Motors Post your favourite detailing products, techniques and results

long shot - but anyone able to recommend a sprayer/bodyshop in Norfolk?

 

It's here!

 

Mine isn't ._.

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Just logged into my Karcher Outlet account and I can see that it's been shipped, but they didn't email me an order update with any tracking number. Weird, anyway that means it'll be here tomorrow, hopefully the foam lance adapter will arrive then as well

 

Cheers Unicorn - exactly the sort of help I was after, will try that in 1000 miles after this week!

 

Had some fun this afternoon when i got home from work. Cleaned the car quickly, outside only and put 2 coats of DoDo Juice Blue Velvet Pro on. Just waiting for it to rain now to see if it beads nicely. Here's a pic of my car after about 2 mins of snow foam application.



Had some funny looks from passers by, though no-one commented. Epic fun though.

 

Okay, I need to give my car a good clean on the outside. Last time I did it, I used some cheap as balls car soap.

2 questions, what stuff should I buy? I'm going for a trip to Halfrauds in a bit, so some suggestions to ease me into this would be lovely.

Also, what the heck is this snow foam stuff, and how do I do it?

 

I use Zymol auto bathe but had good reviewa on meguires gold. Use warm to hot water with the shampoo. This will help the bubbles.
Polish I use AutoGlym super resin posh, just because I have some.
Wax - most hard waxes have 90% of the performance as the expensive stuff. Although I heard the AG deep shine stuff is also good. All available from halfrauds. Post your before and after photos for us car cleaning geeks.

 

I did get some before and after shots, but tbh they weren't all that good, so here's some fancy shots of the car

 

No problem, glad to help You have my sympathy RE: mileage. I thought I was badly off going over 600 this week!

It looks good all foamed up Nice edge blurring too, I assume that's a PS filter?

I still get funny looks from the neighbours, one lady from a few houses down on the other side of the road even stopped on her way past the day I had the front seats out and asked me if I'd clean and polish her Mercedes SUV sometime - her words went something like "I always see you cleaning your car, you're obviously good at it!... The guy who comes and does mine once a fortnight never really does a good job, would you mind doing it sometime?" I've yet to do it, but I've loosely arranged to get it for a full day towards the end of August.

I'm thinking it's just going to be a thorough wash, clay, a few hand applications of SRP and wax and possibly hand removal of minor scoring where possible, considering that I can't fit it in the garage to properly correct by machine. There's a decent sized garage at her house, but I have no idea if it'll go in there. For all I know, it's full from wall to wall of furniture like ours is at the moment

You really can't go wrong with Meguiars Gold Class Shampoo & Conditioner. I have been using it for more than 4 years now, and to this day I'm still impressed at how good a shampoo it is. It is completely LSP safe, smells great, foams up well when used with warm water, creates "slippery" suds which are very slick on my sheepskin mitts and hard as it is to believe, leaves paint with an extra "sparkle" that you just don't get with lesser products.

A slightly more expensive option is Zaino Show Car Concentrate which is equally brilliant, but isn't available in the 64oz quantity that I buy the Meguiars in. It does leave the paint ridiculously slick and shiny though, even more so than with Meg's GC on waxed paint.

Snow foam is used to pre-wash the car in as safe a way as possible. You never want to have to rub paintwork hard to get dirt off because it causes wash marring - swirl marks, scores, scratches etc. Instead, if the dirt on your car is badly baked on (bonded to the paint surface) or there is a very thick layer of gritty dirt, you should loosen it up as much as possible and remove it with a touchless wash method before going at it with a soft mitt and the two bucket method. Dirt that sits on paintwork for a long period of time - usually a week or more is enough - bonds to the surface, and this is compounded every time the dirt gets wet and dries out again, so every shower of rain it sits out in, every puddle you drive through and every annoying kid who throws water balloons at you is creating more wetting and drying cycles which is bonding the dirt to the paint surface more and more. Snow foam and pre-wash cleaners combined with hosing loosens and carry away that bonded dirt before you even touch the surface with a mitt, reducing the risk of wash marring because you're not grinding that hard, sharp dirt into the surface with the mitt.

I posted a few videos a page or two ago from Polished Bliss on pre-washing. Basically you need three things to achieve snow foam - a lance, a power washer and snow foam solution.

I can't see them because of the network I'm on this morning (and my mobile data is almost finished for the month... 2GB in 3 weeks ._.) but I'll have a look when I get home

 

My car has been keyed five times now. I don't bother fixing it, although that does not seem to discourage them from adding another scratch.

I've decided that my next car is going to be an old banger in a dull, boring colour.

 

And electrified?

Sent from my Orange Monte Carlo using Tapatalk 2

 

I was thinking more along the lines of one of those South African anti-carjacking flamethrowers activated by a touch sensor circuit connected to the car body.



Hmmm... Crispy.

 

Here's a part way through and after look just needed a little more detailing by the bolts really..





Sent from the public toilets outside the pub.

 

When I see de-tarring being mentioned, does that basically mean all the dead insects and crap all over the front bumper? What's the easiest thing to use to loosen it off? I have only ever used water and shampoo on my cars over the years, but I'd love to get a nice clean finish without going overboard. About an hour spent on the job is my limit.

 

I think de-tarring is pretty literal, removal of tar. There are specific products but I wouldn't be the right person to ask.

 

De-tarring is done all over the car, and involves removing spots of tar from the surface of the paintwork which won't come off during the standard wash process because they are oil based and bonded to the paint surface. You remove it with either a solvent based tar removal product or a citrus based one. Some will be sold as "Bug & Tar Remover" because as well as loosening and lifting sticky tar from the paint surface, it's very good at removing splattered and bonded bugs too. The best value product I've found to date is AutoSmart Tardis - mist on using a chemical resistant sprayer, allow it to dissolve the tar for a minute, then wipe away with a clean microfiber cloth. I'm pretty sure I covered it a couple of pages ago...

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Yes I did, here you go:

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Mine just turned up - well, actually, I went looking for it and made a couple of phone calls, then I found it. I had it delivered to my work address because I'm here all summer and there's not necessarily someone at home every day of the week at the moment, so I got my text from DPD this morning with a 13:30-15:30 delivery window. My number is on a massive sign on the front door for couriers, but 15:45 came and there was still no phone call asking me to come to the front door and sign for anything, so I looked up the tracking number and saw "LS Corridor" (left safe in corridor). I did a lap of the school and saw nothing, so I called DPD customer service. It rang for about 5 minutes solid before I got an answer - a pleasant and helpful girl then got in touch with the depot and they in turn got in touch with the driver, who called me and told me he'd followed the "deliveries" signs for the High School and left it there. It's on the same estate but it's a completely different school. My exact words were "why would you deliver it to the High School when it's addressed to the Primary School?" He mumbled something about seeing the estate address and deliveries signs, and assuming it was for the HS. I as much as called him an idiot and told him there are three schools and a hockey club on the same estate and that he'd need to read the address a bit more carefully in future. Anyway, I just drove up to the HS and the caretaker helped me find it among a mountain of boxes in their delivery corridor. There'll be snow foam this weekend

 

So, I just got a bit carried away with my car washing.

Long story short: Pressure washers do not make my life easier, because I think I can wash three cars in one sitting. I cannot. Snow foam is hilarious.

Valet pro bilberry wheel cleaner, though, jesus H. I've never seen any wheel get so clean so easily. I cannot rate that stuff highly enough.

Poorboys black hole seems quite nice, but since I was only buggering about I didn't do the whole RS. Will see about polishing and what have you at the weekend.

 

Anyone been getting into your detailing over the summer and have that one annoying relative that constantly says "you should be doing it like this" Even though you know full well they have no idea?

Anyway, machine polished my Astra yesterday ( just the one side ) I am really impressed with the finish I achieved. I had been working on other older cars before attacking my own. Drivers side and Bonnet were finished in about 5 hours. Both free from 99% of imperfections only stone chips and deep scratches remain. I've also been asked to detail some of my families cars for them. One Y Reg Audi S3 Black and Audi TT 3.2 Quattro Lt Blue.

 

Where Can I buy some snow-foam in the UK, already have a lance/bottle-attachment!

 

AutoBrite Direct. I use their snowfoam and it works a treat. I've also heard that the Demon Snow Foam is quite good, you can get that from Asda.