*** The Car Cleaning Thread ***

[wassap]

Its one of those questions that gets asked over and over again, so i thought I'd do a guide, for us with nice 'normal' cars, i think if you got super cars or hyper cars this aint the thread for you

Ever since I discovered www.detailingworld.co.uk , I've been a bit OCD when it comes to car cleaning, I think, thankfully, I’ve calmed down a little and settled on a nice reasonable collection of gear, and a sensible cleaning regime.

The sort of gear you need is the following:

Washing

Turtle wash/wax & Meguiars hyper-wash, are two products I’ve used over the years, with good effect. Theres lost of other products available and most are as good as each other in my experience.

1 Lambswool wash mitt. Far better than a sponge, and you tend not to put more swirls in your paintwork with these.

2 buckets, one for soapy water, and one with clean water, the clean one is for washing your wash mitt in.

1 bottle of Tesco/aldi All Purpose Cleaner, this product is awesome, its as good as the way more expensive Meguiars stuff. This stuff you can mix up for varying strengths depending on the grime you want to tackle, I’ve used this stuff to clean my engine, the arches, door shuts etc etc its also good for cleaning flies and stuff too, it does strip wax tho.(with this you apply the stuff using a squirty bottle and scrub with a nail brush (not on paintwork tho, just rub gently with a MF cloth)

Washing is the easy part, you basically soak the car with water, personally I have a SuperSpray bottle, this hooks onto a normal hose and you fill it with your normal wash liquid, and spray it on the car, this isn’t essential, it just acts as a pre-wash.

Anyway, hose off the prewash, then simply, using light pressure, wash a panel at a time using your wash mitt, make sure you clean the wash mitt after every panel in the clean bucket, this ensure no grit is spread onto the paint work, ie no micro scratches or swirls are imparted.

If your wheels are really mucky, get some Meguiars Wheel brightener, it will shift serious crap, but you don’t want to use it on kerbed wheels as it will get into the lacquer. If the wheels aren’t too bad, use some Autoglym wheel cleaner.

 

[wassap]

Paint conditioning.

Now if you haven’t ever done a proper clean on your car, then you are in for some very rewarding hard work!

1st up I would advise after washing your car, dry it using a microfiber drying cloth, get a Sonus one of Ebay. Once you have done this, you will either see lots of swirls or your paint work will feel rough, this unfortunately means hard work.

To clay your car, means to basically run a specially formulated claybar over the paint work to remove the embedded tree sap and other airborne contaminants, get some Meguiars Quick Clay, spray some of the detailer spray on your car, and lightly rub the clay on the bodywork, a panel at a time, you can actually feel and hear the crud being rubbed off, this makes a world of a difference to the paint work.

Hopefully you wont have to go through this next stage, in all honesty depends how bad your OCD is when it comes to cleaning a car, if you see lots of swirls/micro scratches, you will need to cut the paint, in the olden days all we had was t-cut, today, however, we have veritable feast of products and methods available to the common man.

If you feel like splashing out get a Silverline Rotary from Ebay, this will help you easily get rid of the paint defects, there’s a couple of products I have used to good effect, some are hardcore, some are more suited for cars which aren’t in too bad nick. Please note the rotary polisher takes some getting used to , practice on a scrap panel if you are worried, in my experience you have to be really cack handed to screw your paint up with a rotary. Its worth getting some 6” and 3” pads for the rotary, this allows you do small part of the car and you can do scratch repairs aswell

• Farecla G3 – Hardcore, cutting paste, will get rid of defects fast, but can do damage with a rotary if you are ham fisted.
• Sonus SFX1/2 – These are more subtle and again really work well, go with 2 first, if that don’t shift the marks, then move onto 1
• Menzerna Intensive polish – My personal fav, excellent product, really restores gloss, and isn’t messy.
• Meguiars #80 & #82 is another alternative.
• As is Megs scratch remover, which is good for small scratch removal.
• Megs Plast x is also excellent for removing scratches from plastic, its also good for removing marks from lights.

 

[wassap]

Now after this stage I’d personally advise a coat of polish and wax now.

I personally use Autoglym Super Resin polish, as this has some fillers so will mask some defects, but again theres lost of stuff out there, I don’t really rate the Megs retail stuff, but the chemical guys and poorboys stuff is very good, its just SRP is easily available.

By now you should have a really shiney car, so its time to protect all your hard work, you either want a wax or a sealant.

A wax will protect the paint for a nice long period (depending on the wax) or you can use a sealant which will give a 3d finish, but wont protect for as long, but it does give a really good show car finish. I’d also advise putting some wax on the wheels.





If going for wax, I recommend the following

• Collinite 476 – extremely hard wearing wax, mine lasted 4 months over the winter, and I do a lot of miles.Suited for light coloured cars
• Collinite 915 – same as above but suited for darker coloured cars, my personal favorite
• Poorboys nattys blue – better finish than the above but only lasts 3 weeks.
• Chemical Guys petes 53 – not much to choose between this and the poorboys stuff. Poorboys is cheaper….
• If you are feeling flush, go for some Zymol!

If going for a sealant, look for Klasse AIO & Carlack, I’ve seen those used to good effect.

 

[wassap]

So that’s its in reality, you should have a nice shiny, protected car. And you should be utterly knackered.

But… you haven’t finished, as you need to do the inside,do all the dressing and glass!

For tyres I use the Megs Endurance.For trim, im not a big fan of uber shine, I just want the clean look, so I use Poorboys Natural Look dressing, but the Einzett & chemical guys gear is excellent (if a little pricey), the Megs and Autoglym stuff is okay ish. For leather the Gliptone cleaner is the best out there. For cloth interior cleaning, just mix up some weak mixture of the APC you have, I haven’t found a type of dirt it wont shift tbh!

For glass I’ve used Autolym FastGlass and the Einzett glass cleaner to good effect, but personally I’d just go with cheapo glass cleaner and newspaper.

I think that should cover it, all of the above is something you would do 2 maybe 3 times a year, in between you just need to wash and dry the car in my experience, its by no means the perfect cleaning routine, everyone has a different routine im sure, and have their own favorite product, so if you think you know of better products, recommend away.

 

[wassap]

So, you use it as the cloth to wipe the window cleaning stuff with?

What special about newspaper that makes it better to use than a cloth?

It is old school, but works really well, spray on the window cleaner,and use the news paper to clean it off, it just seem to clean it all of that much better than a cloth and it gives a better finish imo, maybe it the inks

 

[wassap]

Nice post.

Glaze & sealant?

 

[wassap]

nice guide chief! Can we have a bit on foaming a car? Everyone loves pics of that! Or maybe just me LOL!

Two ways of getting foam on your car, the proper and more expensive way is use a Foam lance with snow foam and a jetwash,I must admit it does look cool, but thats about it imo, its a bit of luxury that isnt necessary.

I personally use a supersquirter, which just fits onto a std hose and gives the same cleaning performance, and a similar foam on the car.

 

[wassap]

Nice write up, I'll read it fully later.

Can I get all the products (or at least cheap and cheerful versions which do the job well enough) from Halfrauds? Don't fancy waiting for online delivery because I planned to clean it tomorrow.

Most of the Autoglym and Megs stuff is available, but the good stuff is online only Im afraid

 

[wassap]

I know that, i couldnt understand the point he was trying to make!

I must admit i havent used many sealants,I prefer the Carnuba based wax, as in my experience it lasts longer.

What have you compared against Collinite then, might add it to the stock list.

 

[wassap]

The point I am making is that using both a glaze and sealant in addition to the polishing and wax stage makes a huge difference to the final outcome and also the longevity of the other products.

I wouldn't personally just polish and then wax as it gives an inferior finish.

You did mention sealant at the end of your post, but didn't state when it should applied. For the record, glaze is applied after the polish and then a sealant is applied before the final waxing stage.

Well i agree and disagree, on my Panther black ST and Dturbo, yes it would really show that a polish/glaze/sealant/wax combo had been used, but on my current perfomance blue ST you just cant tell the difference, so i just polish and wax.

As i said in the initial post everyone has their personal pref's.I find wax after the sealant dulls the finish a tad.

 

[wassap]

Blackfire wet diamond sealant lasts 6 months+

Werkstat Acrylic lasts...I dunno, seems to be forever once you've layered it

Oooh that sounds likesomething that would do the job, is it easy to apply?

 

[wassap]

Autosmart is brilliant, AG tar remover does a reasonable job too.

 

[wassap]

What would be the recommended way to just give the car a quick clean? I'll never get round to doing anything like the above.

At the moment:

Cover car in water and clean off loose dirt
Wash with product 'x' (currently just some old turtlewax wash'n'wax product).
Wash off soap suds
Dry with chamois

What product is best to use and should I do anything differently?

Your wash stuff is fine, but for drying use a waffle weave drying cloth, less swirls and dries the car better.

 

[wassap]

the only cheap polishing machine i'd 'semi' recommend is the silverline...I say semi as it's a rotary rather than a dual action so, if you've never used one before, it's a lot easier to burn your paint with these bad boys and a lot easier to mess it up. So if you plan on getting one read and watch tutorials first and ideally get a practice panel to learn a bit on first

it's also not that cheap really once you've factored in good backing plates/good pads/polishes/inspection light/masking tape/probably more stuff

Ive had a PC and im curently using a rotary, it doesnt take long to learn how to use a rotary, once you do use one tho, you realise how weak the PC is for major correction.

The silverlines are fine, plenty of power and you have be a serious numpty to muck up your bodywork with one.The only downside with the silverlines is longevity, i certainly wouldnt rely on one if i was making a living out of detailing.

 

[wassap]

If the scratches are deep you cant really do anything with a cutting polish. What sort of marks are they, can you post a pic?

Most marks are very difficult to get out by hand tbh.Scratchx is ok, alsong as you really work it in, you have to rub it hard (ooh er missus) until it breaks down.

 

[wassap]

From what I've read, awesome durability but is the finish (gloss/wet look) first class?

Finish is excellent imo, but imo victoria wax,p21s,harley's etc give a slightly better finish, but obviously without the durability.

As for leather, you Gliptone is exellent, i personally use Turtle wax, but my car is less than 2 years old.

 

[wassap]

afaik Autoglym's SRP is a filler not a cutter so I dont think you can go wrong with the stuff as it can be washed off quite easily when not sealed with a sealant or wax.

As for application I think it's literally apply thinly with a foam applicator and buff off with a microfibre cloth and then a coat of wax to protect it.

SRP does have a very mild cut to it.

 

[wassap]

G3 is quite harsh, it gives you quick results, but im wary of using it, unless the paint is really really.I always water it down.

Rain x is excellent for glass, but make sure you apply it properly, if applied badly its pretty useless.

 

[wassap]

Just to illustrate why i keep banging on about Collinite, take a look at the pic, this was polished & waxed 4 weeks ago, and ive done 3k miles since then and despite all the crappy weather, its still come up spangly....

 

[wassap]

Bah, why do bmw pads leave a trail of dust on your wheels after a week whereas other cars don't.

Shiny though!

They all dust tbh.

While im at it, does any know of a good wheel wax (or is that marketing con?), Ive got 2 new front wheels coming tomorrow, and I'd like to coat the inner part of the rim with something that makes them easier to clean.