How do you clean the exterior of your car?

[ady2k5]

Hello all

A lot of us try to keep the bodywork of our cars in very good condition.

I was wondering what owner's are using in order to keep their car exterior bodywork in a very good condition.

Please list your products for the following and any specific techniques you use:-

1. Colour of your car

2. What do you use to wash your car?

3. What do you do after you wash your car and products used?

I'm interested to possibly try some new products as at the moment i'm generally Autoglym products. Colour of my car is white.

Thanks

[Dan_SV]

for my car i use Cartec wax shampoo for the body (its 1a0 silver by the way). literally just apply it as you would any shampoo and make sure its totally rinsed off when i'm done.

for the wheels i use acid free wheel cleaner (i get this from a valeting mate of mine) and it takes all manner of dirt and grime off, but it must be fully removed as it will eat the paint if its on for too long.

i also make sure i leather the car down after washing.

once its dry i use a glass polish to give the windows a clean, streak free finish. also use a vinyl treatment on all the plastics, tyres and rubbers, gets them black again. for the body i use a 3M polish (rosa), doesn't leave any white residue like some polishes.

also i use autoglym metal polish on all my strut braces, intercooler pipes etc as well as on the headlights (takes away the yellow tinge that can occur over time)

thats about it i think!

[N80Jamie]

Majority of the equipment you'll need to do it properly is (no machine polishing):

lambs wool mitt x2

bucket x2/3

applicator pads

Buffing cloths

Drying Towels

Hose/ jet wash

1 mitt will be used on the body, the other on the wheels. 2 Buckets will be used; 1 with your shampoo in and 1 with fresh water to rinse off after every time you touch the paintwork. Applicator pads to apply polish, sealant, wax. Buffing cloths to buff off the polish, sealant, wax. Drying towels to dry off the paint work. Then i think you'll know what to do with the hose.

The products you use is totally down to you. Im no expert on car cleaning and i don't have any decent stuff apart from Autoglym products. Just make sure not to use sponges, chamois leathers or put any of your cloths, mitts etc on the floor. Use the 2 bucket method to clean the body work and clean your pads, cloths, mitts etc after every wash of the car. Doing all of this will reduce the chance of you swirling/ scratching the paintwork.

Hope this helped

[Amjad]

I do exactly the same as Jamie, but I use a Microfibre mitt to wash instead. Buy a load of Microfibre cloths and keep them separate for each product you use (OCd but hey, it shows )

I use:

Meguiar's Shampoo Plus

Ebay Clay

AutoBrite Berry Blast as Clay lube/Quick Detailer

Auto Glym Super Resin Polish

Collinite 476 Wax

Autosol Metal Polish for exhaust/wheels

Meguiar's Gold Class Purple Tyre Dressing

Meguiar's Ultimate Compound for Lights

[lukerobz]

give mine a good old scrub down with

wash and wax

soft sponge

dry her off then

turtle wax

every naw and then use auto glym rapid detailer to give it a shine

[daz gt turbz]

- pressure wash

- hand wash with mitt

- snow foam!

and as for polish and wax i think ive tried and have everyone under the so i use whatever is easyest to get to on the shelf! but been useing a turtle wax detailing kit lately which is for black cars and it works realy well!

[lukerobz]

- pressure wash

- hand wash with mitt

- snow foam!

and as for polish and wax i think ive tried and have everyone under the so i use whatever is easyest to get to on the shelf! but been useing a turtle wax detailing kit lately which is for black cars and it works realy well!

hey mate where do you get your snow foam from is it any good chears luke

[daz gt turbz]

i get it from here mate http://www.cleanyourcar.co.uk/, but you need the lance to fit a pressure waher to use it, ive got a karcher pressure washer. its realy good, its ph neutral so neutrlises any road acid, tar, bird crap and this time of year BUG JUICE before it eats into your laquer!

[lukerobz]

i get it from here mate http://www.cleanyourcar.co.uk/, but you need the lance to fit a pressure waher to use it, ive got a karcher pressure washer. its realy good, its ph neutral so neutrlises any road acid, tar, bird crap and this time of year BUG JUICE before it eats into your laquer!

ahh sweet chears for that dude

[drongo boi]

wi mine i wet it

sponge it with a microfibre sponge

rince it off

clay bar it

rince it off

dry with drying towel

polish with super resin polish

glaze with do do juice lime prime

wax with do do juice light fantastic

seal with poor boys paint sealant

clay bar it again with speed detailer

and i clean my wheels with autoglym alloy wheel seal

and clean windows with window polish from work

[Andymcm]

Rinse car

Wash- finishkare 1016- 2 bucket method etc

Clay car if need be- sonus Green Clay if u have no lubricant use weak car shampoo solution

If clayed wash again

Dry off

Tape up car before polishing

Polishes- cutting polish- megs 105, finishing polish- megs 205

done by machine polisher on polishing and finishing pad combo, compounding pad if needed deeper cut

Cause I have white car wax seems pointless as it can't give it depth like it would do in any other colour so I use a sealant which lasts longer

Sealant- finishkare hi temp sealant 1000p always good to match sealant or waxs with same manufacturer as the shampoo it provides best results

In case of hand polishing megs ulimate compound followed by megs ulimate polish would be a good combo which should provide good results with a bit of elbow grease

Quick write up on my phone so probably not the best to understand

Andy

[Ralph1]

A good car wash,

2 bucket system,

I use a lambswool mit/glove to wash it with,

Rinse, then wipe over with a good microfibre cloth,

For polishing i use a rotary polisher, foam pads depending on paint condition,

then finish it off with a good wax.

I also always wipe inside the door/boot/bonnet jams as well, then use a tyre spray on the tyres as well. I used to own my own car detailing company, that combined with OCD helps keep it clean.

I just cleaned it last weekend, this is how it looks now.

I pick up some Glanza side skirts tomorrow, gotta sand em, undercoat then rattle can them.

cheers

Ralph

[Keenoep82]

I tend to use Auto Glym stuff just because it's reasonably priced, does a good job and is easy to get hold of!

If I'm going the whole hog (once every 3 months or so) I'll do the following -

(it's a metallic black GTT)

Rinse it down

2 bucket wash with Auto Glym shampoo and a microfibre mitt

Dry with a blade and a microfibre cloth

Meguires Paint Cleaner

Clay

2 bucket wash with Auto Glym shampoo and a microfibre mitt

2 coats of Super Resin Polish (on with a Megs sponge pad and off with a mircofibre cloth)

2/3 coats of Auto Glym Extra Gloss sealent to get the metal flake to 'pop' (same application as above)

2/3 coats of Carnauba wax to give the paint some 'depth'

Otherwise it's just a weekly 2 bucket wash and dry with some quick detailer to refresh the finish. Not really had great results with any of the off-the-shelf quick detailers I've used so far, gonna give Werkstat "Carnauba Glos" a go as it's supposed to be pretty dam good!

Edited April 19, 2012 by Keenoep82

[Keenoep82]

www.polishedbliss.co.uk - car cleaning bible...

[metalmickey0]

Bloody hell. After reading that lot it make my `stick it throo the car wash` look a tad lame. I did give her a polish with blue colourmagic the other day.

But i ALWAYS use RainX on the windows and lights, nothing sticks to that, not even rain. As such dont use windscreen wipers that much anymore. I can and have done it as an experiment drove behind an artic on the motorway while its raining without using the wipers.

[MARC MOSS]

fairy liquid and hot water

then a chamois off to dry her job done

[Keenoep82]

fairy liquid and hot water

then a chamois off to dry her job done

You serious?

[loguey]

Last thing you wanna use is fairy liquid!! Detergants!!!!

[A L 3 X]

Lol, coming from the condition of Marc's GT, i'd very much doubt the seriousness of that post ;)

[Bildo]

For a general wash, post-detail I'll always use the following technique:

Snow foam entire car, inc. wheels and arches

Use recommend dwell time for specific foam, blast all foam off including arches, wheels and hard to reach areas

Fill up two buckets with warm water, one with Dodo Juice Born to Be Mild, the other with just plain water

I use an EZBrush to get right inside the wheels, and an old mitt to clean the surface of them. I always ensure I've used Planet Polish Seal & Shine on the wheels, this is a sealant which makes maintenance of them stupidly easy.

For the car I use CarPro Wash Mitt (by far the best wash mitt out there) and using the two bucket method go over the top parts of the body, if car has been washed recently then I'll go over the bottom parts at the end with the same mitt. If the car is moderately/heavily soiled I'll use a different mitt to clean the bottom parts

Once car is washed, I'll take the adapter off the end of the hose so that you have an open stream of water (if you have any wax on your car, this is a HUGE help.) What this does is instead of making the water bead, it sheets so it will all run off your car. If done properly you'll be left with next to no water remaining on the car.

I'll then get a drying towel with good pile (there are many out there) and without applying pressure remove the very small amount of water that remains. Provided the car has been waxed you can normally take the "dab" approach, this means you won't be inflicting swirls onto the paintwork since you are literally just touching the water area and allowing it to be collected. If the car hasn't been waxed recently and a large amount of water remains, I normally lay the towel down flat and pull it from one end so that there's as little pressure there as possible.

I normally give the car a spray with Zaino Z8 afterwards which is a spray sealant which helps protect the wax layer until the next wash.