*** The Car Cleaning Thread ***

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some great advice in here already and some amazing results!

Here is my problem - as a newbie to all this and on a bit of a limited budget, can you recommend some products and the process I would need to follow in order to get my car looking good.

I bought it a couple of months ago and the bodywork is in good condition - although there are quite a few minor scratches on the doors and the edge of the doors have small amounts of paint missing (like the door has been hit when opening it against a wall etc).

Now would this Megs Paint Resoration kit be a good start and would the process be?
http://www.elitecarcare.co.uk/meguiars-paint-restoration-kit-new-for-2011.php

1. wash
2. clay
3. wash
4. apply polish compound
5. quick detailier - or what else after this has been applied?

[think I understand the wash process with mits etc and claying - after reading on here]
So my main aim is to try and remove the scratches and bring the paintwork back to life a bit. What would be the best process to follow and which products would give the best results?

Any help would be appreciated!
Ideally don't want to spend more than £60 on products (not including cloths/pads/buckets/mits)

Also a slight problem is I have limited room - will have to do this on the road and don't have access to a pressure washer/hose at the moment.

Thanks
 
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Minstadave said:
Any recommendations for a starter DA polisher?
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Just bought this morning a 12v polisher from Halfords, about £20, spent a day on the Volvo, looks great, I could probably do with a harsher cutting compound as I'm using AG SRP and the deep scratches are not budging, but i'm just playing about.

Realistically why do you want to spend £150 on a DA plus all the polish wax, clay, sealer & time etc when a detailer will charge £400 for a correction then all you have to do is top up, unless you plan to do more than one every few years.
 
Hello.

I do not venture here much, mainly hang around in PC games, but am looking to purchase a pressure washer and am a little confused.

I have a budget of £100.

I was going to get a Karcher but have heard Nilfisk are better?

Any others?

Thanks.
 
Lakeland said:
If you've not found these already, have a look:

http://www.detailingworld.co.uk/forum/images/misc/dapolishing.pdf

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmVENAMMor0

Don't think you can go far wrong as long as you keep the working area fairly small (1-2 sq feet) and you don't let the edge of the pad dig in. Mine will be here tomorrow fingers crossed, if I pick up any tips as I'm doing mine I'll feedback in here.
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Ta, I'll give them a read/watch. Have read multiple other guides but more won't hurt!

Can anybody recommend an LED inspection light? Not really wanting to spend more than £20/30 though it would double as a torch in the house should there be a power cut.

'RING RIL2500' for about £25 seems alright, had a quick ganders over one when mine was last in for a service and it showed up swirls quite nicely.
 
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Gimpymoo said:
Hello.

I do not venture here much, mainly hang around in PC games, but am looking to purchase a pressure washer and am a little confused.

I have a budget of £100.

I was going to get a Karcher but have heard Nilfisk are better?

Any others?

Thanks.
Click to expand...

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Nilfisk-X-T...YV14/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1302962826&sr=8-2

Buy that and save £50, I bought one the price fluctuates quite a bit, I have cleaned all my decking and my patio furniture and the drive and washed the car lots, good bit of kit, unless you intend on commercial pressure washing it's fine for home use.

I'm trying to justify a snow lance but they are too expensive
 
BennyC said:
:eek:

Why has it taken so long?!
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I'm cleaning a van so probably have at least twice as much surface area, plus it hadn't really been cleaned in about 10 years. :p I also took things like door handles, bonnet air grill and badge off so I didn't have to mess about going round them.
 
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Edit*

Today after a clean yesterday, with a mate's CTR,
mine_olis_cams.jpg


Meg's touch up speed detailer is amazing stuff at bringing out the shine.
 
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Gimpymoo said:
Hello.

I do not venture here much, mainly hang around in PC games, but am looking to purchase a pressure washer and am a little confused.

I have a budget of £100.

I was going to get a Karcher but have heard Nilfisk are better?

Any others?

Thanks.
Click to expand...

you should watch the Gadget show more often :P maybe they still have some reviews on the webby
 
Gave this a quick clean today, nothing special used other than Zymol wash and some Fast Glass.

mjebcl.jpg


The alloys took a while as its hard to get fingers between the spokes :(
 
Is there a product available for polishing out scratches on a windscreen? A football has hit my windscreen and when the light catches it right, you can see the circle where the ball has come in contact with it.
 
PiKe said:
Is there a product available for polishing out scratches on a windscreen? A football has hit my windscreen and when the light catches it right, you can see the circle where the ball has come in contact with it.
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not really

Glass is very tough so its not easily polished.

It is possible, i've seen it done with Jewellers rouge and a machine polish, but the person on DetailingWorld who did it advised against repeating the process as it apparently required a scary ammount of physical pressure to actually polish the glass.

What probably be cheaper and easier if your windscreen got cracked accidentally somehow ...
 
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