Motors Post your favourite detailing products, techniques and results

Has the guide on page 1 been updated at all or is it still considered the best way for a newbie to get started and get decent results?

 

Just tried Iron-X.

Wow. That's demonstrably better than the Autoglym wheel clean I had been using, it tore through dirt I've had to scrub before. I like the turning purple thing too, that really helps illustrate the dirt situation

 

What's the general consensus on new car protection?

Seems to be a toss up between "specialist products and generally what amounts to a £600 professional detail" and "just a good wax"

 

IMO it depends on the car and how it's delivered. Factory usually leaves crud on the paintwork, and the dealer will wash it, introducing swirls I've no doubt, and failing to get all the factory crap off.

Didn't you have your 7-er detailed from new?

I've not personally been near a new Lotus ever, so I don't know how good their paintwork is from factory (thinking orange peel here) - And considering the bragging of 42kg weight loss from the previous Evora, I wonder how much of that is paint thickness - Which makes me nervous to suggest aggressive anything without a paint thickness meter. It also depends how happy you are to get stuck in and do the job really. Detailing is a wildly expensive world, so if it's going to be a garage queen (I mean that in the nicest way possible - It's not your daily driver and I'm suspecting you might prefer to take it out on nice days) I'd honestly suggest finding a local, reputable, detailer and getting them to do a good clean to get the sediment from the factory off, and just keep on top of keeping it cleaned.

The only one even remotely close that I've seen the work of is Midlands Car Car - They do a lot of high end cars, and they do a lot of good work, but they're a fair distance from you IIRC.

I mean, you could go the whole hog and find someone who uses the most expensive wax in the world every six months, but that might be a bit much for a non-show car.

It's also highly personal. I find that Autoglym super resin polish is sufficient for protection between washes on a regular car, it's got a slightly waxy quality so it resists rain and water reasonably well, but it does wear much faster than a full blown wax. I'm sure other people here have other products they prefer.

However, my RS tends to get polished, and waxed with Dodo Juice Blue Velvet when getting a full wash.

Top-up cleaning is Dodo juice Born To Be Mild (Ph neutral shampoo), Iron-X (now, used to be Autoglym wheel cleaner) and a drying towel. Washing a panel at a time and drying it immediately keeps water spots off, and it seems to hold up. I also reapply wheel protector and tyre dressing.

It might also be worth investigating arch protecting film if there's none from factory. It's not super duper pretty, but it saves a lot of paint.

 

does anyone have any experience with restoring motorbike/atv plastic? my can am's bodywork is looking a little on the tired side.

 

I had a good close inspection of the paintwork on the day and it all looked in good order - knowing that Lotus isn't historically famed for their QC I paid more attention to it than I would have on another. Around 20 years ago my dad looked at an Esprit, until we saw it in the metal and the orange peel was comical, all wasn't lost as he ended up with a TVR in lovely starmist green instead).

Paint thickness though, who knows. I'd like to think they wouldn't skimp to save weight on the basis that there's things like heated seats and cruise control... maybe on the cup cars, but not this. But then again, Lotus.

I had a new car detail on the 7er, which lasted well, but then I obsessively washed and topped up wax for the first year as well so that will have helped. I guess I just wonder whether it was that TLC or the new car treatment that maintained the new car shine for so long. It's well overdue for a deep clean and wax again... at least 2000 miles since its last wash

I travel during the week quite a bit, so don't really wanting to be spending too much time at the weekends washing cars (hence the state of the 7er... and the Polestar isn't far behind) as I'd rather spend it with the fam - I'm sure I'll obsess over the Evora for a while but long term, I don't want to be doing it all the time. I've considered in the past it might be worth booking a callout every 6-8 weeks a proper clean by a pro for all the cars (not a full detail, just a really good wash) and then in between snow-foaming. As lazy as that sounds I find it takes ages to do a decent job washing two of them, three will be whole day down. I've not done this yet mainly because my general life admin skills are rather poor.

I'm unlikely to be taking the Evora out for a blast when it's anything other than bone dry more out of preservation of life and limb rather than to keep it clean
It will be under-cover in the garage when it's clean, so a bit of a garage queen, but there will also be extended road trips so it will see its fair share of muck too.

I could open a Halfords with the Autoglym products including hd cleanser, hd wax, wheel cleaner, shampoo, super resin polish, aqua wax and who knows what else... maybe I just need to suck it up and spend a weekend using it.

Good tip on the arch protection, will check that out... she does have some wide hips!

 

Ha, me too. My "proper clean" kit is a 35l RUB full of products, and another full of pads/microfibres/brushes. But it does take me 4-6 hours to do the exterior to my liking. Pretty much all of it is Autoglym, they used to know me by name at my local Halfords. Probably not a good sign.

Tbh, I'd suggest a 6-8 week wash with the same detailer, if they're of any repute they'll be using products they know inside and out, and it saves you time. Especially with the size of the 7. Seriously, the square footage of that things body panels must be scary.

And well, if it's under a cover in the garage the UV won't be killing the wax so a good wax should last a while - If it's applied on decently prepped paint! Which, hopefully, hasn't been skimped on for weight savings like you say, but a good detailer would check that before doing anything wild anyway.

Sounds like you'd rather dabble in making it pretty, but spend more time driving it. Which screams 'pay someone else to do it' to me!

Arch protection should be doable by any vinyl wrapping company, but there may well be pre-cut pieces you could apply yourself if you felt that way inclined.

 

Haha! Snap. Exactly the same thing going on here

The 7 really takes forever to wash. It should be obvious more square footage of car surface = more to wash, but I was never quite prepared for just how much more effort it was. I used to wash a 1er coupe and a Swift in around 2 hours, a really thorough wash and dry. Now... no chance. I snow foam both followed by a gentle wash and let them drip. I've not done a proper deep clean on either for a bit so don't really feel happy about towel drying for fear of scratching. They're clean and shiny from a couple metres this way, but don't stand up to closer inspection (granted, I'm probably the only one that's inspecting!)

My wife and daughter are going on a holiday without me in a few weeks (she's in education, so has all the holiday in the world...), so that might be a good point to spend a full day giving it the works and then find someone local that I feel I can trust on an ongoing basis to give them the occasional deep clean.

 

It's one of those things that just.. Builds up. The Autoglym stuff at 8-12 quid a pop doesn't seem like much until you have ten, fifteen, products all sat in rows.

Jesus, going from a 1 to a 7? That sounds like car cleaning suicide.

Oh? That sounds like an ideal time for extensive cleaning! Clay barring the whole car, iso wiping it down, a rotary polish (a DAS-6 is barely £150...), and wax? Lovely! Just a weekend of precious non-work time!

Tbh, finding someone local, if you don't have the time, is the key. Check out regional car clubs, if I'm not mistaken you'd fall into the Nottinghamshire group range, but there should be someone not a million miles away you can use.

 

Atfer a bit of advice, cars quite swirl marked, ive tried a the likes of G3 by hand with very limit success so picked up a DAS6, any suggestions on cutting compounds at all to help remove some of these pesky things? I know RDS will still be an issue.
Also ordered some Gtechniq C4 trim restorer to see what the fuss is about.

 

Feels like I've spent the entire weekend cleaning cars... mainly because I've spent the entire weekend cleaning cars.



Deep clean of all three interiors. The Volvo really needed it, but the BMW leather thanked me for it too, didn't realise how much jeans had darkened the seats until I gave them a good scrub.

The Lotus got a good wash, but didn't need all that much effort having been freshly waxed and still basically new. Discovered a small stone dint right on the front lip :/. It's tiny, and after seeing it the first time when I washed it I couldn't find it again until I looked for a few minutes, at least.

The BMW was second up, it was detailed a few months back and still has the last remnants of wax, which made it come up pretty well with minimal effort. After a good snow and wash, topped up the wax with Auto Glym Aqua Wax. The wheels came up really easy, so I think they were probably waxed as well.

Spent ages on the Volvo wheels - there's something about the finish on the wheels that makes brake dust nearly impossible to remove (and the enormous brakes don't help). Snow foam, soapy scrub, foam wheel cleaner, another scrub, liquid wheel cleaner left to set, another scrub and then the nasty corrosive stuff on a few stubborn spots - they aren't perfect (and I noticed after I moved it that I totally missed some spokes, eugh), but it will do for the winter. Also noticed a bit of corrosion in a few spots that obviously had a stone chip, which gave me a sad - they're diamond cut so may have them all sent away to be refurbed in the spring - I've have some scuffs on two of the BMW wheels as well (also diamond cut) so they'll need to go too. After I finished with the wheels I didn't have it in me go do anything more than a snow foam followed by a good-enough wash. Being white, there are some really obvious spots that are desperate for a clay bar and some proper TLC, but that can wait until the spring.

I'm feeling pretty good about my efforts for now though.

 

Maybe try some iron X on the volvo wheels? It cleaned even the hardiest crap off mine. Twelve months of build up on the mundaneo last time I did it, came off in the first assault.

 

That sounds promising, I'll give it a try

 

Not sure if anyones interested, Halfrauds of all places are slowly starting to stock Auto Finesse, so far its just two gift packs an if it goes well itll be more of the actual range.

http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/...earch&storeId=10001&catalogId=10151&langId=-1

I picked up the more expensive of the two as I needed some more clay, plus Tripple works wonders on my swirly paintwork.

 

I've got a '93 red MX-5, meaning it's now more pink than red. Is this something recoverable by detailing (polishing, waxing, etc) or would only a good paintjob do the trick? There are also a few scratches especially on the hood from stones and on the boot from trying to put the hardtop on by myself.

 

Colour restoring waxes are a thing - have no idea if they're any good, but maybe an option if they really do what they say on the tin?

Is it a case of the surface going a bit matte, or the actual paint having faded... or a bit of both?

 

It's a case of the paint fading I'd say, it's washed out, as if an excessively laundered old t-shirt. It's not peeling though, which is good.
Here are some pictures to give you a better idea: https://www.dropbox.com/sc/ylpv947zsfxhy87/AACVipFnvFubxZj6KTTGyB1ga

EDIT: I guess, looking a the photos, it's a bit of both actually.

 

I'm in no way interested in detailing but, many years I had a red Citroen BX that had faded to pink. A lot of elbow grease with Tcut, followed by a good polishing restored it to red nicely

 

Tends to be the clearcoat that's actually the culprit so a compound should work, classic Vauxhall red one in this link

http://www.meguiars.co.uk/fifty-sha...ed-paintwork-with-meguiars-ultimate-compound/

 

It's been a long time since I read about it, but isn't it something in the red colour that makes the clearcoat oxidise or something?

Which is why elbowgrease and cutting compounds make it better again?