*** The Car Cleaning Thread ***

[mrk]

Heads up to anyone with a Range store near them. They've got heavy quality double sided buffing and glass cloths at £2.99, just picked up one for the interior:

 

["andy"]

Asda have a load of that 'kent' stuff on offer

 

[LukeTW]

Damn, that is a nice looking STi

 

[G|mp]

If Darth Vader owned an STi............

 

[Django x2]

What's the best way to get residual polish off of the car. By residual, I mean, baked on in some of the trim areas and rubber seals. I guess a toothbrush or similar?

 

[phil675]

What's the best way to get residual polish off of the car. By residual, I mean, baked on in some of the trim areas and rubber seals. I guess a toothbrush or similar?

I just get a buffing cloth and wet it with QD, give it a scrub.

 

[lmfy2k]

What's the best way to get residual polish off of the car. By residual, I mean, baked on in some of the trim areas and rubber seals. I guess a toothbrush or similar?

peanut butter and also theres an oil you can use but cant remember which one!

 

[Lakeland]

What's the best way to get residual polish off of the car. By residual, I mean, baked on in some of the trim areas and rubber seals. I guess a toothbrush or similar?

Use a pencil rubber, works a treat

 

[gumpy321]

Use a pencil rubber, works a treat

Interesting... I'll try this later where a bit of SRP has gone on the window seals.

 

[DB_SamX]

I've just run out of Bilberry for cleaning my wheels, which is ~£9 a litre and lasted 10-15 washes. Looking at Iron X but it is expensive at ~£10 for 500ml and likely to last only a few washes. Is the latter better and worth the extra money?

 

[Tinders]

Bilberry should last longer than that tbh. Were u using it neat?

 

[gumpy321]

What's happening to the paint just under the indicator in two places? Is the lacquer coming off?

 

[DB_SamX]

Bilberry should last longer than that tbh. Were u using it neat?

3 or 4 to 1 ratio. I had to throw away a quarter of the bottle as I'd had it really long and had started smelling dodgy.

 

[Django x2]

What, I use maybe 1:6 or even 1:10 (at the mo) and it still works a damn charm. I've had the last bottle well over a year, on average then 52 washes

 

[G-MAN2004]

What is it with these fancy wheel cleaners, etc? I just fill a bucket with water and the same shampoo I used on the car. Does the job perfectly.

It appears the car cleaning industry is rather the same as the bodybuilding. Full of pointless, expensive products.

 

[Janesy B]

Brake dust and metal deposits are quite hard to remove with shampoo.

 

[Blackhawk47]

It appears the car cleaning industry is rather the same as the bodybuilding. Full of pointless, expensive products.

 

[danza]

Can anyone recommend a wax that gives a long lasting shine? I'm using Zymol Cleaner Wax, and whilst it looks awesome for about a week, I'm finding the effects of it are all but gone after the next wash and it almost needs doing on a fortnightly basis.

Car is black with lots of swirls if that helps.

 

[Neil777]

Can anyone recommend a wax that gives a long lasting shine? I'm using Zymol Cleaner Wax, and whilst it looks awesome for about a week, I'm finding the effects of it are all but gone after the next wash and it almost needs doing on a fortnightly basis.

Car is black with lots of swirls if that helps.

Do you use a quick detailer before drying, I haven't waxed mine since march when I used collinite 845 and find that spraying the car with megs last touch whilst it's still wet brings back the glossyness to the paint.

 

[mrk]

Can anyone recommend a wax that gives a long lasting shine? I'm using Zymol Cleaner Wax, and whilst it looks awesome for about a week, I'm finding the effects of it are all but gone after the next wash and it almost needs doing on a fortnightly basis.

Car is black with lots of swirls if that helps.

Wax won't generally give you a shine but a good wax will give the underlying shine added depth. The shine is coming from the polish you use before waxing and to that extent I've always been a fan of Autoglym Super Resin Polish underneath Collinite 476s. The SRP seats into the paintwork and gives that shine while 476s sits on top of the SRP and makes sure the SRP doesn't get weathered away for 6-12 months straight depending on how bad the weather actually is.

As a result I polish and wax once or twice a year.

SRP will also help reduce the swirling effect as it fills in those imperfect areas of paintwork. You'll want to use a machine polish to fully remove them though.