406oc.co.uk

More fool me for buying a black car

Anyway, before I wash it for the first time I thought it was worth reviewing my washing process, particularly since black shows up swirl marks.

Normally I use a bucket of hot water with car shampoo and a sponge. Then a second bucket of hot water with a chamois leather for rinsing. This is all being carried from a second floor flat, so minimising bucket count is a key optimisation criterion.

Not great I know. So would I be better off at a jetwash, a carwash, a hand wash, not washing it, or admitting defeat and carrying more buckets?

... or get a Beige car!

There was a test once on the telly for car polish, and which ones stood up to the car-wash, hand-wash and jet-wash.

The hand-wash ( immigrant one ) was top, causing the least damage, although they use a squeegy to wipe the water away which can scratch if its dirty. If you find a reputable £5 hand-wash somewhere then thats okay.

I tend to rinse the car, use a bit too much shampoo and keep rinsing as I go - luckily I have a hose that reaches. Start from the top, obviously.

I believe Sam is our resident wash / wax expert.....

Waxman's pritty good to if you look at his work in the photo's, but as said before you can't go wrong at a good £5.00 hand car wash, our local one is great they do a top job too

To be honest Rich, it depends on how fussy you want to be with it. For me it's an all day job that only I can do the way I like it as the car wash & hand car washes never get in behind the door shuts & light lenses etc.

Jet wash is ok if you want to blast the worst of it off before you start hand washing. I use the jet wash to blast the sh*te out of the wheelarches, floorpan & to get to the inside of the wheels from under the car.

Then it gets shampooed at home with my fluffy blue wash mitt (& a paint brush & Dettol spray for the door shuts & behind mouldings etc). This is followed by a rinse with pure hot water out of the tap from my watering can - the cold water out of the hose leaves horrible chalky marks & the hot water dries off quick. I never bother with the chamois as I usually polish anyway.

While that's drying, I clean out the inside with the hoover, polish, Dettol spray & a toothbrush (great for cleaning up mucky footprints from textured plastics & nooks & crannies).

By the time the interior's done, the body is dry enough for polish, which is what I also use on the windows. Sounds daft, but you should see how the rain runs off them when they're done with normal car polish. Before I polish though, I do the tyres with the blackening foam so that I can wipe off any overspray on the body.

Once the polish is done I give the whole thing a going over with Autoglym Extra Gloss Protection (or Turtle Wax Gloss Guard).

That usually ends up being a day & a half for me as I can never go from start to finish in one day with Jack around.

Washing a car is a personal thing - In terms of how people do it and really what the car is used for and how much time people have.

I'm know I'm probably over the top with my cars but it's just how I am and what I have learnt - my exterior winter detox can take up 4 days. - My HDi when I got it took 2 weeks to clean down

In this scenario, I'd probably say go to the jetwash and clean off as much dirt as you can, getting the washer under the arches and around the lower sills etc. - I wouldn't brush the car off etc, just literally use it as a pressure washer.

Then go home and get your two buckets - one for washing and one for rinsing, then clean the car down as you normally do. - By pressure washing the dirt off first you are minimizing the impact of causing extra swirls by dragging dirt across the paint with a sponge.

Use a mild car shampoo and rinse the car down each time rinsing out in the rinse bucket. Here I would use different brushes to get around the badges and tightwork, even armed with an All Purpose Cleaner spray on the tightwork and around window edges then rinsed down with the shampoo.

Get as clean as you can then after rinsing I'd recommend buying a large drying microfibre cloth to dry as these are more effective than a chamois ( no streaks etc ) and will be better for your paint.

Once dried, I'd use a filling product to minimize the swirls - i.e Autoglym super Resin Polish, then go over with a decent wax to protect the paintwork and lock the glaze in.

Use wax all the time as it acts as a sacrifical layer of protection for you paintwork and makes the cleaning process that much easier.


If you wanted to take it further, then pick up a pack of microfiber cloths and clean down the door jambs/shuts etc. - this can be done easily again using an APC spray and a few brushes - and due to you limited access i.e up and down stairs with buckets, maybe pick up one of those 5ltr pressure sprayers ( like for use in gardens etc ) wilko's QD etc do these for about £7 - Use the pump spray to clean down the door shuts then wipe around with a cloth to clean.

Again the above is what I'd recommend to get a decent clean done with limited access, your right, Black will pick up many scratches easy if not looked after but at the same time it's the most rewarding colour when clean.


The danger with hand car washes at £5 a time is that they will induce swirls pretty quickly and effectively for your £5. - The TFR they use is very high strength ( causes paint fade and damaged to lacquer alloys and center caps ) - the big wash tub they use as well when dragging mitts over your paint is full of dirt so basically they are dragging it over you paint and your paying them to do this.- You only have to look at the state of the paintwork on your local taxi's around town... they will pretty much demolish the paintwork.

My advice, never take your car to one of these local hand wash jobbies - all when and good if it's a tractor used around the farm but your personal use car > no way.

2nd floor apartment? get a mobile Valet done once every 2-3 weeks. There's loads of people in Vans going round, I used a guy to do my 406 at work once in December (shitty roads) and he took half an hour, did a fantastic job, for about £12.00 I think. And they use all the right stuff so won't scratch the paint etc.

Just yesterday I did a Snow-Foam pre wash, jet off, then my 'special' grit guard bucket to do a Noodle-Mitt wash with 'super-special' shampoo, then jet off, then dry with Micro Fibre towel......then Clay Barred then Paint-Cleaner, Polish and Carnuba Wax.......only took 3 hours

Ta everyone
Flippineck some o you lot are a bit keen
And it shows in those motors I've seen

I had a guy down here clay and wax the 406 and the result was astonishing. I could feel my chamois dragging on the wax
The same -- or similar -- is on the cards for the 407 but as I've just bought it, it owes me some miles first.
Right now I need to know if I can fathom a workable wash method that doesn't cause damage.

What I'm hearing is that: power wash, then two buckets with mitt is compulsory. So I'll have a think...