*** The Car Cleaning Thread ***

[CaptainRAVE]

So after reading this thread and some reviews on youtube I went for the AutoGlym Polar range. I have a big car (Citroen Spacetourer) and it was a delight to wash and far quicker than previous efforts. Very simple application:

Polar Blast coat all over using snow foam lance and pressure washer.
Rinse out snow foam bottle and prepare the Polar Wash solution.
Give it another 5 minutes and then rinse off the snow foam.
Polar wash on two sides of the car - if your car is small and/or its not in sun you could do your whole car.
Microfibre mit straight onto to the car and use the layer of polar wash to clean.
I had a clean rinse bucket which was used to rinse the mit every not and then.
Pressure wash off and move to the other two sides and repeat.
Once the car was clean and rinsed. I made up the polar seal solution and applied over the car - avoiding the front windscreen.

Tool about 30 minutes including the time to clean the wheels and tyres. Got to be honest I was a little skeptical, but so impressed with the quality of the finish for the little effort required.

Another convert

That’s the real benefit isn’t it, the quality of the finish for so little input. As others have said, it’ll be even better in the winter when you want to spend as little time as possible outside washing the car.

The only change I am planning to this regime is to use bilt hamber auto foam instead of polar blast (once it’s used up).

All of these products do many washes too, I’ve used hardly any of the polar seal.

I quite often use autoglym rapid retailer afterwards too with a micro fibre cloth for any small marks left on the car e.g. the off fly, spot of tar etc.

 

[kinetic747]

Keep an eye on Amazon for Polar Seal, I got a bottle in a lightning deal for £11.

 

[Conscript]

Another convert

That’s the real benefit isn’t it, the quality of the finish for so little input. As others have said, it’ll be even better in the winter when you want to spend as little time as possible outside washing the car.

The only change I am planning to this regime is to use bilt hamber auto foam instead of polar blast (once it’s used up).

All of these products do many washes too, I’ve used hardly any of the polar seal.

I quite often use autoglym rapid retailer afterwards too with a micro fibre cloth for any small marks left on the car e.g. the off fly, spot of tar etc.

I'm using the BH Autofoam with Polarseal. Seems to be working fine as a combination. Not that it wouldn't, as between those steps, I'm hand washing with Meguiars Gold Class anyway.

 

[Lopéz]

I really cannot be bothered to machine polish my car. How much should I be paying a private local detailer to do it? Nothing fancy, literally a machine polish.

 

[CaptainRAVE]

The most useful purchase recently - disposable gloves. £6 for a 100, no more dried out hands with wax and polish.

 

[Cookeh]

I really cannot be bothered to machine polish my car. How much should I be paying a private local detailer to do it? Nothing fancy, literally a machine polish.

1 stage, 2 stage, 3 stage? What degree of correction? 80%, 90%, 95%? Are there massive defects like big scratches or severe orange peel in some areas? Too many variables to give you a fixed price. Best you can do is take it to a selection of local detailers and base it off that.

 

[nemtizz]

What spray wax do you guys recommend if you need to remove bird poo, ASAP?

 

[GravyMonster]

I use Sonax BSD spray wax, although I wouldn't necessarily use it to remove bird poo. If it's baked on, soak a paper towel and leave it over the mark for a couple of minutes to soften, then wipe away. When the area's clean buff it with spray wax.

 

[mikeh501]

i leave a pack of wet wipes in the car. best thing for it, if it hasnt baked on already.

 

[CaptainRAVE]

Autoglym Rapid detailer is great for removing things like this. I get a lot of insect poo on my car these days, but a quickly spray and wipe works wonders.

 

[Bar]

Another convert

That’s the real benefit isn’t it, the quality of the finish for so little input. As others have said, it’ll be even better in the winter when you want to spend as little time as possible outside washing the car.

The only change I am planning to this regime is to use bilt hamber auto foam instead of polar blast (once it’s used up).

All of these products do many washes too, I’ve used hardly any of the polar seal.

I quite often use autoglym rapid retailer afterwards too with a micro fibre cloth for any small marks left on the car e.g. the off fly, spot of tar etc.

It is indeed - Im thinking of doing an intermediate treatment for things like Sap / Tar / Insects after the snow foam but before the wash. Parents car is parked under a tree and after its first wash in a year yesterday I could see how much contaminantion was on the surface. Its going to need a good going over and clay bar for some of the worst areas. hopefully once its then been washed and sealed again it should stand the test of time a little better.

 

[Kenai]

What spray wax do you guys recommend if you need to remove bird poo, ASAP?

I've got a bottle of Meguiars Waterless Wash and Wax in the car for this job

 

[CaptainRAVE]

It is indeed - Im thinking of doing an intermediate treatment for things like Sap / Tar / Insects after the snow foam but before the wash. Parents car is parked under a tree and after its first wash in a year yesterday I could see how much contaminantion was on the surface. Its going to need a good going over and clay bar for some of the worst areas. hopefully once its then been washed and sealed again it should stand the test of time a little better.

I do that sometimes e.g. ironx to remove fallout (white car).

Yup, once sealed you won’t get much of that. I rarely need to Clay my car now and a clay mitt of 2-3 of the worst affected panels is usually enough.

 

[DarrenM343]

Thanks for this, just ordered one for £55 on amazon!

I must have missed that price - got mine for £59 and was delivered yesterday.
Thanks to @CaptainRAVE and input from others too. I wanted everything delivered same day so picked up items I could get via prime for Sat delivery. So, Nilfisk, the Autoglym polar range (blast, wash and seal), a nilfisk snow foamer (it was cheap), wash mitt, microfibre cloth to dry(kent car 5sq ft). Will later try the Bilt hamber snow foam, autobrite foam sprayer and some non-acidic wheel cleaner but this lot will get me started for now.

 

[Blackhawk47]

Another convert

That’s the real benefit isn’t it, the quality of the finish for so little input. As others have said, it’ll be even better in the winter when you want to spend as little time as possible outside washing the car.

The only change I am planning to this regime is to use bilt hamber auto foam instead of polar blast (once it’s used up).

All of these products do many washes too, I’ve used hardly any of the polar seal.

I quite often use autoglym rapid retailer afterwards too with a micro fibre cloth for any small marks left on the car e.g. the off fly, spot of tar etc.

Sounds like I need to give polar wash a go. Going through a jug of polar blast at the moment and its a pretty decent snow foam - no issues with it.

I see some videos of people snow foaming a car, then going straight in with the wash mitt without rinsing (happens on a lot of chemical guys videos on youtube). I also see many comments on Detailing world etc that this is bad practice...is it though?

Would have thought it would be no worse then washing the car without the use of pre-wash or a snow foam.

 

[CaptainRAVE]

Sounds like I need to give polar wash a go. Going through a jug of polar blast at the moment and its a pretty decent snow foam - no issues with it.

I see some videos of people snow foaming a car, then going straight in with the wash mitt without rinsing (happens on a lot of chemical guys videos on youtube). I also see many comments on Detailing world etc that this is bad practice...is it though?

Would have thought it would be no worse then washing the car without the use of pre-wash or a snow foam.

Its likely ok if all you have on your car is a bit of summer dust (last week my car got barely anything on it, probably helped by polar seal) and a well sealed car. Also worth keeping in mind most snow foam pre washes are very slightly corrosive/irritants etc, so you may not want much on your hands for long (mild though).

But yes, as you also say, it can’t be much worse that not pre washing. It just kind of misses the point of a pre wash.

Also, I think autoglym should be giving me some kind of commission

 

[nam]

Lots of car cleaning kit to be given away, more not shown wheel woolies, wheel clean brushes, polishes, If anyone is around the Westfield Stratford or Aldgate East area for collection

 

[LiE]

Ran out of Gyeon WetCoat and wasn't that impressed with Bathe+, so ordered some replacements from CarPro. I've read good things about Reset and the HydrO2 Lite looks to be an excellent WetCoat alternative.

Love the new branding of their products.

 

[Nazbit]

Might have lost the plot.....

Autoglym Engine Cleaner
Aerospace 303 Protectant
Poor Boys Natural Look Dressing
Lots of WD40

Better do the cars next weekend I suppose.

 

[CaptainRAVE]

Might have lost the plot.....

Autoglym Engine Cleaner
Aerospace 303 Protectant
Poor Boys Natural Look Dressing
Lots of WD40

Better do the cars next weekend I suppose.

Look at the shine