*** The Car Cleaning Thread ***

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Had a clean of my new car last weekend, pre-washed with jetwash, washed with 2 bucket method with Autoglym Bodywork Shampoo Conditioner. Dried then Clayed with a Farecla G3 body prep clay mitt. Then polished with Autoglym Super Resin Polish. Then buffed by hand with microfibre.

I had bought some AutoGlym tar remover to get rid of tar spots whcih were all over the lower parts of the car, but it was rubbish, absolutely uselss. The clay mitt got rid of all of it instead. Really impressed with the clay mit tbh, wasn't sure what to expect.

Whole job took about 4 hours.

REALLY pleased with the results.

Where is a good free place to host photos these days?

Trying imgur thanks :)

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Pretty overcast so not great pics, but clean :)

/edit trying images again...

Cheers,

G
 
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Havana_UK said:
Snow foam is designed to keep the moisture on the surface for a prolonged period in order for it to soften up and loosen all the surface grime, but much of it will come off with a pressure washer rinse before hand and the car being wet doesn't impede the effectiveness of the snow foam in my experience.

I tend to go around all the worst areas of the car (lower half of doors downwards, sills, wheels & arches, rear end, front bumper) with a 6:1 dilution of Valet Pro Citrus pre-wash applied via a pump sprayer and leave this to soak for 5 minutes before pressure washing off. I find that this shifts the worst of the surface dirt, bugs, and general grime. It's also pretty effective at cleaning the worst of the brake dust off. Once that's rinsed I'll snow foam the whole car before rinsing a wheel at a time and cleaning all the wheels properly while the snow foam dwells.

I find it takes me about 30-40 minutes to thoroughly clean all four wheels, which is perfect for the snow foam dwell time. Next step is to rinse the foam all off and this actually leaves the car looking superficially clean, though on close inspection it's still got a film of dirt on it. This film of dirt, however, is easily cleaned with a two bucket contact wash.
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I might go for BH autofoam instead, as after reading the following comparison it is apparently more effective than VP citrus pre-wash

http://www.detailingworld.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=359044

Guru said:
I had bought some AutoGlym tar remover to get rid of tar spots whcih were all over the lower parts of the car, but it was rubbish, absolutely uselss. The clay mitt got rid of all of it instead. Really impressed with the clay mit tbh, wasn't sure what to expect.

Whole job took about 4 hours.

REALLY pleased with the results.

Where is a good free place to host photos these days?

Cheers,

G
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I made the same mistake 2 weeks ago, buying the tar remover.. I am confident it will be fully removed next wash though if I use the clay mitt and I am planning to buy some snow foam..

Oh and for images.. try imgur.com
 
Guru said:
Had a clean of my new car last weekend, pre-washed with jetwash, washed with 2 bucket method with Autoglym Bodywork Shampoo Conditioner. Dried then Clayed with a Farecla G3 body prep clay mitt. Then polished with Autoglym Super Resin Polish. Then buffed by hand with microfibre.
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Did you wax or seal afterwards?
 
Guru said:
Can't say I did.... guessing I should have? lol

If so... I have a complete GuardX kit... is there anything in there that is applicable?
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Yup. I think by claying and polishing you'll have removed any previous protection that was on there, which is the perfect prep for the next bit - but that next bit is waxing or sealing the paintwork. I sealed mine using Ex-P sealant, I'm not sure what's in the GuardX kit, someone else may comment.
 
leoncuprar said:
I used the AutoGlym tar remover for the first time last week and it worked ok, got it all off with fairly minimal effort.. what problem did you have out of interest ?
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MoRT489 said:
Yup. I think by claying and polishing you'll have removed any previous protection that was on there, which is the perfect prep for the next bit - but that next bit is waxing or sealing the paintwork. I sealed mine using Ex-P sealant, I'm not sure what's in the GuardX kit, someone else may comment.
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Doh! wonder if I'll have to do the whole lot again then?
 
Anyone used WD40 before to get rid of tar? Washed the wifes car at the weekend, realised I ran out of tar remover so just got the tin of WD40 to try and it worked perfectly!

Need to get a clay bar to give the car a proper go over, but all the tar just wiped off.
 
leoncuprar said:
I used the AutoGlym tar remover for the first time last week and it worked ok, got it all off with fairly minimal effort.. what problem did you have out of interest ?
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Well after applying and letting it do what it's meant to for a few minutes the tar hadn't melted and wouldn't wipe away easily.

Maybe I need to use a paint cleanser first? Although I don't have any proper wax on only Sonax BSD so the tar might have been there before that.

I could be guilty of not doing something sooner..
 
Guru said:
Doh! wonder if I'll have to do the whole lot again then?
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I would have thought as long as it's not particularly dirty and you give it another wash before applying the sealant you won't need to go through the process of claying and polishing again. You can keep the protection topped up between full details by using something like Sonax Brilliant Shine Detailer which everyone in this thread will rave about :D
 
GinG said:
Anyone used WD40 before to get rid of tar? Washed the wifes car at the weekend, realised I ran out of tar remover so just got the tin of WD40 to try and it worked perfectly!

Need to get a clay bar to give the car a proper go over, but all the tar just wiped off.
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I used it the other week as I had no tar remover, wasn't particularly easy, I sprayed it onto a paper towel, then let it soak onto the tar spots. Then wiped off, on some areas I had to use a finer nail to remove stubborn bits.

But the. After I washed again and clayed then polished and waxed
 
VaderDSL said:
I used it the other week as I had no tar remover, wasn't particularly easy, I sprayed it onto a paper towel, then let it soak onto the tar spots. Then wiped off, on some areas I had to use a finer nail to remove stubborn bits.

But the. After I washed again and clayed then polished and waxed
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I found the opposite, sprayed on, left for a minute of so and then wipe away clean. Quite fancy trying out the clay mitt and give the car a good clean...found out a couple of weeks back I passed the final interview for the police so my work car will be going back at some point. May as well make good the Qashqai as it will be the main car for a while.
 
GinG said:
I found the opposite, sprayed on, left for a minute of so and then wipe away clean. Quite fancy trying out the clay mitt and give the car a good clean...found out a couple of weeks back I passed the final interview for the police so my work car will be going back at some point. May as well make good the Qashqai as it will be the main car for a while.
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I probably should have sprayed directly onto the car in that case :) Clay mitts are great! I use a fare class G3 one and it did a great job.
 
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