*** The Car Cleaning Thread ***

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CaptainRAVE said:
I am only up to a week so far, but even with the road dirt on my car (which often disrupts some water repelling sealants) it is still working well. I won't top it up this week and will see how long it lasts. The best thing is that it works on all of the glass (minus the windscreen), plastics etc. too - areas I often wouldn't put anything on.
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Hmm. I might see if I can get hold of some for this weekend and give it a try.
I currently use Collonite 476 as a wax, which is obviously going to set a very high bar for durability - but it's also a massive pain to apply. If the AG stuff is so easy that you can literally spray it on and then rinse/dry, then I'd be happy to switch to it and use every other wash, especially as I usually have the PW out for snowfoam anyway.
 
Conscript said:
Hmm. I might see if I can get hold of some for this weekend and give it a try.
I currently use Collonite 476 as a wax, which is obviously going to set a very high bar for durability - but it's also a massive pain to apply. If the AG stuff is so easy that you can literally spray it on and then rinse/dry, then I'd be happy to switch to it and use every over wash, especially as I usually have the PW out for snowfoam anyway.
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TBH Gyeon Wet Coat is a piece of **** to apply and that I find gives a decent level of protection. Spray on a wet clean car, immediately pressure washer off. Done.
 
Raymond Lin said:
In the video, he put a wet towel to remove the Polar Seal. Do you throw this away afterwards? As SiO2 is silicon and when its dried, it is like sand so I'd imagine it would be like putting sandpaper on the paintwork if you use it again.
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I put my cloth in the washing machine with detergent. I will check it when I get home, but it looks OK.

Muska said:
The instructions read that you should pressure wash it off, so I guess he's just drying the car as usual?
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Yes, pressure washed off. I think he might be using the Autoglym InstaDry cloth that they recommend. I personally would rather use a thick microfibre cloth.

Do not store diluted product. Please rinse foam bottle and pressure washer lance after use.
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Hmm, I think I failed on that instruction. I better attend to my lance :D
 
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Ever since I found out that you're meant to clean the gauze filter in the foam lances, I always fill the bottle up with hot water and then run it through last thing before it gets put away anyway. So that's not really an arduous task.

I've been watching some videos and reading about Polar Seal on Detailing World. They always seem to be pretty anal over there, so I think I might take a punt on this and give it a try this weekend.
 
Conscript said:
I've been watching some videos and reading about Polar Seal on Detailing World.
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This was the final deciding factor for me too.

Conscript said:
Ever since I found out that you're meant to clean the gauze filter in the foam lances, I always fill the bottle up with hot water and then run it through last thing before it gets put away anyway.
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Think I'll start doing this too.
 
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Quick question. My A2 has arches with no clear coat, which dress really well with Meguiars Endurance gloss buffed off with a microfibre cloth. If I'm wanting to use the Gyeon Wet Coat should I use that first, dry and then dress or the other way around?
 
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Cheers, I decided to dress first as I'll no doubt reapply a dressing once I reach a show I'm going to tomorrow and it seemed to work well, no adverse affect on the dressing I had applied.

I'm very impressed with Gyeon Wet coat, very easy to apply, although I may have overdone it and used about 300ml on what is quite a small car.

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Pressure Wash
Bilt Hamber wheel cleaner - Dwell, agitate with soft brush and rinse
Bilt Hamber snow foam - dwell for 5 mins then rinse
2 Bucket wash method - Meguiars shampoo & lambs wool mitt
Pressure washer rinse
Bilt Hamber clay
Pressure wash rinse
Dry with a Kent drying towel
Dressed all trim, arches & tyres with Meguiars Endurance tyre gel & buffed off
Polished with AutoGlym Super Resin Polish - had to get the wife to help with this bit as it was switching between quite sunny and looking like it might rain at any minute!
Pressure wash rinse
Gyeon Wet Coat sealant sprayed on & pressure washed off
Dried with another Kent drying towel.
 
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kindai reviews a whole bunch of stuff!

Hey all,

so today I had a big "try new stuff" cleaning day on my own car, the family cars and the neighbors cars.

This is all coming from the perspective of how easy and quick will it clean my own car to a high standard in as little time as possible.

Included for testing were:


Autoglym Polar Blast
Autoglym Polar Wash
Autoglym Polar Seal
Autobrite Brite Gel
Autobrite Very Cherry non acid
Autobrite Tyre Gloss
Autobrite Citrus Tar And Glue Remover
Valet Pro Citrus Cleaner
Autobrite Just the Tonic
Autobrite Purple Velvet
Autobrite Supersonic Sprints
Autobrite Top Gloss
Autobrite Crystal
Autobrite Repel
Autobrite Project 64
Autobrite Elegance


So lets start:

Polar Blast vs Magifoam

The heavyweight fight of the day, is Autoglyms foam any good against crowd favorite Magifoam. Both were mixed as per the instructions on the bottle and sprayed onto a door of my old mans van. After 10 minutes dwell time a photo was taken to show the cling and then washed off. The magifoam had a much thicker layer after 10 minutes and likewise the cleaning difference is quite obvious. For the avoidance of doubt polar blast is on the left magifoam on the right.

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Winner: Magifoam


Autoglym Polar Wash

A great concept to run all 3 products in the polar range via the foam lance. After spraying the car with Polar Wash I dunked my wash mit in the clean bucket, washed down a panel and then dunked, cleaned the with a quick hand rub and did another panel.

It was quick, efficient and the suds were plenty slippy.

Would buy and use


Autoglym Polar Seal

Spray and rinse top wash. Does what it says on the tin. Kind of easy and quick to apply. Instant hydrophobic effect was noticeable.

Time will tell how long it will last.

Not safe to use near soft top fabric or on windows. As such would not buy.


Autobrite Brite Gel

Did it work? Yes. But was a pain to apply as the gel trigger made the dispersion very narrow, felt like I was wasting a lot of product on one wheel.

Spent more time applying it all over than cleaning. A few sprays and then using a brush to agitate would likely be a good cleaner but I prefer quicker and easier products.

Would not buy


Autobrite Very Cherry non acid

Diluted down to their "strong" 2-1 recomendation. Sprayed on wheels, left for a couple of minutes, washed off. Was impressed with the general cleaning.

Cleaning power seemed identical to a more general citrus cleaner they do which can be diluted 8:1, so would not buy this over that.


Autobrite Tyre Gloss

Worked well on perfectly dry tyres. Struggled with ones even marginally damp. Other products like Autoglym Instant tyre dressing much better in this regard

As such would not buy.


Autobrite Citrus Cleaner

Diluted 8:1 and used generally all over as needed. Worked very well. Used on wheels as well, did a great job.

Fantastic general cleaner, would buy again.


Valet Pro Citrus Tar and Glue Remover

Worked as well as the autobrite, would buy again.


Autobrite Just the Tonic

Smells like paint stripper, but was very effective as removing tar spots and sticky residues.

Would buy again.


Autobrite Purple Velvet

Very suds heavy and slippy feeling shampoo. Smelled great. Would buy again.


Autobrite Supersonic Sprints

WOW WOW WOW!

Not often do I try products and am immediately blown away by how good it works, but this is one of those products.

Car was damped first, then this was applied liberally all over the panels before being power washed off. Water repelling was just incredible to watch.

Absolutely would buy again.


Autobrite Top Gloss

Not really impressed with this after trying Supersonic Sprints. Would not buy.


Autobrite Crystal

Obviously an IPA based product from the smell, worked well, no streaking or smearing, would buy again.


Autobrite Repel

Put this on the car a few weeks ago. Effect was immediately noticeable, even passengers noticed how weird it was the way the water was moving off the windscreen in the rain. Would buy again.


Autobrite Project 64

Honestly, could not tell any difference in a car panel after this had been applied. Though was clouding over so will give it another chance on a brighter day.

Verdict out.


Autobrite Elegance

Smelled great! Very smooth feeling, dried quickly and no obvious smearing or streaking. The ability to use it as a general cleaner on almost everywhere in the car as well makes it a great addition.

Would buy again.



Phew, so there we have it.


Some good, some bad, but my lineup as of today will be as follows:

Pre wash
Autobrite Magifoam

Shampoo
Autoglym Car Shampoo and conditioner Autoglym Polar Wash or Autobrite Purple Velvet or Bilt Hamber Car shampoo

Wheels+tyres
Bilt Hamber Auto Wheels or Autobrite Citrus
Auto Glym Instant Tyre Dressing

General decontamination
Bilt Hamber Korosol
Autobrite Citrus Cleaner diluted 8:1
Auto glym intensive tar remover Autobrite Just the Tonic

Finishing
Autoglym EGP
Autobrite Elegance
Autobrite Sonic Sprints

Glass
Autoglym Polish and Fast glass
Autobrite Crystal
Autobrite Repel

Interior
Auto Glym Interior Car Shampoo
Wonder wheels leader clean and feed
 
Autobrite Sonic Sprints sounds like Wet Coat which is excellent so not surprised you were impressed.
 
Dis86 said:
Why'd you pressure wash after using srp? You probably took the srp off.
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I presume this is to me, I just put a mist on the car to wet it from a distance at this point, not a full pressure wash. I should have probably worded it better. :)
 
@kindai

It isn’t really that simple. Magnifoam is a lot stronger than polar wash. Depends whether you want a stronger clean from the prewash or something a bit gentler. I go for gentler as I will always have some kind of paint protection on that I want to protect. Even polar blast is stronger than I would like.

Polar seal - you can use it on windows, not the windscreen. Sure, if you have a fabric roof, you might want to avoid it. You seem to have washed a van though?
 
CaptainRAVE said:
It isn’t really that simple. Magnifoam is a lot stronger than polar wash. Depends whether you want a stronger clean from the prewash or something a bit gentler. I go for gentler as I will always have some kind of paint protection on that I want to protect. Even polar blast is stronger than I would like.
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Foams and pre-washes should all be LSP safe unless they are specifically designed to strip LSP. Therefore it comes down to how effective is the cleaning power for your £ when working with your LSP to allow the dirt to come off as easily as possible. I use Autoglym EGP and then a magifoam and power wash keeps the car looking 90% fine as my usual weekly clean. I very rarely get the buckets out unless for a meet or a show then re-apply EGP every 3-4 months.

CaptainRAVE said:
You seem to have washed a van though?
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Use the van as a test bed for side-by-side comparisons, did 4 cars today however including the lambo.
 
kindai said:
Foams and pre-washes should all be LSP safe unless they are specifically designed to strip LSP. Therefore it comes down to how effective is the cleaning power for your £ when working with your LSP to allow the dirt to come off as easily as possible. I use Autoglym EGP and then a magifoam and power wash keeps the car looking 90% fine as my usual weekly clean. I very rarely get the buckets out unless for a meet or a show then re-apply EGP every 3-4 months.



Use the van as a test bed for side-by-side comparisons, did 4 cars today however including the lambo.
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How do you dry it? or do you live in a soft water area?
 
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