hot but maybe that was from years on gone by when we had no pre wash, snow foam?

Thoughts anyone?
 
The car was filthy and the weather was ideal to give it a clean today.

The wheels were pretty bad and looked dull rather than their usual gun metal colour.
I foamed KKD Brakeaway on the tyres and arches at 1:10, and sprayed the same solution on the wheels and barrels as a pre-wash. Then contact cleaned them with some GT One Wheel Shampoo.



Annoyingly there was old adhesive pads on the nearside front and offside rear wheels, a combination of one wheel being repaired and some rebalancing needed ages ago as the refurbishment place didn't do a great job of balancing.

Tried Zapp degreaser and a plastic scraper (one of those silicone removal tools), but had to use Gtechniq T&G remover in the end. The tool got rid of most of it, but had to swap to a cloth to get the final layer off. It did dull one of the wheels, but some compound and polish by hand got it looking better




I used the new BH Touch-Less at 1% which did a great job, still had 550ml in the Carscope foam lance so I'll be only making 500ml a time in the future. The pre-diluted older formulation I had left over from last time went on extremely thin/wet, so I won't be doing that again.

I really like Tac Systems Mystic Bubble - it smells amazing and really is slick. Dried off with a towel and Koch Chemist FSE.

 
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Sho said:
Anyone recommended an all purpose cleaner? Interior needs a good clean.
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Surfex HD

Tee Hee Johnson said:
Hey all!

Very out of the loop with this stuff, still got lots of Auto Glym… but just ran out of the wheel cleaner and the snow foam.

What’s a good reasonable snow foam and wheel cleaner these days? I never did rate the Auto Glym polar stuff.

Cheers!
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Touch less + Auto wheel


If you want a tyre and wheel cleaning combo, P&S Brake Buster.
 
No not surfex HD, as good as it is. It's not a cleaner; it's a degreaser , if you keep using it, you'll start marking the interior

Once all my APC and other bits are gone . I'm going to try the minimalist route
DIY detail APC and rinseless wash

Apparently you can use the rinseless wash on interior and exterior, if you need more punch then add the APC
 
ShiWarrior said:
No not surfex HD, as good as it is. It's not a cleaner; it's a degreaser , if you keep using it, you'll start marking the interior

Once all my APC and other bits are gone . I'm going to try the minimalist route
DIY detail APC and rinseless wash

Apparently you can use the rinseless wash on interior and exterior, if you need more punch then add the APC
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All APCs are degreasers no? :)

Shouldn't be used on leather, but definitely can be used on interior - BH say it themselves. Just make sure it's diluted enough.


Once you clean plastics, should makes sure that you add a UV protector as any APC will draw this out - if you don't, they can fade.


Otherwise a bit of mild, soapy water will do the trick :)
 
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ShiWarrior said:
This is how I see it


But I'm not saying they are correct, that's what I believe
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Interesting. BH do recommend it for interior cleaning, though, so I'd be inclined to believe them that it can be used safely - they're normally very good at saying what you can and can't use their products for.

Edit: the video suggests solvent-based degreasers are bad. Surfex HD doesn't contain solvents :) BH label it as an APC with degreasing capability, and is water-based.
 
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