*** The Car Cleaning Thread ***

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Seeing that I can't wash the exterior of my car without it getting dirty within the week (live in flat, outside parking) I'm looking to get a good kit together to clean the inside of the car - just wanted your guys opinions if this will be ok on a budget please?

Polished Bliss
Atomiza Microfibre Work Towel - 3 Pack = £3.55 (need some cheap microfiber clothes)
Raceglaze Leather Care Kit = £26.75 (heard this is good - your experience?)
Poorboy's Natural Look Dressing = £10.95 (for everything besides the leather seats)
Meguiar's NXT All Metal Polysh = £7.95 (exhaust tips)
Subtotal £49.20

also ordered magic eraser for the steering wheel from the bay
 
Try Gliptone liquid leather, its very good and actually smells like leather.
 
Go to the gliptone site and buy a bottle of GT12 cleaner and a bottle of GT11 conditioner, the small ones are about 8 quid each i think, i swear by them, used it for years.

Grab a buy 2 get one free air freshener while your at it :)

http://www.liquidleather.com/
 
As requested by Fett, who it seems went to special effort to bottle me up some polish before I bottled out of using polish, my quick story of DAS-6 woe.

Clayed the whole car, looking great, and decided to use my new polisher. Thought I'd be better be safe first and try some super resin polish on the boot lid.

Made a complete and utter hash of it. Couldnt stop the machine bouncing up and down on the paintwork. Scared myself to death, put it back in the box where it has unfortunately remained ever since, and I still have a sealed bottle of Menzerna on the side :(

What did I do wrong!
 
Do what i did mate, 35 quid halfords polisher, they might be rubbish, but you cant go wrong :)
 
[TW]Fox;16660125 said:
As requested by Fett, who it seems went to special effort to bottle me up some polish before I bottled out of using polish, my quick story of DAS-6 woe.

Clayed the whole car, looking great, and decided to use my new polisher. Thought I'd be better be safe first and try some super resin polish on the boot lid.

Made a complete and utter hash of it. Couldnt stop the machine bouncing up and down on the paintwork. Scared myself to death, put it back in the box where it has unfortunately remained ever since, and I still have a sealed bottle of Menzerna on the side :(

What did I do wrong!
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No idea why it was bouncing around like how you describe. I recently bought a DAS-6 Pro and it's a doddle to use although to do a proper job it takes an awful amount of time. I started on my car the other day and managed to do the bonnet, roof and boot in a couple of hours but then the rain came so I had to abandon it until another day.
 
[TW]Fox;16660125 said:
As requested by Fett, who it seems went to special effort to bottle me up some polish before I bottled out of using polish, my quick story of DAS-6 woe.

Clayed the whole car, looking great, and decided to use my new polisher. Thought I'd be better be safe first and try some super resin polish on the boot lid.

Made a complete and utter hash of it. Couldnt stop the machine bouncing up and down on the paintwork. Scared myself to death, put it back in the box where it has unfortunately remained ever since, and I still have a sealed bottle of Menzerna on the side :(

What did I do wrong!
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If it's bouncing on the vertical (from paint then upwards towards you and down again)...I have no idea, there really isn't any movement in the spindle to accomodate that movement and these machines don't have that much relative power so even with no pressure on the head of the polisher, it should not "bounce", and can't see how it can unless something is wrong.

If you mean it's skipping in the lateral...pulling itself from one section to another, almost like it's grabbing the paint and flinging itself from point to point (which makes more sense), then it could be a combination of a couple of things. A dry pad with not enough polish (the polish has a lot of lube in it), combined with not enough polish spread on the section means that a dry section of the pad will hit a squaky clean dry section of paint and "grab". The other more likely cause is how much pressure you are applying (not enough).

Nothing wrong with being safe, obviously by using the AG first you are being careful, so would not suprise me if you were being too light with the pressure as a precaution. There are videos on youtube of how to use a DA as it's hard to describe the pressure required, but it is more than you think. You won't harm your paint by leaning down on the DA, it will just bog down when there is too much pressure and even if you monstered the DA into the paint, you'd have to keep it in one spot for ages...the pad would probably grenade itself before you could harm your paint.

Try again. Use a green pad and the AG if it makes you feel safer...put a fat X of polish on the pad (this is not to polish the car, this is to get you using the machine) and with it turned off, put the pad on the paint and spread it over 2 square feet (still with the machine off). Put the pad in the middle of the smeary mess and check that you have the machine on say, speed 2. One hand on the body of the DA, turn it on, and put your other hand on the head (over the pad) and press down...you'll hear and feel the machine struggle to orbit as you apply more pressure...release the weight you are applying until it goes from bogging to oscillating, now move the pad in straight lines over the section.

Try this until you are happy with how it feels, bump up the speed etc. Then wipe off all the AG, wash your green pad with a bit of Fairy and let it dry and watch a few youtube vids of how to make passes with polish and direction travel.
 
[TW]Fox;16660125 said:
What did I do wrong!
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I'm also struggling to understand how you got the results that you did.

I'm not sure whether you were just a bit light handed with it or whether there is a counter weight issue with the machine (not sure if the DAS has this), or whether it was faulty.

I've had to replace one Porter Cable as it stopped engaging - would spin up but would stop pretty much as soon as I put it to the paint.

Perhaps if you video'd it, it would make things a little clearer.
 
I got the rotary out again the other day, and have concluded that the combination of me, the megs pads and polishes and my car just don't mix.

Results are half decent, but I'm still getting very minor holograms, and I worked small sections for ages this time, spritzing the pad to carry on working after the polish had started to dry (my previous issue) twice per section.

I'm going to look for another pad/polish combination I think.
 
You're not alone Fox. I found it a bit daunting at first. Not sure what the DAS-6 is like but my PC7424 took quite a bit of use before I got comfortable with what it was doing.

I made a complete hash of the first panel I polished (the bonnet) by applying far too much compound. I had it bouncing around a few times which was a bit alarming but applying a bit more downwards pressure and a steady hand helped keep it under control.

At low speed, it absolutely ruins your arm. The pain was quite unbearable at times meaning I had to keep stopping and starting. You do get used to it though so get stuck in and give it another go.

Once you've got the technique it's actually quite enjoyable. Time consuming, but enjoyable :)
 
Strangely, I found a similar bouncing motion the first time I used my DAS-6. I guessed the problem was me being too light handed with it - you've got to let the machine do the work for you, but not let it wander away, if that makes sense.

Get a firm grip of the machine and apply enough pressure to stop it skipping around on the paintwork. Takes a little while to work out how much pressure is needed, but you'll get there with enough practice.
 
agw_01 said:
You're not alone Fox. I found it a bit daunting at first. Not sure what the DAS-6 is like but my PC7424 took quite a bit of use before I got comfortable with what it was doing.

I made a complete hash of the first panel I polished (the bonnet) by applying far too much compound. I had it bouncing around a few times which was a bit alarming but applying a bit more downwards pressure and a steady hand helped keep it under control.

At low speed, it absolutely ruins your arm. The pain was quite unbearable at times meaning I had to keep stopping and starting. You do get used to it though so get stuck in and give it another go.

Once you've got the technique it's actually quite enjoyable. Time consuming, but enjoyable :)
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Agreed, it's very daunting if you haven't even seen someone do it in front of you in the flesh, let alone taught you how to do it. Plenty of videos on the choob though which will give you a good idea of the amount of pressure required (through pad deformation) and speed of passes.

Low speed is more noticeably uncomfortable, but I worry more about high speed passes as the PC is vibrating so much in my hands (no sniggering at the back) I can just feel my joints disintegrating :p

The_Abyss said:
How loud are these dual actions? I need earplugs loud, or more bearable?
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Not earplugs loud, but loud enough to irritate the neighbours at 11pm :p
 
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