*** The Car Cleaning Thread ***

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Appreciate I'm completely behind the times on this, and there are other methods available (e.g. QDs) but I ordered some McKee's 37 N-914 that can be diluted to be either waterless or rinse-less wash depending on the dilution.

Ordered it because I didn't have any QD for bird droppings and diluted it 20ml to 500ml (which is stronger than recommended as it's either 256 or 128 to 1), quickly removed some droppings this morning with it and was really impressed with how quickly and easily the droppings came off with a soft brush. Held a microfiber on top of the areas to dry, rather than wiping as a lot of dust was on the car. Would probably hold a MF below any areas I spray on vertical panels next time to minimise run off.

Whilst it's extremely concentrated as per above and very versatile (clay lube, and they claim on pack it can be used as a panel wipe), it's a high one off cost as it's an American brand with limited distribution here. One to watch out for if anyone is in desperate need of something like ONR but it isn't in stock :)
 
Doobedoo said:
Saw a couple of these now, one a few days ago. Very shiney. One things I find with silver cars is they look average in direct sunlight but once you get a bit shade or the sun starts to drop they look so much better.
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At night, the silver changes colour completely, I agree. I think a lot of metalics are like this, in sunset they just look incredible, in the day it's almost too much I find. I had the same with my RX8 in Copper Mica Red... early evening WOW, looked incredible!
 
Had a wander round Halfords as I was passing and had some time to kill… managed to grab a couple of bargains.

500Ml of Auto Finesse - Radiance (Carnauba Cream) for £5
500Ml of Auto Finesse - Ultra Glaze for £2

If I was to buy direct from Auto Finesse the basket totals £36.

I used Radiance many years ago, easy to apply and remove which is important for me, not a hard worker :D
 
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First wash and clean since purchase a month ago - it’s been garaged while I’ve been in Spain :)


It was supposedly machine polished by Audi… maybe with sandpaper :p


post pictures



Need to clean the exhaust pipes too. 22k miles and 4 years and I think they’ve never been done. I’ve tried auto sol (average IMO) and autoglym (decent but not great still) along with a drill polishing attachment and it’s barely touching it. In fact, it began to strip the chrome.


I’ve got £300 of kit coming this week to do a full ceramic seal, polish and clean.
 
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elrasho said:
So the car wash I use left that acid stuff they put on for too long on the bonnet. This caused the misano red of my Audi A1 looked more like a light fading pink :(

I've had the entire car washed, polished and waxed and it looks brand new again. What do I need to do to maintain this shiny look?
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Wash as and when needed, using a 2 bucket method with a microfibre mitt.


One bucket for soapy water, one for rinsing the mitt.


Doesn’t need to be a super detail every week, and you can definitely get away with not having a snow foam. Most of them are pants anyway.


In your situation, I would use the following:

1. Valet pro pre wash + pump sprayer. Go for a bigger 5L one so you can mix at the right concentration and leave it in the bottle
2. Bilt Hamber auto wash
3. Bilt Hamber auto wheels
4. I like the Gtechniq wash mitt and diamond drying towel.
5. Gtechniq liquid Crystal 1x every 3 months to keep it looking glossy and make it easier to clean


That would give you a good starting point IMO, and you won’t need a pressure washer.
 
MrRockliffe said:
First wash and clean since purchase a month ago - it’s been garaged while I’ve been in Spain :)


It was supposedly machine polished by Audi… maybe with sandpaper :p


post pictures



Need to clean the exhaust pipes too. 22k miles and 4 years and I think they’ve never been done. I’ve tried auto sol (average IMO) and autoglym (decent but not great still) along with a drill polishing attachment and it’s barely touching it. In fact, it began to strip the chrome.


I’ve got £300 of kit coming this week to do a full ceramic seal, polish and clean.
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Try Barkeepers Friend on a sponge for the exhaust - I used the Power Cream and it worked wonders on the grubby exhaust tips on my Golf
 
Busy day yesterday and went with an all AG approach:

Polar Blast Snow foam - left for a good ten minutes
Rinsed
Polar Wash Shampoo - washed with a microfibre mit and a clean rinse bucket / wheels were sorted with megs wheel brush
Rinsed
Normally at this stage it would be a spray of polar seal but I wanted to give the car a decent shine so:
Car Dried with waffle towel
SRP all over working two panels at a time (I find this works well in terms of time product sits before being buffed off)
UHD Wax all over again working two panels at a time.

Fortunately this was all done in the afternoon when it was cooler and in the shade of a couple of trees. Took a good couple of hours but should be able to stick to the standard Polar wash for the next couple of months and still have a high level of shine / protection.
 
Is there a recommended ceramic-friendly way to remove bugs etc when away from a water source for a few days? The car will be in the blazing sunshine for days on end so I don't want to bake the debris onto the car if I can help it. I have the usual wipes for removing bird poop as soon as I can but they'd disintegrate if I scrubbed with them (and I don't really want to scrub either...)

Check out this beading from the PPF + Gtechniq Halo combo:

 
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Any citrus pre-wash will work, these coatings can take a range of pH levels and it's only caustic stuff you should avoid. I have Gtechniq CSU on my car and they claim protection against pH2 to 13, and they say their products are compatible with their coatings so could use their Citrus pre-wash?

Alternatively a waterless rinse/wash product as you'll have the benefit of the encapsulation of these kind of products. As above, I used McKees recently on some bird poo with a soft brush and was amazed by how quickly it broke down the poo.

So a spray with pre-wash or waterless wash, agitate with a soft brush and then dab dry with a MF cloth. With waterless you can even dilute it with deionised or distilled and you wouldn't need to worry about hardwater spots/etching.

I'll test the McKees on bugs if there's any on the front of mine and will let you know.
 
I have a 5L bottle of GTechniq W5 so I could mix that up into a little 500ml spray bottle to take with me. I could pick up some W8 but I am nearly sure I recall it needing to be rinsed very well after use and you're supposed to wear gloves while using it. I doubt I will have room to take water with me just to rinse the car with but I do have a RaceGlaze so I could fill up something suitable from that and just use it incredibly sparingly.

Alternatively I could try and find a French mobile detailer who will come and wash the car for me :D
 
DRZ said:
Is there a recommended ceramic-friendly way to remove bugs etc when away from a water source for a few days? The car will be in the blazing sunshine for days on end so I don't want to bake the debris onto the car if I can help it. I have the usual wipes for removing bird poop as soon as I can but they'd disintegrate if I scrubbed with them (and I don't really want to scrub either...)
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I typically use a spray bottle solution of my Bilt Hamber auto wash at a slightly stronger dilution, paired with a plush microfibre.

Or a bug remover spray :-)
 
DRZ said:
I have a 5L bottle of GTechniq W5 so I could mix that up into a little 500ml spray bottle to take with me. I could pick up some W8 but I am nearly sure I recall it needing to be rinsed very well after use and you're supposed to wear gloves while using it. I doubt I will have room to take water with me just to rinse the car with but I do have a RaceGlaze so I could fill up something suitable from that and just use it incredibly sparingly.

Alternatively I could try and find a French mobile detailer who will come and wash the car for me :D
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Just FYI, the waterless wash with McKees and a soft detail brush didn't really cut the mustard. It struggled to shift some of the really dried on bugs, I would definitely try a citrus all purpose cleaner.

youtu.be

Dealing with severe BUG SPLATTER the easy way

Bouncers CI washhttps://tinyurl.com/m7ee2avdVarious Detailing Brusheshttps://tinyurl.com/bdhahdm8
youtu.be youtu.be
 
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