*** The Car Cleaning Thread ***

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Clarkey said:
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.
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Firstly, with you complaining that your car went back to exactly how it was - this is not the fault of the clay, but rather your fault for failing to protect your car properly afterwards. The clay is there to remove contaminants, not protect against them.

Clay is not a tar remover, either. Sure, it can remove tar, but you'll have a much easier life if you use a decent tar remover and/or IronX before claying.
 
[TW]Fox;20334373 said:
I've just bought a pile of new trim for the car. It's genuine BMW Vavona wood trim. It's real wood, but its coated with either plastic or some sort of laminate or something. I'm assured its in good condition but as it's out of one of the last E39's, its going to be about 8 years old therefore it will have swirl marks etc in the coating.

Whats the best way to tackle this before I fit it? What products can remove swirls from this sort of material?
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Find the least abrasive polish you can find and work up to more aggressive polishes progressively until you find something that does what you want.

If it's just swirl marks you're talking about, it's going to be no good diving in with something like PlastX, which is quite aggressive, unless you have some serious marks on there.
 
Mine after 2bm wash, AG SRP and Megs deep crystal wax

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[TW]Fox;20334373 said:
I've just bought a pile of new trim for the car. It's genuine BMW Vavona wood trim. It's real wood, but its coated with either plastic or some sort of laminate or something. I'm assured its in good condition but as it's out of one of the last E39's, its going to be about 8 years old therefore it will have swirl marks etc in the coating.

Whats the best way to tackle this before I fit it? What products can remove swirls from this sort of material?
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Quoting for mutual interest. I've got a piano black trim which looks lovely but has lots of light scratching on it :/
 
MikeHiow said:
Firstly, with you complaining that your car went back to exactly how it was - this is not the fault of the clay, but rather your fault for failing to protect your car properly afterwards. The clay is there to remove contaminants, not protect against them.

Clay is not a tar remover, either. Sure, it can remove tar, but you'll have a much easier life if you use a decent tar remover and/or IronX before claying.
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How awesome is IronX got a bit a while back and only just used it, it expensive, but god its seriously awesome!!!
 
ScarySquirrel said:
I really want someone to detail my car for me as I can't be bothered to do it myself. Most places charge like £200+ though :(
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Ask about, I was speaking to a guy from CS.net (the guy with the Puma Racing) he was going to do mine for £90 which would include a machine polish which is what I was mostly interested in. But for a full detial for £90 (not including interior) is awesome, and his work going by CS and DW is well well worth it.
 
Can anyone vouch for the Diamond White Dodo Juice? I've just ordered some (along with a pile of other crap), apparently it's meant to be rather good.. I probably should have asked first though. :D
 
Does polish and other cutting agents have to be applied with a machine polisher in order to remove scratches and swirls? And does snow foaming also require an expensive gadget to apply?
 
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Goose said:
Does polish and other cutting agents have to be applied with a machine polisher in order to remove scratches and swirls? And does snow foaming also require an expensive gadget to apply?
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It takes some serious elbow grease to polish out swirls and minor scratches by hand. But it is possible. It'll take several days to do the whole car unless you are a Mr Muscles.

Snow foam just needs a pressure washer and a foam lance. A decent foam lance is around £50 usually.
 
NathanE said:
It takes some serious elbow grease to polish out swirls and minor scratches by hand. But it is possible. It'll take several days to do the whole car unless you are a Mr Muscles.
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That's a bit of a sweeping statement. I managed to reduce an awful lot of swirling on my dad's new car (The blue Accord I posted above) by using Menzerna PF2500 by hand. It depends on how coarse the polish is that you're using.
 
[TW]Fox;20336527 said:
SRP contains fillers rather than any cutting ability though doesn't it?

I dont want to fill swirls on the trim. I want to remove them.
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SRP has a very light cutting ability, and uses silicon as a sort of built in LSP. I wouldn't advise using it on anything apart from paint/lacquer as it whites on drying.
 
[TW]Fox;20336527 said:
SRP contains fillers rather than any cutting ability though doesn't it?

I dont want to fill swirls on the trim. I want to remove them.
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Gtechniq P1 polish. I use it on everything, from my car, tv stand, girlfriends laptop etc. It is very good and easy to use by hand.
 
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