Motors Post your favourite detailing products, techniques and results

Indeed I do, I learned that lesson a long time ago. I never even thought of including it in the description. It's the Meguiars grit guard and buckets that I use No swirls in my paint thank you!

I see where you're all coming form with the chamois, and I'll be drying with microfiber eurow towels which I just ordered this morning in future, but the chamois method is only the result of years of habit I've been chamois drying since I was old enough to know how to wash a car

 

How often do you clean your car? That seems like an awful lot of work to be doing very often!

 

Job done.

 

I reckon my car gets cleaned four times a year at the most, mainly in Summer, plus however many times it goes into a dealers.

It gets cleaned with a sponge and warm soapy water, and the glass gets done with a frech bucket and then buffed with an old teatowel to get rid of the streaks... The alloys don't get touched.

But you have made me want to make mine shiny now... damnit.

*edit* I'm fully aware that I may get lynched for this post... *edit*

 

I clean it regularly, usually once a fortnight, but that level of detailling only gets done at the most 4 times per year. I try and keep it clean in between detailling. It'll get waxed once per month with good liquid wax, and once every 3 months with paste wax which actually lasts 3 months if you wash properly in between and use a detailler spray after you wash. The way I see it, the whole idea of putting so much effort in at once is so that it doesn't need done too often, but it usually does need washed once a week in the winter. During the summer I'd never dream of washing it more often than once a fortnight. So as far as the paintwork goes, the year would go like this:

4 meticulous detailling sessions with clay bar & paste wax per year.

8 liquid waxes per year, one per month that the car is not pasted.

Washed once per week in Autumn and Winter seasons due to increased road dirt.

Washed once per 2 weeks in Spring and Summer due to drier conditions and less road dirt. Shine "topped up" between washes when the car gets dusty with quik detailler spray.

Polished once every 4 months before paste waxing only when needed.

It seems like a lot of effort to someone who isn't used to doing it I suppose, but it's like everything, you get into a habit of doing it on a regular basis and it becomes second nature Like I already said, I really enjoy doing this.

Pook, I'd love to see some pics of the Mustang all polished up if you're happy enough to post them

 

I have to have mine retreated (seats, windows, paint protector) every 6 months anyway, so I normally do a normal clean with the specified shampoo and a vacuum cleaner.
twice a year it goes to the dealership for a proper clean. Works wonders.

 

The main problem i have with my black cars is the surface is often to warm when i want to the waxing. Black cars are a bugger to keep clean but they look incredible when they are all polished up.

I fancy one of those foam guns though.

 

Yeah I have the same problem. I have to wait until it's late in the day and put the car in the shade as best I can. The car would get into the garage if it wasn't so full of other stuff If I can't get it all in the shade, I just do the side that's been in the shade first, then move it and wait for the next side to cool down.

 

I think everyone has that problem. I used to JUST get away with backing it into the garage when I had the Mondeo, but the Mustang is just too big. If I had a Clio it'd be no problem

If I gave a rat's ass about my Micra I wouldn't have a problem either. The Micra is just a daily hack though.

 

I have a similar problem with the sun, not that we get much in the UK (Bank Holiday looms and weather is supposed to be crap), I have to wait 'til 6pm until car is in the shade. Another reason why I forget to wax my car

I had a Mondeo estate before my A3, no way was that getting in my garage!

 

That's what I miss about our old house - the 60' x 40' garage with a built in car pit :/ I had a whole section of that as my workshop, Dad had all his tools and equipment in there and we still used to get the two family cars into it comfortably. The garage at this house would fit the Clio with room to spare if it weren't full of other stuff

 

60'x40'? Wow... that I would love!

I'd like a pit too, but I have access to a lift....




....so it's not too bad.

 

If it's the full monty (usually twice a year, back permitting):

Snowfoam with AutoBrite foam & leave to dwell for ten minutes (not for the paranoid, you will get stared at), then rinse with pressure washer.

AutoBrite's Very Cherry on the alloys, agitated with a brush & left to dwell for a few minutes before being pressure washed off.

Wash with Meg's NXT shampoo (yes, two buckets) and micro fibre wash mitt. Pressure washer rinse.

Fine clay bar with Meg's Last Touch diluted 2:1 for lube. This is my favourite stage, there's something oddly therapeutic about claying.

Snowfoam again, pw rinse then dry with a large, plush micro fibre towel.

Autoglym Ultra Deep Shine for the polish stage, applied with a terry sponge & removed with micro fibre cloths.

Collinite 915 applied very thinly, left to haze for around twenty minutes then buffed with micro fibre cloths.

Alloys now get a clay with the stuff that's already been used on the paintwork & is almost fit for the bin, then a coat of Colly 915.

Tyres then get a coat of Mir Dressing applied with a sponge, which leaves a satin finish. I hate glossy tyres.

All plastics, wiper arms, valances, etc get treated with AG's Bumper & Tyre Care.

The following day it's another thin coat of 915 then a wipe down with undiluted Meg's Last Touch using some, yes, you guessed it, microfibre cloths.

Windows get a clean with Meg's NXT Glass Cleaner & micro fibre cloth (you really can't have enough of these).

Finally I go around the whole car with an old, super soft toothbrush & eraser clearing out any dried white residue from the polish & wax that's made it's way into any gaps between panels, etc.


Fortnightly clean:

Snowfoam, two bucket wash, towel dry & Meg's LT wipe down.

Pics:





This is usually how the clay looks after doing just the bonnet:



I really fancy buying a DA polisher & pads, along with some FKP1000 sealant but the accounts dept. (the missus) has placed a mandatory cap on the detailing budget.

 

Nice write up, might invest in a clay bar. I'm kinda new to car detailing and have only just invested in the gear that I have, looks like you could spend a fortune quite quickly.

 

Never, ever go to Detailing World, there's a good chance of it making a large dent in your finances.

My "kit" probably cost me a few hundred, including things like the pressure washer & snowfoam lance, but it pales to insignificance compared to many of the members on there.

There's always one more product you want to try, you have been warned!

 

Dad was originally a mechanic by trade He's been teaching heavy vehicle motor mechanics at the local college for years now, so the need for a large garage like that has gone, otherwise I'm pretty sure he'd have another large garage built near by our new house These days, he has access to all the college equipment. Bodywork & refinishing, Heavy vehicle, light vehicle and woodwork is all in the same building, so there's never a tool that he or I need and don't have to hand. Those that I use most often are the full vehicle spray booth, paint plant D) and of course the lifts and OBD equipment any time I have any trouble

By the way, the underside of that stang is cleeean

@ Hack'n'Slash - Very nice motor and a nice cleaning process for it too. I'm totally with you on how therputic claying is!

I spent the weekend playing golf with Dad on the coast. He saw the car last week after I detailled it and asked me whilst we were out on the course today if I could do anything to brighten up the paintwork on his own car. I said sure and that, I would take a close look at it when we got home to see what it needs. I didn't have the camera with me to show you, but WOW it's going to need a lot of brightening up. It's a black MK2 Ford Mondeo Titanium with the nice pearlescent speckle/ flake in the paint. A really nice finish IF it's not covered in swirl marks, scores, scuffs and scratches It's not like he doesn't look after the car, he really does, but the paint has obviously never gotten any proper TLC, and he thinks his students at college are less than careful when walking between cars with their bags etc. I'm going to restock on clay, buffer pads and fine cut polish and have a crack at it next week. I'll post before and after shots this time. If I get the swirl marks out of it I'll be happy enough - if the scuffs and scores rub out with G3 compound I'll be even happier. I can't believe I've seen this car almost every day since he bought it and never noticed how neglected the paint looks up close.

By the way, I've been meaning to ask if anyone glazes before waxing? I'm not sure how effective it would be on a black finish but I might get some and give it a go to see if it really does add another "layer" of shine like people say.

 

I'm going to get some Black Hole before I next do a full detail, it's meant to be brilliant on dark/black cars, it contains some fillers, is easy on/off and leaves a really slick, wet looking finish.

 

Small nudge for this thread It's detailing season again, so I got started on Thursday evening when the weather was good! It's been a long, dirty winter, and I've been using new EBC brake pads for the past couple of months which seem to be extremely dusty, and the rims were in an absolute state, so I took them all off and gave them and the arches a good wash. I used Autoglym Clean Wheels for the brake dust and Concept tar & glue remover for the tar. The front rims had a lot of brake dust on them due to the disc brakes and the rears had a silly amount of tar on them. All in all, it took me about 2 hours to get the wheels off, cleaned up, wash the arches and put them back on again. It was well worth the time and effort. Hopefully they won't need done again as thoroughly for another couple of months. Here are a couple of quick before and after pictures. This is one of the front rims. I also washed the car on Thursday, but haven't taken any photos of it at this stage because it needs to be polished before it's picture worthy









Anyone else getting into the clean car season spirit yet?

 

Nice thread Unicorn and good job on the wheels, they came up a a treat!
Half term is coming and so is the spring deep clean!

Usually:
Regular Clean (4-5 hrs every 2 months)
Pre-soak (Water) > Clean Alloys (Autoglym Custom Wheel Cleaner) > Shampoo (Meguiars Gold Class) > Seal Alloys (Autoglym Wheel Seal) > Black Tyres (Autoglym Tyre Dressing) > Paint prime/light polish/filler (Autoglym Super Resin Polish) > Sealant (Autoglym Extra Gloss Protection) – this takes 1-2 hrs to cure so I vacuum the interior with a dyson while it does it’s thing and give the glass a workover with Autoglym Fast Glass.
Mainly Autoglym thanks to the Halfords 3 for 2 offers. Will replace some things with better products as they run out.

Deep clean (1 ½ days twice yearly)
Pre-soak (Water) > Clean Alloys (Autoglym Custom Wheel Cleaner) > De-tar (Autoglym Tar & Bug remover – soon to be replaced) > Shampoo (Meguiars Gold Class) > Seal Alloys (Autoglym Wheel Seal) > Black Tyres (Autoglym Tyre Dressing) > Clay bar (Meguiars at present, looking to change when it runs out) > Hand polish (4hrs of bloody tiring work with Meguiars Scratch X 2.0 – makes the metallic silver flake effect really sparkle though. I must get a rotary for application) > Paint prime/light polish/filler (Autoglym Super Resin Polish) > Sealant (Autoglym Extra Gloss Protection) – this takes 1-2 hrs to cure so I vacuum the interior with a dyson while it does it’s thing, use a little ‘new car scent’ under the seats and deep clean the glass with Autoglym Glass Polish > polish Trim with a tiny bit of peanut oil (restores the black beautifully and gives the plastics and rubbers a nice rich colour).

Unfortunately my beautiful paint work has to withstand the stupidity of others:
- 3 dings in the doors, done by people parked next to me at work – no note of course.
- 2 scrapes on the passenger wing mirror because of careless drivers who think that the centre line is a suggestion rather than a rule.
- Long scratches down the passenger side which will hopefully polish out due to an OAP driver who forced me into a hedge on a blind bend in the village.

Random chance:
- Scratch on the roof when hit by a dead bird falling out of the sky whilst travelling at 70mph on the A38. The noise and shock made me think it was a brick thrown off an overpass and I went back to kick the arse of whoever threw it only to see the bird corpse in the road.
- Chip in the windscreen (repaired by Autoglass) when hit by a stone at 60mph on the A52 (thought I had been shot with an air rifle, bloody hell it was loud!)

My own stupid fault:
- Small scrape on the drivers wing thanks to a disagreement with a white painted drain pipe when manoeuvring whilst late for work.
- Small ding (noticeable only by touch) on the rear passengers wing due to a 180 spin into an island during torrential rain (took a turning to sharply at 15mph and aquaplaned, so there was very little damage).

 

You have a nice thorough cleaning process Mine is going to need machine polished this time due to the following:

- Stone chip on bonnet which has been repaired by a scratch & dent pro.

- 2cm paint deep scratch on top of left wing (still to be repaired by the same guy).

- several fine fingernail/ring/key scratches at both driver & passenger door handles - I am 100% not responsible for any of them

- Small dent & scratch from a "door ding" in a car park which was pulled out but the score needs polished out a little better.

- Fine, light swirl marks on the entire bodywork - again, absolutely nothing to do with me. This is the sort of thing that happens when you share a car with someone and they decide it's a good idea to get your mint paintwork washed at the local "gritty sponge wash"

- Cracked and scratched rear bumper - from Mum reversing it into a lamp post a couple of weeks ago. I won't even polish it, it's coming off to be repaired in another couple of weeks time.

- Clear coat "ghost" mark on the roof near the windscreen from a particularly nasty bird poo. I didn't get it off in time and it left a shadow in the clear :/

- Small crack in the drivers side wing next to the front bumper - totally my fault I'm afraid, I hit the garage door post reversing it in one night It's not major enough to have the wing replaced right away though, so until the time comes when I need to take the front bodywork off, it's staying there. When I do have the front panels off at some point (when it goes out of warranty ) I'll put a new wing on.

Mostly minor stuff, thankfully. The rear bumper is the only thing that looks really out of place at the moment and even at that, I've managed to stick it from behind with some strong weatherproof adhesive pads so you can't even see the crack any more, just the missing and scratched paint. I'll also have the rims restored when the time is right. I've half made the decision that I'm going to keep this one long after it's warranty period is up. There's a lot that I want to change but I can't touch a thing without voiding the 3 year manufacturers warranty. Once that's up, there will be a few small changes and improvements being made.

It's a daily drive car and it can't look perfect all the time. I do my best to keep it pristine but it's bound to get these knocks and scores every now and then when it's in constant use. Hopefully a couple of days work with some clay, polish and wax towards the middle of next month will see it looking almost as good as new again

I got a great compliment on Dads car the other day - both he and I have put a lot of time and effort into his new Insignia in the year or so that he's had it, and a neighbour mentioned to him that it "looked like it just came out of the showroom" as Dad was giving him a lift home the other night. That's generally the idea

[edit]

Here's what I'll be using on both the Clio and the Insignia when the time comes for a polish and wax:

Clay: Mixture of Meguiars & Sonus ultra fine
Clay lubricant: Meguiars Quik Detailer spray
Polish: Menzerna (Power, Super and Final finish & Fast Gloss)
DA: Meguiars G220 (previously used a 3M rotary, decided to change)
Glaze: Meguiars #7 Show Car Glaze
Wax: Collinite 476 S