*** The Car Cleaning Thread ***

[Clarkey]

t-cut works alright on a machine to be fair, certainly is no finishing polish though.
They sell some Farecla stuff in there these days, but I think it's a new line of hand polishes.
If you want stuff quick then go to your local bodyshop supplier they will have the 3M range which is pretty good. Farecla can be a little tricky to work ime, dries out a lot.
If you want something which works well and is really nice to use then i'll use my standard recommendation, Meguiars #105/#205.

 

[Howard]

Thanks The Farecla G3 stuff seems well-regarded but it's very abrasive. I might pick some up tonight though as I'm going to get a claying kit and give that a bash too.

 

[Begbie]

Excellent, thanks mate. This looks ideal.

Do you know if any retailers stock it yet or is it best ordered directly?

Not sure mate, not used it myself yet. Plenty of it on ebay. I'd as Gibbo, or in the Fiesta ST thread though.

Plan on doing some black plastic bits and pieces myself. Will make them look nice and black rather than gray.

 

[shifty_uk]

Ended up parting with the £5 delivery charge(despite them using Royal Mail who didn't even ring my door) and got some the other day.

Excellent stuff, very easy to apply. Requires taking the panels off individually though as spraying directly onto the car is a nightmare, very runny and messy as you'd expect

 

[Begbie]

Ended up parting with the £5 delivery charge(despite them using Royal Mail who didn't even ring my door) and got some the other day.

Excellent stuff, very easy to apply. Requires taking the panels off individually though as spraying directly onto the car is a nightmare, very runny and messy as you'd expect

Get some pics up

 

[Howard]

Well I now have a Silverline rotary polisher, some Farecla G3 paint rennovator, the associated wax, a Meguiars clay kit and some new cloths and bits and bobs. Tomorrow I am entering the unknown, and hopefully not completely ****ing up my Mondeo's paintwork!

I obtained a dented wing (from an MX5 no less) from a body shop which I had a quick go on just now, and results seemed positive! Fingers crossed..

 

[Nick1881]

I finally got myself a DA, not sure when I will get a chance to use it though. I'm just going to try with SRP to start, I have a few Megs products too, not sure how well they will work, worth a try though.

 

[Irish_Tom]

Well I now have a Silverline rotary polisher, some Farecla G3 paint rennovator, the associated wax, a Meguiars clay kit and some new cloths and bits and bobs. Tomorrow I am entering the unknown, and hopefully not completely ****ing up my Mondeo's paintwork!

I obtained a dented wing (from an MX5 no less) from a body shop which I had a quick go on just now, and results seemed positive! Fingers crossed..

Good luck Howard, you'll be fine, just take it easy.

Don't forget, you want to start on the slowest speed setting and do a few passes, then go up to 2 and do a few passes and then go up to 3 and do a few. Then back down 2 then back down to 1 to finish.

I also find a little spray bottle of water helps to lube it up a bit.

 

[Howard]

Well I've spent all morning cleaning, claying, polishing. Just waxed the bonnet and roof and... Rain

Ffs.

 

[The Badger]

Just cleaned my brum brum.

 

[Begbie]

Flash Multi Purpose, is £1 for a litre in Asda at the moment.

Works a treat on the interior.

 

[Westyfield2]

Spec me: Wheel cleaner

Washed all the cars today, and used the last of my R222 Wheel Cleaner (Regular), but I don't feel like buying the same again. I wasn't that impressed with it TBH, seemed to need to spray on loads to actually work, and some of the wheels have caked in brake dust that it couldn't shift. I know it's meant to be nice & safe, pH controlled, and non-acid, but it just didn't seem strong enough.

 

[Raymond Lin]

Spec me: Wheel cleaner

Washed all the cars today, and used the last of my R222 Wheel Cleaner (Regular), but I don't feel like buying the same again. I wasn't that impressed with it TBH, seemed to need to spray on loads to actually work, and some of the wheels have caked in brake dust that it couldn't shift. I know it's meant to be nice & safe, pH controlled, and non-acid, but it just didn't seem strong enough.

I mentioned this before, I actually used Muc-off, it is a bike cleaner!

http://www.muc-off.com/

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Muc-Off-1-L...SXLM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1313848348&sr=8-1

Why? Pure fluke. I bought a mountain bike a few years ago, along with some cleaning stuff and I got 2 bottles of these left over. After reading the instructions and the fact that you can clean the entire bike with it including the paint i thought why not give the alloys a try. It works!

Spray on, get a brush and just go over it, then spray with a hose. Really easy, its cheap too for a big bottle.

 

[Begbie]

Bilberry is meant to be awesome, not tried it myself yet.

 

[BennyC]

Wheel Cleaner:

Wonder Wheels to get read of crusted on ****. Clay/polish as required and then seal, properly & plenty! Probably WW once every 2 years. Just keep on top of them and reseal as necessary. Tar remover to get rid of any nasty bits. Using WW regularly isn't too kind to the clearcoat.

I just use AG E&M cleaner to loosen up any dirt and the rest just falls/washes off thanks to poorboys wheel sealant.

 

[siumatfung]

Bilberry is meant to be awesome, not tried it myself yet.

it is as long as u have a karcher to rinse your wheels with

 

[Howard]

Well I'm done. And sodding hell am I knackered! This detailing lark is hard work, now I understand how the pros charge so much! Very much worth it though, the claying + machine polishing has left such a lovely deep finish.

So I washed, clayed (never done this before, what a difference!), machine polished (wow this is good at removing light scratches and abrasions!), waxed, waited for the torrential rain to stop, dried, quick-detailed, finished waxing, tyre-foamed, cleaned and EGP'd the wheels, back-to-blacked the black trim and cleaned the engine bay, glass-cleaned and dusted the interior.

I need to attack some stone chips at some point, I think touching up followed by gently wet-sanding with very fine grit paper then a machine polish will make them less visible. I've been testing on my spare panel with positive results.

Have some pics! The wheels might look cloudy in some pics cos they were taken whilst I was waiting for the EGP on the wheels to cure.

 

[Irish_Tom]

Now that looks all kinds of awesome, nice one mate.

Good job with the machine polisher as well!

 

[shifty_uk]

Love your car Howard.

 

[PeterNem]

Looks fantastic, Howard... how much are you planning on charging?