*** The Car Cleaning Thread ***

[hotdog]

you got it.

 

[daveydave]

I can't understand why though? Surely you still need a second mould to make an an aysymetric tyre?

 

[hotdog]

I know, i cant explain it - i have only one answer :-

'Those crazy Dutch b*st*rds'

 

[thepharcyde]

I've had a go at using a rotary polisher today for the first time.

Spent the pricely sum of £95 on the following:
Silverline 'SilverStorm' Rotary Polisher & Backing Plate
Menzerna Final Finish (PO 85RD)
Menzerna Power Finish (PO203S)
3M Perfect-it III Polishing Pad Yellow 150mm - High Gloss Polishing Pad
3M Perfect-it III Ultrafina Finishing Pad Blue 150mm - High Gloss Finishing Pad
3M masking tape

Steps I took:
1) Clean & Dry
2) Mask plastic areas ready to polish
3) Menzerna Final Finish (PO 85RD) & Yellow 3M pad that removes slight swirls then remove
4) Poorboys Sealant with 3M Blue pad then remove
5) Meguiars Tyre stuff
6) Zorst some Homebase stuff!

4 Hours later

Thanks for looking

 

[ganesh]

What's an effective external plastic trim restorer? Have got Autoglym EGP over loads of my trim accidentally and it looks white and cloudy, will this do the trick - http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/..._productId_172232_langId_-1_categoryId_165682

I can't justify £20 for the Gtechniq C4 Permanent Trim Restorer mentioned above.

 

[hotdog]

Another vredstein user above i see

Have you tried ACF50 on plastics ? It does seem to work quite well on my bike although it possibly doesnt last very long. I use it more to protect the engine...

 

[daveydave]

Another vredstein user above i see

Always seems to be Ford owners too...

Question about the rotary, how easy was it to use and did you get scared?

I'm thinking of buying a DA like Fox's in the next 2 months - mainly because I am scared!!

 

[thepharcyde]

Another vredstein user above i see

Have you tried ACF50 on plastics ? It does seem to work quite well on my bike although it possibly doesnt last very long. I use it more to protect the engine...

No not tried that, used tyre stuff on the plastics today, but have some trim detailer but it's not particularly good.

Always seems to be Ford owners too...

Question about the rotary, how easy was it to use and did you get scared?

I'm thinking of buying a DA like Fox's in the next 2 months - mainly because I am scared!!

Rotary is easy I was equally scared using it for the first time (Friday). Just read this thread on detailingworld take your time and low speed and you should be fine. My paintwork is in very good condition but it has removed minor scratches with ease.

http://www.detailingworld.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=66024

I used the following steps the speed referring to the rotary I have.

Start at speed 1 on the rotary, no pressure.
Never go higher than speed 2.
I usually go speed 1, speed 1.5, speed 2.
Work polish for good 3-5 mins, 20+ passes.

I'm ham fisted at anything I do and can safely say I've achieved a lot for my first attempt.

Takes ages though so set aside a full day

This is the rotary I used. Main issue I found was it was hard to control on some panels with it hopping even at the lowest speed.

http://www.cleanyourcar.co.uk/polis...-silverstorm-39-rotary-polisher/prod_513.html

And you will need this backing plate for the 125mm pads

No before shot, but completely scratch free

 

[redeye_uk]

Gave the car a good old clean yesterday.

Steps I took.

1. Snow Foam (VP Snow Foam & Karcher Lance)
2. Alloy Clean (VP Bilberry wheel cleaner)
2. Shampoo and Dry (Dodo juice Born to be Mild)
3. Clay (Meguiars Quick clay kit)
4. Glaze (Poor Boys Black Hole)
5. Wax (Dodo Juice Purple Haze)

Things still to do
1. Proper wheel clean!
2. Clean exhaust
3. Interior

BEFORE

So first thing first I foamed the car. Experience has taught me to do this when the car is dry. It allows the foam to 'stick' better and seems to get rid of more crud.

Rinsed it off and as you can see this removed a lot of the loose dirt

I then gave the wheels a quick clean before giving the whole car a shampoo. I used the 2 bucket method for the first time and definitely think its the way forward...

Car was looking pretty clean at this point, so I decided to give it a good clay. This had never been done in the cars life so I managed to remove A LOT of crud. No pics of clay, but lets just say it had to go straight in the bin afterwards!

I then went over the whole car with a glaze, in this case Poor Boys Black Hole. This definitely gave the car a deep shine and wet look. It also didnt do too bad a job of hiding swirls. See for yourselves

I then finished off with a coat of Dodo Juice Purple Haze to lock that protection in. Must say the Dodo Juice wax was a pleasure to work with. Very easy to apply and even easier to buff off. End result, is a pretty clean car

 

[redeye_uk]

Woke up this morning to see it was raining. So grabbed the camera, ran outside, and took these shots

 

[Overlag]

nice, i cleaned mine yesterday too... been a month since i added SRP and EGP and it still beeding up well (although miles off what your beeding is)

black cars look fantastic when totally clean

 

[stulid]

Tesco have the Karcher 2.56 delux kit for £99.99, apparently half price.

Is it any good?

 

[Clarkey]

I don't understand why people like beading. It's a royal pain in the ass, leaves thousands of water spots all over the car which often won't come off without polishing.
Is there such a thing as a wax/sealant which doesn't bead at all?

 

[thepharcyde]

I don't understand why people like beading. It's a royal pain in the ass, leaves thousands of water spots all over the car which often won't come off without polishing.
Is there such a thing as a wax/sealant which doesn't bead at all?

Decent wax/sealant it should sheet off. Cheap stuff beads.

 

[Sp00n]

Does anyone know of a decent upholstery repair place in the south/south east?

 

[stulid]

What about my karcher question above?

 

[thepharcyde]

What about my karcher question above?

Have same one minus patio cleaner not bad.

 

[redeye_uk]

What about my karcher question above?

Anything above 100 bar will be good.

 

[stulid]

So its good for £100?

 

[thepharcyde]

So its good for £100?

Personally I would save yourself £40 and get one minus the patio cleaner. I've used the lances on a couple of occasions to clean mine.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/New-Karcher-P...Home_Garden_PowerTools_SM?hash=item335a839296