*** The Car Cleaning Thread ***

[Fr0dders]

I've found that the dust still happens but it doesn't stick as well so a quick blast with the hose pipe can shift most of it

yeah the idea of PB wheel sealant is to avoid you having to use strong wheel cleaner on it every other week.

 

[Begbie]

The problem is your immaculate, shiney, pristine alloys are filthy after 10 miles not that the dust damages the rim. Unless the dust wont stick to the poorboys sealant?

Yeah, the dust won't stick on as hard so makes it much easier to clean aswell when you go to do it.

 

[mrk]

Yup, cleaned mine today with just my fingers, needed to use all 8 and 2 thumbs though

 

[[TW]Fox]

Well I've spent about 2-3 days in total cleaning the 530i last week, with the final coat of Collinite 476S applied yesterday.

Decided to take a few photos today but of course by the time I did, the sun had gone in, and the combination of no sun and a Silver car has produced these far from impressive photographs of my hard work:

Still, at least it looks good in the sun, the paintwork is as smooth as glass, it's totally clean and everything is nicely protected

I went for 2 coats of Super Resin Polish after a full Claybar, then Extra Gloss Protection, topped off with some Collinite 476S.

 

[Begbie]

Are those the before pitcures

 

[Duke]

Looks good (those decorations are still up )

 

[mrk]

Your wheels would look nicer on my car methinks so shiny!

Also I learned something through FAIL today, all this time I kept buying different brands of "back to black" type trim/bumper sprays because I thought they were pretty pants until I realised that they are actually all the same even the £1 ones from Range/Zodiac! - what I failed at was rubbing the spray into the plastic black trim bits instead of just wiping once and expecting the blackness to be blacker and restored to original look finish.

So yeah, black trim colour restorer spray = rub it in for a good 30 seconds per panel and then you will see the black restore itself

BTW Fox looks like you could use a pair of Philips Silvervisions on the back! I have a set spare that I have no need for (a result of another fail story...) want em ?

 

[[TW]Fox]

It looks way better than it does in the picture, it's as shiney as mrk's Coupe in the flesh. I just fail at photography

 

[Duke]

So yeah, black trim colour restorer spray = rub it in for a good 30 seconds per panel and then you will see the black restore itself

I've tried many brands of sprays but found the Meguair's stuff to work better (liquid rather than spray).

 

[mrk]

Hmm were you doing a me before?

 

[LoadsaMoney]

And finally i picked up a product ive never seen before

what an amazing product, after washing i dried it with this product. Better than any weave towel ive got if im honest. soaked up the water to leave me a bone try finish in a matter of minutes.

Picked up one of those from my local Asda few days ago, supposed to be a quid but receipt said 84p, bargain , ill be trying it out this week hopefully as its supposed to be fine for the next few days now.

 

[Duke]

Hmm were you doing a me before?

Don't think so (from what I can remember when last used it). I generally found it to be patchy and didnt last for more than 2 days. This stuff gives more even coverage and looks great for a week or two.

 

[Toker]

on silver you'd have been better just doing 3 or 4 coats of EGP and skipping the collinite

 

[Begbie]

Your wheels would look nicer on my car methinks so shiny!

Also I learned something through FAIL today, all this time I kept buying different brands of "back to black" type trim/bumper sprays because I thought they were pretty pants until I realised that they are actually all the same even the £1 ones from Range/Zodiac! - what I failed at was rubbing the spray into the plastic black trim bits instead of just wiping once and expecting the blackness to be blacker and restored to original look finish.

So yeah, black trim colour restorer spray = rub it in for a good 30 seconds per panel and then you will see the black restore itself

BTW Fox looks like you could use a pair of Philips Silvervisions on the back! I have a set spare that I have no need for (a result of another fail story...) want em ?

Even more major fail, get yourself some megs plastic detailer or some autoglym bumper protecter the green gunky stuff and it will last a few weeks.

 

[mrk]

Even more major fail, get yourself some megs plastic detailer or some autoglym bumper protecter the green gunky stuff and it will last a few weeks.

I don't really want to spend £££ though because the only pieces of black trim I would use it on is the door mirror edge trim and the rear bumper lower panel so simply spraying the £1 spray onto them every 2 weeks when i wash keeps it in check

Bumper has no black rubbing strips on coupe like they have on saloons or any other black bits that can fade!

 

[Begbie]

I don't really want to spend £££ though because the only pieces of black trim I would use it on is the door mirror edge trim and the rear bumper lower panel so simply spraying the £1 spray onto them every 2 weeks when i wash keeps it in check

Bumper has no black rubbing strips on coupe like they have on saloons or any other black bits that can fade!

What rather than spending a fiver on something that will work for longer and less effort? O and it looks a lot lot better.

You can even use the megs trim detialer for the interior aswell.

My old bottle of autoglym stuff which I used on plastic black bumpers lasted over a year the last time.

 

[mrk]

Simoniz Back to Black (or Bumper Back or whatever is called) is not good enough ?!

I don't see how it can look a lot better either because just how good can black can plastic looks because in my eyes the £1 spray does a darn black job, er good job and still looks as black now as it did on the day I applied it.

It's a black restorer, don't need fancy products to give black plastic trim panels the original black look and feel. can't use it on the interior on mine either as it needs to be a matte dashboard product and silicone free + non glossy (have a different Simoniz one for this purpose though so no issue)

 

[Begbie]

Simoniz Back to Black (or Bumper Back or whatever is called) is not good enough ?!

I don't see how it can look a lot better either because just how good can black can plastic looks because in my eyes the £1 spray does a darn black job, er good job and still looks as black now as it did on the day I applied it.

It's a black restorer, don't need fancy products to give black plastic trim panels the original black look and feel. can't use it on the interior on mine either as it needs to be a matte dashboard product and silicone free + non glossy (have a different Simoniz one for this purpose though so no issue)

Sorry bud I didn't mean for it to come accross the way its been interpted.

Assumed you where using cheap spray cans.

As long as it works for yourself and your car thats all that maters

Just tried a lot of cheap products on my old car wasting a lot of cash before trying the more expensive product realsing how much better it was. But to be fair I prob have a lot more plasticy bits on my car, which makes it more worthwhile for myself.

 

[kai]

/moved to own thread

 

[mrk]

Edit* ^ Shiny dashboard!


On the Civic I had one of those turtle wax dashboard sponges you wipe over with and all of a sudden you can virtually see your face on the dashboard! I always thoguht "wow shiny" but never realised how much better a matt dash is especially when sunlight is trying to reflect on your face on the motorway!

But aye, Simoniz sprays here are cheap, I have tried the generic brand black trim restorers too (W5, Autocare etc) and they seem fine too but then again thinking about it I only have a very small area to bring back blackness too so it would be a totally different story if you have a lot of black plastic!