*** The Car Cleaning Thread ***

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washing the car this evening, just finished rinsing and it starts raining! *sigh*

Decided to start claying it anyway, and worked rather well, didn't need to use as much lube due to the rain! the muck it pulled off was shocking! a single wipe on the roof and the clay was brown! used half a bar for a quarter of the car!
 
Man, Honda Milano red is rediculously soft, the car isnt 10 months old yet and its a swirly mess.

Im on day 3 of attacking the paint with clay/Menz ff/Coli 915, just got the roof and skirts to do, and wahay im done, gotta say Menz has been a joy to use with the rotary, even in this hot weather, just keep your pad moist and mist the bodywork everynow and then, and it really works well.Im glad I moved over to the Rotary tho, Ive managed to get rid of some of the scratches left by inconsiderate muppets at car parks.

Question to you pro's, im running out of collinite now, It hasnt really been lasting that long for me, well recently anyway, ive got enough for another coat now, how long before I can apply the 2nd coat? Has anyone got any recomendations for another hard wearing wax, upto about £25.
 
I'm with you on the soft paint frustration, 4 or 5 months since I last corrected mine and it was a real mess with wash marring. This is even though I switched to two buckets and a mitt, seems to make no difference.
Anyway I went over it with Menz 85RE5 on a flexipads red and its looking great again. Good combo this, it's the weakest I have and boy is it mild, won't even shift water spots but the swirling is gone.
 
Waterspots are a **** aswell, my nicely finished car is caked in water spots cos of next door's kids, I havent got the energy to wipe it down again.But its all been worth, the car is gleeeeeeming:p
 
Anyone got a foam lance ? Can you just use it as a wash system ? foam on, wash off.

Also, theres a tap down in the garage, is there a cheap way i can convert this cold water tap to hot water ? Like plugging it into some kind of heater ? I dont want to spend £600 on a hot water jet washer, really.
 
TS7 said:
Been really wanting to wash my car since last week but it's been raining everyday!
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me too - I splurged on a whole load of cleaning products for the stage after the wash (from claying onwards)

As I live in a flat, a BP jetwash will have to do for the wash and then do the rest at my place. I'm just waiting for an entire Saturday to look good on the weather reports and which the missus is off work too :p
 
twoblacklines said:
Anyone got a foam lance ? Can you just use it as a wash system ? foam on, wash off.

Also, theres a tap down in the garage, is there a cheap way i can convert this cold water tap to hot water ? Like plugging it into some kind of heater ? I dont want to spend £600 on a hot water jet washer, really.
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same here, id like to know this. Problem is most pressure washers have a max inlet temp, so wont like over 30c for instance.

My idea is to get a 50litre waterbutt and mix hot and cold together. surely 50 litres would be enough? Could even put a toilet system float valve on the top so it never runs dry?
 
twoblacklines said:
Also, theres a tap down in the garage, is there a cheap way i can convert this cold water tap to hot water ? Like plugging it into some kind of heater ?
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A heater? :confused:

You know you have a perfectly good boiler in the house that supplies all the hot water you could ever need right?
 
daveydave said:
I just add warm water to the snow foam in the lance bottle.
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Aye, just boiled water and shampoo in the lance bottle mixes with the cold water from the pressure washer and you get nice warm bubbles which I swear clean better than cold water.
 
Wondering if someone can give me a little advice. Last week I washed, polished and waxed my car but it seems there is a film of wax that I can't buff off. What I mean is in the sun you can see marks on the car where there is excess wax on the car. Buffing it off only moves the wax about.

It difficult for me to explain what I mean. Anyone know the best way to remove the excess?
 
Defcon5 said:
A heater? :confused:

You know you have a perfectly good boiler in the house that supplies all the hot water you could ever need right?
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well the problem with that is it will be BOILING hot which will kill most pressure washers. If you manage to pipe up something that can mix hot and cold to the right temp it will be fine, untill you stop the pressure washer and the cold water is forced into the hot water system which isnt good either...

...so its not that simple.
 
A mate and I just bought a DAS-6 and a load of other cleaning products this week:

DAS-6 Dual Action Polisher - Menzerna Intro. Kit
1 x Menzerna Compounding Pads 135mm (5")
1 x Menzerna Polishing Pads 135mm (5")
1 x Menzerna Finishing Pads 135mm (5")
2 x Meguiars Wash Mitt
100g Clay Bar
 Quik Detailer Mist & Wipe
Car-Lack 68 Shampoo (1000ml)
Huge 38" x 28" Microfibre Drying Towel
 Valet Pro - Bilberry Wheel Cleaner (1 litre)
1 x 250ml - Menzerna Intensive Polish (P085RD 3.02) Cut 3.5 Gloss 3.0
1 x 250ml - Menzerna Super Finish (PO85RD) Cut 1.5 Gloss 5.0
Chemical Guys - Butter Wet Wax

We worked on my mates e46 this weekend and the results were very impressive and this is the order we used:

  1. Wash car (2 bucket method) - Car-Lack shampoo, Wash Mitt, Bilberry Wheel Cleaner
  2. Dry with microfibre towel
  3. Clay bar with lube
  4. Wash (2 bucket method) and dry again
  5. Menzerna Intensive Polish with Polishing Pad
  6. Menzerna Super Finish Polish with Finishing Pad
  7. Chemical Guys Butter Wax
We're by no means pro's and there were still a few deeper scratches remaining. The compound pad has still been untouched, so what compounding stuff is recommended on here for getting out the really deep scratches? I shall be doing my car next weekend and my boot lid has a few deep scratches which I'd like to remove.

I was really impressed with the microfibre drying towel, which dried the whole car in under a minute without any streaks. Loads easier than a chamois and it can be chucked in the washing machine afterwards on a cold rinse cycle. Same can be said for the meguiar lambswool mitt - I could never go back to a sponge after using one of these. Claying the car didn't seem to make a lot of difference (at least not when we inspected the clay) but we did it anyway. The chemical brothers wax was brilliant and actually smells pretty damn good :D
 
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Mates E46 before and after shots of the bootlid. I took loads of other photos, but not being able to see the LCD due to the sunlight a lot of them were rubbish :p

First image was taken after the first intensive polish was completed on half of the boot lid (see sticky line where masking tape was removed).

The second image was taken after two polishes and wax had been applied.

p1000342k.jpg


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