*** The Car Cleaning Thread ***
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Not that you may care but some of the oven cleaners are very harsh pastes when mixed with water, I've tested some before on a knackered wheel. They can even scratch wheels lightly which you can see when dry. Those marks shown don't come off with wheel cleaner sometimes though. Much better using a dedicated car/wheel polish which will remove them after a few passes.
Drollic, I do care and I think my earlier response came across a bit casual. That said, it's only an old Auris so I'm not quite as worried as if I had a BMW.
But based on the reactions here, I didn't use the oven cleaner for the other 3 wheels. [brian's mum]I was a very naughty boy![/brian's mum] Fortunately, there's no appearance of any coating removed. Actually, my cheapo £2 Simoniz alloy cleaner worked better than I first thought and did loosen up most of the crud, but still areas that didn't shift which the oven cleaner would have removed.
Yes, I am definitely buying the BH auto wheels now. Probably it's as powerful or maybe more so as oven cleaner but without the risk.
I took way too long to clean my car yesterday, started about 12pm, finished about 6pm! I need to buy a knee pad. But mostly it took long because of the excess stuff on the wheels which is now gone, so should never be as hard work again. And also because it was the first time I did a 3 phased cleaning, with snowfoam, main wash, and then the seal. What a satisfying feeling it was running my big green microfibre drying cloth across the car and seeing it dry so easily. Job done. I'm happy with the way the car looks now, much cleaner. Got to do the interior tomorrow. And I dressed the tyres with Maguires Endurance. it's great stuff, hardly had to use much, it's gonna last ages. The finish is more subtle than I expected but it's nice. Doesn't seem to dry though? I put it on last night and it came off on my fingers today.
But based on the reactions here, I didn't use the oven cleaner for the other 3 wheels. [brian's mum]I was a very naughty boy![/brian's mum] Fortunately, there's no appearance of any coating removed. Actually, my cheapo £2 Simoniz alloy cleaner worked better than I first thought and did loosen up most of the crud, but still areas that didn't shift which the oven cleaner would have removed.
Yes, I am definitely buying the BH auto wheels now. Probably it's as powerful or maybe more so as oven cleaner but without the risk.
I took way too long to clean my car yesterday, started about 12pm, finished about 6pm! I need to buy a knee pad. But mostly it took long because of the excess stuff on the wheels which is now gone, so should never be as hard work again. And also because it was the first time I did a 3 phased cleaning, with snowfoam, main wash, and then the seal. What a satisfying feeling it was running my big green microfibre drying cloth across the car and seeing it dry so easily. Job done. I'm happy with the way the car looks now, much cleaner. Got to do the interior tomorrow. And I dressed the tyres with Maguires Endurance. it's great stuff, hardly had to use much, it's gonna last ages. The finish is more subtle than I expected but it's nice. Doesn't seem to dry though? I put it on last night and it came off on my fingers today.
Very nice so far, sounds like you're catching the bug & you'll soon have 3 products that all do the same job!
With the tyre gloss you can always wipe it over with a MF cloth after application, that should help with the drying and help stop it 'slinging' when driven.
With the tyre gloss you can always wipe it over with a MF cloth after application, that should help with the drying and help stop it 'slinging' when driven.
Thanks Muska. Not quite up to the standard of your blue car I've seen photos of, nor even remotely as good a car as yours, but yeah, pretty happy with the effort I put in. It's very satisfying seeing the results of a good cleaning workout.
If I wipe the gel, will it change the way the sheen looks on the tyre?
Thank you, still have a way to go till I'm completely happy with it.
Have you looked into claying? It really changes the feel of the paint.
I think it might make a minimal difference but it might appear less 'wet'. Only slightly I should think. It also works very well on any black trim if you wipe on and buff off with a MF. It just doesn't last very long, especially if it rains.
Have you looked into claying? It really changes the feel of the paint.
I think it might make a minimal difference but it might appear less 'wet'. Only slightly I should think. It also works very well on any black trim if you wipe on and buff off with a MF. It just doesn't last very long, especially if it rains.
I don't think I'm interested in claying but I do have some tiny black spots here and there that washing didn't remove. I just found these very old mini bottles of autoglym products. You can see how old they are by the yellowing of the bottles, lol.
https://i.postimg.cc/qvWSvSyG/20200704-203623.jpg
Do you think I should use the intensive tar remover to get rid of the black spots?
For the interior vinyl, do you think it's worth using the vinyl and rubber care, (mind you there isn't much left in the bottle), or am I better off using my bottle of aerospace 303 protectant?
Shall I throw the bumper care bottle or is there any other good use for it on my car? Maybe for the black wing mirror holders and the black window frames?
There's a little bit of glass polish left in the bottle, or is Windowlene sufficient?
Don
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merlin, ive just found out (in this thread) if your polishing , you need to clay it too
ive been doing it wrong all this time !
ive been doing it wrong all this time !
I'm not following?
Well, if you don't clay before you polish then any hard residues left on the paint will potentially be dragged in to the pad marring your paint further.
Ive never followed this idealogy. Claying is used to remove contaminants embedded or fused into the paint. If such contaminants were able to be removed by the very light pressure used applying a wax then they surely would have been removed during the much more aggressive contact wash step.
Claying the car before hand will, however, improve the durability of the wax as it will adhere to the paint better. Claying will also improve clarity and gloss of the paint by removing those contaminants which essentially make the panel less 'flat' and so more refractive. It is not a necessary step, however, and if you're waxing your car 2-3 times a year with clay-barring before hand its actually likely you'll be doing more damage to the paint from clay-bar marring. Claying typically is only something you need to do once a year (if that), and each panel should be assessed (by feel, plastic bag trick works well here) as it is a very aggressive process.
We didn't say applying wax, we said polishing.
So you did, apparently I'm illiterate. Apologies.
Honestly, I would throw the old stuff away. I had an old bottle of super resin polish and it looked like it had split, no amount of shaking would get it back to how it should look. I'm not sure how any of the chemicals would react with a car being well past their best, might be wise to play it safe
Aerospace 303 is good stuff, I've liked it when I've used it in the past. I've used GTechniq glass ceramic coating on my glass (after polishing/cleaning it first, it was a kit) I swear by the stuff, it's been superb.
Don
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Once you've waxed it, and keep washing it say every week or 2, and need to reapply polish and wax again, should you clay it again? I'm just thinking , if I get someone to clay my car, I assume I can just wash and dry every now and again? , do I need to re apply a sealant and/or polish without claying?
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