*** The Car Cleaning Thread ***

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Personally I didn't dry after washing, then I clay'd then washed again.

I apply with megs foam applicator pads, to remove any soft polishing cloth will do.
 
KNiVES said:
Yeah my Turtle-wax and Autoglym products all say to use warm water on the directions as well. It's clearly for a reason. Warm water definitely has benefits to it that cold water lacks.

It's coming up to winter now anyway, you'd be crazy to faff around with freezing cold water that'll send shivers down your spine :p
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Now your definatley supposed to use cold water when it's freezing cold as warm water freezes quicker!
 
peterattheboro said:
Now your definatley supposed to use cold water when it's freezing cold as warm water freezes quicker!
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That is a very bold statement for something that isn't even remotely as simple as 'hot water freezes quicker than cold water'.

Also, how many people really wash their car in sub zero conditions? Plain old cold weather makes your statement irrelevant, as it only applies to the water freezing, not cooling.
 
MikeHiow said:
That is a very bold statement for something that isn't even remotely as simple as 'hot water freezes quicker than cold water'.

Also, how many people really wash their car in sub zero conditions? Plain old cold weather makes your statement irrelevant, as it only applies to the water freezing, not cooling.
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So says many folk on Detailing World. Have a look if you think i'm talking bull.
 
How do you clean soft tops? I've never really done anything with mine (I've not had it long, mind you), just the body work & tyres so far. I've always assumed you can't really use the car shampoo and wax on it.
 
My favouritest car in the whole wide world! Drove it aswell :cool: (only down a private road :()

5105023662_4e84ac9cee_o.jpg


It's had a snowfoam, a wash with Dodo Juice Born to be Mild shampoo, tar removal, a light machine polishing with Dodo Lime Prime and and then a coat of Dodo Hard Candy wax.

Wheels have just been resprayed and prepped by the guys at Redline so didn't need anything doing to them.



/apologies for not showing any of my own car as I think that's the rule? :p

Ohh and a crap phone pic of a couple of the Carrera Cup cars.

37133101501150149135695.jpg
 
I had an altercation with a black and white bollard sticking out the other day, left a lot of plastic on the side of the car, which I forgot to take photos of.

After removing the bits of bollard that transferred to my car with a mixture of clay and Tardis, it was looking much better already -

Front arch

IMG_0669 by mikehiow, on Flickr

Front door

IMG_0670 by mikehiow, on Flickr

Rear door

IMG_0671 by mikehiow, on Flickr

Rear arch

IMG_0673 by mikehiow, on Flickr

I then hit it with a 4" polishing pad and some megs #83 - I didn't want to go too harsh, as I just wanted to take the eye away from it as quickly as possible, the car is going on Monday.

Front arch - still one scratch evident, but its effect greatly reduced

IMG_0674 by mikehiow, on Flickr

Front door - nothing evident

IMG_0675 by mikehiow, on Flickr

Rear door, same story

IMG_0676 by mikehiow, on Flickr

Rear arch

IMG_0677 by mikehiow, on Flickr

Refined and covered up with Z2P its virtually impossible to spot anything at all. In the right light and angle there is a slight mark left on the front and rear arches, but you'd have to know it was there
Front arch

IMG_0678 by mikehiow, on Flickr

Front door

IMG_0679 by mikehiow, on Flickr

Rear door

IMG_0681 by mikehiow, on Flickr

Rear arch

IMG_0682 by mikehiow, on Flickr

Just goes to show that even with deep scratches, paint isn't always necessary. My neighbour who observed it both with the transferred plastic, and after I'd removed that was convinced it would need paint, and was telling me he would have just taken that straight to a body shop for paint. He couldn't believe the results.

Oh, and for those of you that usually complain about the quality of my pictures, you may notice I finally bought a camera :D
 
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I had my first experience with a rotary yesterday.

My mate's girlfriend donated the car (X reg Pug 206) and my mate's dad donated the rotary and compounds (Farécla G6 + G3).

To use Lisa's own words "since going out with Rob, my car has been cleaned more in the last 5 months than it has in the previous three years that I've owned it".

Just to give you an idea of the state of the 206 and to explain why she didn't mind the pair of us practicing with a rotary polisher. :p

We did take photos but it was getting late and the light wasn't very good.

First impressions are as follows:

  • It's not as scary as it seems, although I can see how damage could be done if you weren't careful.
  • It's knackering; my mate and I took it in turns to do a panel each because the rotary is pretty heavy. I can feel it in my forearms quite a bit today.
  • Removing the swirl marks really shows up the deeper scratches.
  • With a bit of patience you can really improve the deep scratches (like in MikeHiow's example above) but I'd be concerned that spending so long on a specific area would increase the risk of damaging the paintwork.
  • I'm totally sold on machine polishing and I'm very tempted to get one now.
However, I'm not sure I'm confident enough to start working on the E60 yet. If I do get a DA or rotary I will definitely be doing my girlfriends Corsa before attaching the E60.
 
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