*** The Car Cleaning Thread ***

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if your just starting out halfords is a good place to start

stick to the meguairs stuff and the autoglymn stuff and your on the right track. Just get yourself some nice microfibre drying towels and polishing cloths and your away.

Save the internet for when you know what you want. Halfords is great for browsing.

They've got 3 for 2 on at the moment, and i got a meguiars lambswool washmitt and microfibre drying towel from there. You cant go wrong with them if your starting out.
 
MrLOL said:
if your just starting out halfords is a good place to start

stick to the meguairs stuff and the autoglymn stuff and your on the right track. Just get yourself some nice microfibre drying towels and polishing cloths and your away.

Save the internet for when you know what you want. Halfords is great for browsing.

They've got 3 for 2 on at the moment, and i got a meguiars lambswool washmitt and microfibre drying towel from there. You cant go wrong with them if your starting out.
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Thanks dude, I'll do just that :)
 
Well I got all the glue off in the end, so if anyone wants to remove super-glue from car paint work without damaging it, Loctite Glue Remover works, it just takes some time and several applications if you've got more than a tiny spot to remove :)
 
I went and bought myself:

Meguiars wash mitt
Auto Glym Bodywork shampoo
Auto Glym Aqua dry chamois
Auto Glym Resin Polish
Auto Glym polishing cloths
and a couple of buckets

Should be enough to get me started :)
 
Well I thought I'd give the Honda some attention today after yesterday's work on the MX5. Gave it a thorough clean and mini-detail.. I say mini-detail because although it's nothing compared to the effort you guys put in, it's more than it usually gets! Didn't bother polishing/waxing as I didn't have the energy, and it never looks any different on silver cars :D but I cleaned it thoroughly, used some black trim restorer (which worked nicely), cleaned the wheels thoroughly, cleaned the glass thoroughly and cleaned inside thoroughly. Touched up a few paint blemishes as well :)

Anyway, have some pics FWIW

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Door cards are a little scuffed at the bottom :(
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Well here is a clean car, it's not perfect but pretty damn clean for now. I removed the 540i badge as well, I think I actually prefer it now, most people will probably not know it's a V8 ...although it has the V8 chrome grill slats so those who, really, really know their E39's should be able to spot if they look hard from the front :p ...I snow foamed the car first, then rinsed, then washed with a mitt and Meguiar's car shampoo, then rinsed, then I clayed every panel ...a lot (it was filthy, took 2 whole blocks of the yellow stuff i4detailing sell), then I rinsed the lube off, then I used Meguiar's Deep Crystal Paint Cleaner and buffed it off, then I used Meguiar's Deep Crystal Polish and buffed it off and then I put a good layer of Meguiar's Gold Class Wax on ...and buffed it off ...with my right hand and wrist in serious pain at this stage I left RainXing my Windows inside and out and my mirrors and the interior until today.

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Cleaned my car today aswell. Shame that the sunny weather has made it more obvious just how swirled the paintwork is though... I've been pretty careful with what I use to clean it, shame that the previous owner wasn't (I guess the moral is don't use automatic car washes, particularly when your car is black). Will see if I can improve the finish next time around.
 
Just a heads up for anyone looking to buy a pressure washer:

Stay away from Halford brand ones. Bought one around 14 months ago, I was originally set on buying a Karcher one however I thought it'd be easier to track down parts with one from Halfords. Spent £150 on the best one they had in store. Last month the pipe or a component in it gave in resulting in there being no pressure and water leaking everywhere. Took it to Halfords to track down a replacement part and apparently the company that makes Halfords parts has shut down and they can't get any parts. So the pressure washers rendered useless after just over a year!

Looking for a Karcher one now, like I should have done in the first place!
 
Gave the Focus Edge a quick wash using the two bucket method, rinse and dry. Last weekend it had a full detail and is still looking nice and shiny, especially for silver (machine silver) :cool:

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Comments and opinions welcome :)
 
Gave my car a mini detail today, the inside was pretty much spotless just the glass needed doing, probably about 8hrs total, not a lot considering the time some pros spend.

  1. Wheels soaked with Billbury Wheel Cleaner and throughly cleaned
  2. Presoaked lower half with APC
  3. Snowfoamed with BH Auto Foam, & a bit of Chemical Guys Bodywash & Wax mixed in
  4. Rinsed Of with Jetwash
  5. Snowfoamed again and handwashed with 2 bucket method
  6. Clayed with BH soft clay
  7. Snowfoamed again and handwashed with 2 bucket method
  8. Let dry naturally & vacumed inside
  9. Hand Polised with Autoglym Super Resin Polish
  10. Hand Waxed with Collinite 476
  11. External trim dressed with Mer Bumper & External Vinyl Cleaning Gel (the only Mer stuff I will use)
  12. All glass polished with Autoglym Car Glass Polish
  13. External glass RainX'd
  14. Finally tyre dressing applied, cant remember brand, tipped it in a jam jar ages ago.

    A few things I wish id have spent a bit more time on but had other commitments.

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found time to give the teg some larving. no 'detailing' here :D im no tart. just a deap cleanse, polish, wax... and as expected, totally unrewarding with this colour, cool :cool:

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absolutely spotless now, new wheels/shoes all round recently. i think just about everything is waxoyled underneath now :o so im happy for now..
 
washed my car too yesterday too :) Just a quick one, didnt dry it and just fast glass'd the windows. Forgot how bloody long it takes to do it aswell :(

Old school Simoniz wax tin? You're just not worth the effort! :P (anyone want it? hit me with the p&p and its yours)

Where's this collinite then....
 
eatcustard said:
I spend about 5 minutes washing my car :)
And polish it once a month.

I respect the time some of you put in, to keep your car looking new.
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See, I find that a bit odd, I mean what can you do in 5 minutes? Get half of it wet? :p I spend more time than that washing my car for sure, but then you polish once a month and I don't polish anywhere near that much?
 
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