Now washing a car properly is quite a time consuming task although very rewarding, but it's anything but cheap! I said I'd do a writeup a few months ago but haven't had the time or space to do it.
Therefore this morning I was lucky when the Volvo threw a wobbly on the way back from the shop and would have to spend the day on the drive until the RAC turned up.
The detailing bug catches after a while, you might not be into it at first but you get to try different products, different techniques and your hooked! Just be warned because detailing products are expensive! I sort of lost my bug last year and wasn't bothered but was offered a job by a detailing company a few months ago and all of a sudden I've got right back into it
My house isnt really ideal for detailing at all, my drives on a slope and the garage isnt big enough and full of... well everything really?
You need to know for starters why a car needs to be cleaned and looked after properly. Lets start with Swirls...
This picture is my cousins old fiesta just after he bought it. Swirls like these are caused by using sponges, squeegees, cloths with no pile, car washes etc etc. These happen because dirt is dragged over the surface of the car with nowhere to go so has to dig into the paintwork causing thousands of fine scratches all over the place giving this swirl effect.
Another reason for washing your car properly is marring and holograms...
Pretty much any bad washing technique can cause these but claying with a hard clay will always cause these although a light polish will get rid of them easily enough.
By keeping your car well detailed and protected you will also have no worries about oxidization of paint and tar being a pain to remove.
Cleaning your car properly is done in the following steps...
1) Wheels
2) Prewash
3) Wash
4) Decontaminate
5) Polish
7) Seal
Dress
9) Wax Topping
10) Final Wipe Over
Lets start with the equiptment you need.
For cleaning your wheels, you need a good wheel cleaner, I use autoglyms custom wheel cleaner but I've started using some Simonz stuff which is ok but it's a gel which means I can leave it on for ages and it wont run down the wheels which is handy. What I tend to do it apply the Simonz, leave it a few mins, hose down the wheel and clean it in Autoglyms custom wheel cleaner.
Of course most of this is unnecessary and if you get a good wheel cleaner like Bilberrys Safe Wheel Cleaner or Meguires Wheel brightener you wont have any troubles and can be diluted so its good value.
Get a good set of wheel brushes, the £1 ones from the cheap shop WILL not work and usually have bits of metal sticking out everywhere which scratches your wheel! Get a good Meguires wheels brush! A cheep wash mit is also a very good idea for alloys and some paint brushes and stick some tape around the collar.
For a prewash you need somthing to create a foam or lather to help soften the dirt. Simply cause im lazy and can't be bothered bringing my pressure washer out to play all the time I use a Superspray! For less than £10 you cannot go wrong for a prewash! Today I filled mine upto 1:1 with All Purpose Cleaner to strip the wax, this is not necessary usually and a capfull of Duragloss 900 Series shampoo to help it foam topped up by boiling hot water, I'd reccoment getting some detail brushes or even a good paint brush with some tape around the collar! It will all make sense in a bit.
Now for washing you need a few good items, theres no point 'cheaping' out on them cause you might aswell go to the carwash! You need a mit or wash pad, something with a DEEP pile in it. There are sponges you can get like Zymol Sponges, Soft grout sponges and natural sea sponges (no not the ones you get from boots) which wont scratch but lets stick to mitts for now. There are two different type of mit you can get, microfiber or lambswool, they both do the job and are both great so which you choose is down to personal preference! Next is two buckets, yet go buy some bright orange 99p ones from B&Q they'll do perfectly
Now to decide on a shampoo, you have Autoglyms Shampoo & Conditioner, it's ok but not much lather, duragloss do a nice shampoo which I like at the moment which is the 900 Series, Meguires do 2 shampoo's which last forever available in gallon bottles called Shampoo Plus and Hyperwash other than that most of the Meguires Shampoo's are good but if your on a budget you cant go wrong with there Soft Wash Gel! It's just under £4 for about 500ml and is there first every shampoo and is good for the money! Now a drying towel and a quick detailer is handy! Two types of drying towl and thats microfiber and waffle weave towels, I prefer microfiber but today im using a waffle weave towel and Meguires Last Touch for a quick detailer!
If you live in a flat or where you cant get water then the following product is ideal! It's called Optimum No Rinse, mines an older version of it but all that really changed was the colour and the smell of it but it does the same job. Get some of this stuff, a mit, good drying towel, a pump sprayer and a bucket with a grit guard. Mix up some strongish ONR in the pump sprayer, spray a panel with a fine mist then mix a bucket of ONR to what the instructions say (can't remember off the top of my head). Wash down the panel you have just sprayed with the mit and ONR solution in a bucket and dry off with a drying towel, quick spray of some form of quick detailer or spray wax and a wipe down with a microfiber and you have a clean panel! Go round the whole car like this and it's actually a very good product that does not cause swirling or marring. Quite impressed myself at this and would be brilliant for shows and stuff like that!
For decontamination you need a good tar and glue remover and a clay. Valet Pro do a good Citrus Tar & Glue remover that I swear by! It works very very well indeed although you do have to buy it in 5litres! Autoglym do Intensive Tar Remover but it's not all that good to be honest
For a clay I'd recommend Bilt Hambers Auto-Clay, available in hard or soft compounds for obvious reasons. If your claying your car for the first time you use the hard one, if your just giving the car a quick going over then use the soft one. These can also be used with water which is good and they do a good job
Although for today Im using Meguires Quick Clay System with Meguires Last Touch as a Lubricant.
For a polish you may have to have more than one product depending on what your manufacturer you go to, meguires do a 3 step system and steps 1 and 2 leave a good base for a wax but step 2 is too oily for a sealant to bond to (you will leanr the difference between a sealant and a wax in a bit) but on the other hand Autoglym do Super Resin Polish which has extremely mild abrasives, paint cleaners and fillers which leaves a really good base for a wax. I have the following polishes in my kit at the moment...
Today Im going for the super resin polish!
Now theres two different types of waxes you have a Syntectic Sealent or a Wax. Now a Wax will produce a more glossy wet looking finish where a Sealant will be much more sharp reflections and if you have a metallic paint it will bring out the flake more. In my collection I have Autoglyms Extra gloss protection, Autoglums Ultra Deep Sine (its an all in one product), Meguires NXT Tech Wax, Auto Balm and Meguires #16. Meguires #16 is a natural carnuba wax which is a product I haven't tired yet, has had rave reviews on detailing world which has lead to me finding out it's the old Zymol Carbon and has been made for 50 years by meguires, this tells me it's going to be good simply because if meguires make a bad product they change it! To still be making this 50 years down the line and to have Zymol selling it under there own brand for many years as Zymol Carbon it should be a brilliant product and a bargain at less than £12!
(Just to note I've only just realized the autoglym product is Leather care and I thought it was extra gloss protection :rolleyes:)
Now you need something to dress plastics and tyres. For tyres you cant go wrong with Meguires Endurance gel and for plastics I recommend some of Duragloss's products
This is optional but I always give the car a quite wipe over with a spray wax before finishing just to add some extra protection. Meguires Ultimate Quick Detailer had quite a bit of protection in it but I do like Duragloss 951 Aquawax!
Get a good quick detailer as it will come in handy for so many things! You can't go wrong with Meguires Last Touch! It dilutes 1:1 and is brilliant value!
Your going to need Microfiber cloths and foam and MF Applicators! You can never have enough microfibers. The 3 for £1 ones from tesco will scratch though!
So lets start with how to clean your car.
Firstly you need a car... any car, a dirty one will do ;)
So lets start with the wheels, spray on your wheel cleaner and agitate, then wash off the foam. Simple...
Next foam the car using your method of prewash, then get the paintbrush and detail brush and so in any crevices where the mit wont fit aswell as any grills etc etc...
You car will look somthing like this...
As you can see from the beading of the water theres still wax on the car...
Now rinse the car off at high pressure to make sure theres no thick dirt on the car then get your two buckets, fill one with a shampoo micture and the other with plain water...
This will sound abit odd but it will make sense! Soak your wash mitt in the shampoo solution then wipe over a panel, then put the mit in the clean water and run your fingers through it till its clean and wring it out, then put it back in the shampoo bucket and carry on to the next panel etc. If it's a hot day swill each panel as you wash them, if its cool then you can wash the car and swill afterwards!
Once the cars washed rinse it off with an open ended hose to sheet the water off the panels get your Quick Detailer and your drying towel and spray a fine mist on each panel and dry the panel with your towel!
Next you need to start claying, cut a piece of clay about 1cm by 2cm and roll it into a ball about the size of a pingpong ball and put it in some warm water for 10 mins to soften then roll it into a disc...
Spray a panel with QD or water depending on what your type of clay prefers and work your clay around the car folding it on itself regularly to get a clean surface as soon as the clay discolours or gets dirty. Then wipe off the QD or water on the panel.
Now it's time to polish the paint. Now most polishes say to apply and leave to haze... well dont. You need to break down a polish then remove it straight away. I had to do this on glass to deomonstrate how to know when a polish as broken down because it wont show up on a white car :rolleyes:
Apply the polish thinly and work into an area spreading it out so you can apply it as thin as possible...
Now the amount I put on the pad was for the bonnet and not the window!
Once worked in it will turn fairly transparent and hazy...
This is when you know its broken down, if it's drying before it breaks down you can always use a quick spray of water or QD to keep it workable.
This is what it looked like after a quick polish...
Now it's time to seal the polished paint. Weather you choose a sealant or wax is upto you but most waxes you follow the same routine to apply. Put a tiny bit on a foam applicator pad and apply it AS THINLY AS POSSIBLE! You want it so thin you can barley see it when you look at it head on!
While waiting for your first coat of wax to cure use the time to either dress your types or clean your exhaust if you have a chrome tailpipe.
Lets start with dressing your tyres. You can either get a proper applicator for dressings or you can just use a foam applicator. I have 2 dedicated foam applicators. I keep these in a resealable bag to stop everything else getting greasy...
Now if you have a chrome exhaust you will want it clean and it's a fairly easy job to do, get some 00# Wire wool and a good paste metal polish! I use Megs NXT Metal Polysh which has lasted me the last 2 years
Simply give the wire wool a quick rub around the metal polish and buff the exhaust up, it will not scratch! Then get a cheapy microfiber cloth and buff it up, if its not as shiny as you'd like it, then put some polish on the microfibre and buff the exhaust up some more with that
Buff off your wax with an Aid of a Quick Detailer as it just makes things easier. And Admire.
Start packing all your detailing gear away and weather or not your going to use a spray wax or not bring out the right number of microfibers and your Spray Wax and or Quick Detailer.
Now my 'Wax Topper' is going to be Aquaqax! This stuff is gloss in a bottle and I love it!...
Followed by a wipe down of Duragloss 921...
The finished Car...
My arms would be aching after the first polish cycle, let alone before any of the extra things Sam's got on there!
