*** The Car Cleaning Thread ***

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frankly I wouldn't bother with the clay. I got one and did the 300zx the other week, took a lot of time and effort. Was super smooth and lovely after, but just 1 week later it was back to exactly how it was before. A waste of time if you ask me.

You obviously dont know what you are doing then. I am a rank amatuer at this detailing lark but even I've found how brilliant claying can be. My paintwork is always smooth as a result of a twice yearly clay and decent washing.
 
Eh? Claying is bl**dy hard work. Polishing & waxing can be done with a mechanical polisher......

If you have a mechanical polisher, and have somewhere that its possible to use one. I personally find claying easier than polishing/waxing by hand.

I am very much an amateur at detailing though.
 
Eh? Claying is bl**dy hard work. Polishing & waxing can be done with a mechanical polisher......

Maybe I did something wrong then. I found it easy. Washed the car, didn't dry it, sprayed the lubricant on the car and the clay then just worked my around each panel wiping it until it was smooth and I couldn't feel resistance. The hardest part was kneading the clay every so often.
 
Taking your car to a clay bar clay bar clay bar is really easy.

Waxing on and off though, now that's much harder.
 
[TW]Fox;20317611 said:
You obviously dont know what you are doing then. I am a rank amatuer at this detailing lark but even I've found how brilliant claying can be. My paintwork is always smooth as a result of a twice yearly clay and decent washing.

Just to highlight something

The key here is twice yearly.

Claying isn't something you do every week. Ideally done just before waxing your car so that the wax goes onto nice clean smooth paintwork.
 
Claying is not hard but it's time consuming. Take your time to avoid marring.

MRK, use a better wax, avoid Collinite, one of the hardest waxes out there.

Claying should be done in March/April and October/November.

Also get some IronX on there before claying.
 
Its debatable if "use a better wax" is good advice or not

Some use collinite precisely because its one of the hardest waxes out there. As long as you are making an informed decision (which Mrk is) theres nothing wrong with using it.
 
[TW]Fox;20317611 said:
You obviously dont know what you are doing then. I am a rank amatuer at this detailing lark but even I've found how brilliant claying can be. My paintwork is always smooth as a result of a twice yearly clay and decent washing.

Don't see how you can go wrong, spray QD on, rub it with bar. Took absolutely ages to get rid of the tiny little black specks on it, had to rub the thing over like a 5" sq area about a hundred times to get it totally smooth, rinse and repeat for the whole car.
Wish I'd had more patience and bought a more aggressive Bilt Hamber one online but I wanted it right away and figured the kit QD/MF cloth/wax would be handy. The MF is nice, QD isn't as good as AutoGlym imo and the clay seems to have a very weak action. I don't really care about light marring as I'd machine it right after anyway, much rather have a bar that removes contaminants in 5 strokes rather than 100.
 
What MrLOL said^ :)

I use 476s because it is one of the hardest; longest lasting waxes out there so I don't think there is one in the same price range (or even a bit more) that is "better".

One coat of 476s after a clay lasts me 12 months. It just so happens my last proper clay was more than a year ago so I should do it before the winter weather arrives and apply a fresh coat of wax after SRP.
 
You should wax more than a year, the quality of the protection degrades over time, this can't be judged from a beading perspective.

I meant better wax in the sake of application and wiping off properties btw.

An extremely underrated wax currently is the autosmart WAX. It lasts a very long time, in fact it lasts just as long as the Collinite and has the added bonus of that it wipes off just like butter.
 
Don't see how you can go wrong, spray QD on, rub it with bar. Took absolutely ages to get rid of the tiny little black specks on it, had to rub the thing over like a 5" sq area about a hundred times to get it totally smooth, rinse and repeat for the whole car.
Wish I'd had more patience and bought a more aggressive Bilt Hamber one online but I wanted it right away and figured the kit QD/MF cloth/wax would be handy. The MF is nice, QD isn't as good as AutoGlym imo and the clay seems to have a very weak action. I don't really care about light marring as I'd machine it right after anyway, much rather have a bar that removes contaminants in 5 strokes rather than 100.

Did you use any tar remover or anything like ironx?

Those tiny little black specs don't sound like something you want to be removing with a claybar..
 
You should wax more than a year, the quality of the protection degrades over time, this can't be judged from a beading perspective.

I meant better wax in the sake of application and wiping off properties btw.

An extremely underrated wax currently is the autosmart WAX. It lasts a very long time, in fact it lasts just as long as the Collinite and has the added bonus of that it wipes off just like butter.

476s is guaranteed to last 12 months and I have not been able to prove that wrong in the 4-5 years I have been using it. ON my car (or any German car I guess) it's easy to know when it's going away, the feel is completely different when you run your palm around the body panels during a wash. It doesn't have the same feel on my dad's Honda Accord though because the paint is so thin.
 
No I didn't, maybe a good idea but I don't keep things like that.

In fact the other day a friend told me on good authority that butter was an excellent tar remover, I'll try it tomorrow, my colt has loads of tar spots on it, what have I got to lose. Fairly convinced it's BS but we shall see.

476s is guaranteed to last 12 months and I have not been able to prove that wrong in the 4-5 years I have been using it. ON my car (or any German car I guess) it's easy to know when it's going away, the feel is completely different when you run your palm around the body panels during a wash. It doesn't have the same feel on my dad's Honda Accord though because the paint is so thin.

Not sure how the thickness could possibly affect the feel of the surface, especially when the difference is microscopically small :confused:
 
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Not sure how the thickness could possibly affect the feel of the surface, especially when the difference is microscopically small :confused:

It's not the thickness, it is the wax coat and how your hand slides on the panel.

When wax wears off it feels rough and grabby to me.
 
No I didn't, maybe a good idea but I don't keep things like that.

In fact the other day a friend told me on good authority that butter was an excellent tar remover, I'll try it tomorrow, my colt has loads of tar spots on it, what have I got to lose. Fairly convinced it's BS but we shall see.



Not sure how the thickness could possibly affect the feel of the surface, especially when the difference is microscopically small :confused:

Even when I don't wax but only wash and dry my paint has a matte feel but gloss look to it. My dad's car just feels light no matter what but with wax it's a bit deeper in feel. The same applied to my old Honda. It's just the quality of the paint used by different manufacturers. Still, the different between wearing off wax and still there wax is easy to tell.
 
Perfect day for cleaning. Shall be picking some bits from halfords in a bit then first properly clean of the Volvo will commence.
 
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