*** The Car Cleaning Thread ***

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Shades said:
a bit of advice needed please,

I recently purchased an 09 focus zetec in black and although the paintwork is in good condition and I'd like to keep it that way I need some reccomendation on which waxes to be buying and whch cloths to be using on it....i dont know of any good online retailers so a reccomendation on that would be good too..

I dont think there is any need for polishing as I cant see any swirls on it.

Is it worth applying more than one layer of wax and if so how long should you wait between layers?

thanks for any advice
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Lol

Micro fibre, always.

Wash - 2 buckets method, micro fibre or wool mitt, most car shampoo are fine
Clay - do this once or twice a year max if you are really anal
Polish - I would still polish it as this remove the old layer of wax, something like super resin polish also fills the gaps in the clear coat.
Wax - the world's your oyster, I like paste wax over liquid as I am feeling I'm applying wax and not wiping it off.

You can do more than one coat but depending on the wax, some will need longer gap between layers for it to set and bind to the paintwork than others.

A good wax is the FK1000, people use it on alloys too as a sealant and it last ages, 4months +
 
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Claying only remove contaminants, the swirl marks is scratches in the top clear coat, you either fill in the gaps with a filling polish or you use a cutting polish to "thin" down the layer of clear coat so it's smoth, which in effect remove the swirl marks.

You can do it by hand but a DA polisher would make life much easier and get better results.
 
Yes but I suspect if you're being really anal you'd want to have the paint perfectly clean so you don't 'drag' contaminants across the surface of the paint when polishing.
 
OK, I purchased some microfibre cloths today and a bottle of this stuff....

http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/..._productId_199281_langId_-1_categoryId_165527

Obviously I would have preferred to get something better but I'm off work tomorrow and wanted to give the car a going over. Any ideas if this stuff is ok? Can it be used on the alloys?

I was hoping to avoid polishing in this weather :( polishing going to be tough enough, which brings me on to my next question - can you polish when it's this hot out or is it best to not have the vehicle in the sun and wait until it cools down in the evening?

thanks
 
WeOwnTheSky said:
Cool. Thanks guys.

Any recommended products for those jobs?
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BH clay is good as you can use plain old tap water as a lubricant.
Polish...depends if you want to fill or cut.

To fill, AG SRP is good.
For a black car, poorboys black hole is a good glaze that contains filler, use this after SRP
Then wax with say collinate 476 or FK1000 etc etc.

If the filler method doesn't give you the effect you want then consider getting some cutting/finishing polish.
 
Raymond Lin said:
BH clay is good as you can use plain old tap water as a lubricant.
Polish...depends if you want to fill or cut.

To fill, AG SRP is good.
For a black car, poorboys black hole is a good glaze that contains filler, use this after SRP
Then wax with say collinate 476 or FK1000 etc etc.

If the filler method doesn't give you the effect you want then consider getting some cutting/finishing polish.
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Agreed on Bilt Hamber clay. I got the soft one and was a breeze to use first time I clayed last summer. Tried other clay which needs lube but went back to bilt Hamber for its ease of use. AG SRP is cheap enough and does a good job. I use Autoglym HD Wax and find good results with that. Beads well and lasts. Everyone will recommend different stuff but you can't go wrong with any of the above.
 
Shades said:
OK, I purchased some microfibre cloths today and a bottle of this stuff....

http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/..._productId_199281_langId_-1_categoryId_165527

Obviously I would have preferred to get something better but I'm off work tomorrow and wanted to give the car a going over. Any ideas if this stuff is ok? Can it be used on the alloys?

I was hoping to avoid polishing in this weather :( polishing going to be tough enough, which brings me on to my next question - can you polish when it's this hot out or is it best to not have the vehicle in the sun and wait until it cools down in the evening?

thanks
Click to expand...
The instructions on many may state not to polish or wax in direct sunlight because the product will settle within seconds in this kind of heat.

I've done it before though, instead of letting it dry for a few minutes like on a normal day I left it on for a few seconds before buffing quickly.

Takes longer to do the whole car as you work bit by bit on each panel but at least you avoid excessive elbow grease buffing off baked in polish or wax!
 
Shades said:
OK, I purchased some microfibre cloths today and a bottle of this stuff....

http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/..._productId_199281_langId_-1_categoryId_165527

Obviously I would have preferred to get something better but I'm off work tomorrow and wanted to give the car a going over. Any ideas if this stuff is ok? Can it be used on the alloys?

I was hoping to avoid polishing in this weather :( polishing going to be tough enough, which brings me on to my next question - can you polish when it's this hot out or is it best to not have the vehicle in the sun and wait until it cools down in the evening?

thanks
Click to expand...

Always work in the shade, especially the waxing part.

There's a basic but nice video I posted here from YouTube before that's quite good. Will find it when I get home.

That liquid wax you link to will work, tbh, they all work, the question is how long protection do they give before you have to wax again. If you are waxing it every couple of months then it doesn't really matter much. If you are only doing it very 6 months then I would prefer a more durable wax like collinate or FK1000.
 
Raymond Lin said:
Always work in the shade, especially the waxing part.

There's a basic but nice video I posted here from YouTube before that's quite good. Will find it when I get home.

That liquid wax you link to will work, tbh, they all work, the question is how long protection do they give before you have to wax again. If you are waxing it every couple of months then it doesn't really matter much. If you are only doing it very 6 months then I would prefer a more durable wax like collinate or FK1000.
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I'm perfectly happy with waxing every month

I know this is a sin but I currently take my car to the local "wash guys" who to be fair do a decent job but I have no idea what products they are using and I'm betting that whatever they are using would no doubt strip off the wax that I'm putting on...I guess I'm going to have to start doing it myself from now on :o

Thing is a live in a top floor flat and it's not easy as there's no hosepipe outside :mad:
 
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