Best stuff for a newbie??

[Quinny1995]

Basicly I keep my saxo spotless but just wash, was and hover it every week and use a bit of flash dash on the trim and stuff. Thinking of getting the kartcher compact k1, is this any good?. And what are other decent products at a decent price or what you would think is worth the money??

[kmak577]

Have you got the basics covered? Ie two buckets with ideally grit guards etc? No point spending out on expensive products if your washing process is terrible. Read the stickies at the top of the page to give you a good idea ��

[Quinny1995]

ive only got one bucket, one sponge and a chamois, then some interior products like dash shine, screen wipes and dash wipes and then type shine but thats pretty much it. what i do is rinse off the car then wash and wax and then rinse again and then chamois it all. is this a good process or crap?

[12u55]

Nein, it's not ideal.
Get another bucket, and a noodle mit/wash mitt something softer then a sponge.

Start with your wheels and shit first.
Rinse the car to get the first bits of loose grit and film off. Start from the top working panel by panel.
People swear by Meguiars gold class, as do I for a shampoo.
Rinse,
New bucket of shampoo mix, wash your car again.
polish
sealent
wax

[Quinny1995]

what sealant would you recommend for this mate? thanks for this ill give this a go after Christmas :)

[12u55]

I use the autoglym stuff. Reasonably priced. does a good job I mean others on here will tell you other things but it's dependant on your budget and skill level.

[kmak577]

I quite like Fk 1000p high temp stuff. Was recommended it by someone on here. I am a noob at this sort of thing too but even I got good results with it.

[Quinny1995]

Ok I might get one of each and give them a go on seperate occasions :) thanks guys

[jokerer]

For the bodywork - use a sponge and dish soap, make sure you rub hard to get as much dirt and contaminants off as possible. (TOP TIP! - If there are stubborn bits of dirt or road tar etc. flip the sponge over and use the scour pad!)

Then get a candle and rub it all over the car to help fill scratches and add some shine, buff it with some cotton wool pads from the bathroom for a nice shine

If you need to seal it I recommend tiger seal, just squirt some onto a dish cloth and rub it all over and once its set it should fill scratches, seal the wax layer and help protect the paintwork!

For the windows - Just slosh some windex on and use some fine grit sandpaper to get rid of those stuck on bugs

For the wheels - I would use just some steel wool and salty water to get rid of brake dust etc easily (The wool helps you get into the hard to reach places and the salt acts as a mild abrasive and helps polish them to a fine shine!)

Hope that helps Quinny!

[Quinny1995]

one other qustion joker, how to you get so good at being a twat??

[jokerer]

one other qustion joker, how to you get so good at being a twat??

Practice! haha

In all seriousness I would recommend getting some cheapy clay bar from Ebay, I got some 3m stuff and it worked wonders removing over-spray on my paint.

I use some basic Poorboys polish with Carnauba wax and that really keeps everything looking nice and makes the car easy to clean, I use it on wheels, windows inside and out and the paintwork, its multipurpose and smells like bubblegum which is nice.

I just use any dash cleaner I can find on the interior trim, or even furniture polish in a pinch and I am going to start using Autoglym stuff on my leather interior.

Read up on the two bucket method for cleaning your car if you are doing it by hand!

I love Poorboys stuff but its about £12 a bottle of w/e but lasts a while

[Quinny1995]

Ok cheers I'll have a read of that then mate, ok yeah I've heard a lot of good stuff about autoglym and maguirs, but it's a bit pricey for the complete set. I steam cleaned my seats aswell but they didn't come up great, is there anything else any one could recommend to do??

[jokerer]

how did you steam clean the seats? I would have used a wet vac like a Rug Doctor. It gets the seats wet and sucks the dirt out and works pretty well on fabrics, you could use it on the carpets too if you need

Get some bluetack or clay bar and use it to really get into the interior cracks and crevices to get rid of nasty stuff that you cant reach with a rag or sponge

I would say for 20-30 quid you could get clay bar, wax and sealant and thats pretty much all you need, just use any car shampoo and for the clay lube just use some water and car shampoo in a spray bottle. All that stuff would last ages so its a decent investment!

[-kane-]

its the three bucket method!

wash rinse wheels..

also do not use a sponge you need a microfiber mit microfiber cloths a swell
use autoglym and do not use a clay bar straight away and make sure you lube the car and there is no grit on the car aswell...

i will post something i did on another forum

[-kane-]

i use the three bucket method!

wash rinse wheels..

also do not use a sponge you need a microfiber mit microfiber cloths a swell
use autoglym and do not use a clay bar straight away and make sure you lube the car and there is no grit on the car aswell...

i will post something i did on another forum so you get a better idea

[-kane-]

In this thread I hope to explain some good practices for washing a car that help in the prevention of inflicting swirl marks to paint. :)


Whats Wrong With A Sponge?
Millions of people wash their car using a sponge. But if you read the threads on this forum you will see that hardly any members are washing their cars using a traditional sponge... Why is that? It all comes down to the flat flace of the sponge:

http://img160.imageshack.us/img160/6159/sponge5nb.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

Imagine automotive paintwork with your typical dirt and grit paricles sutck on the top of the paint, that you want to wash off to revela your car's shine. Some of these dirt particles are sharp:

http://img160.imageshack.us/img160/7958/gritonpaint7sf.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

Now, if you place a sponge down ontop of these grit particles as you would do if you were washing your car with a sponge, the grit particles become trapped between the face of the sponge and the paint - they have no where to go owing to the flat face of the sponge:

http://img160.imageshack.us/img160/4080/spongetrapgrit2zs.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

When you wipe the sponge across the paintwork, you wipe the sharp grit particles straight across the paint. As they move over the paint, the dirt particles leave a thin hairline scratch:

http://img65.imageshack.us/img65/750/spongemakeswirls1jy.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

These little scratches are highly visible in bright light because they catch the light, and this is what gives you the dreaded swirl marks that rob yuo paint of gloss and colour and ruin the car's look. A pic of bad swirl marks, the result of sponge washing of a car:

http://img160.imageshack.us/img160/1358/ba3aeswirls1rq.jpg (http://imageshack.us)


Wash Mitts
Lambswool and Sheepswool wash mitts have been developped to get around the problems of sponges trapping grit particles by the flat face. If you run your fingers through a lambwool mitt, you can see that it is deep pile and not flat faced:

http://img160.imageshack.us/img160/7361/mitt5bf.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

Returning to the grit partciles on paintwork, when the wash mitt is placed onto them, the grit particles are absorbed into the mitt - safely away from paintwork so that they cannot scratch the paint:

http://img160.imageshack.us/img160/816/washmittabsorbgrit9nk.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

Therefore, sweeping the mitt across the paint doesn't sweep the grit over the paint also and so you don't inflict lots of tiny hairline scratches.

Note: While washmitts are considerbaly better than sponges, it is impossible to completely avoid inflicting the odd swirl marks here and there using a wash mitt. What follows in this thread are tips on how to keep these inflicted swirls to an absolute minimum.


Which Wash Mitt?
There are a great number of washmitts on the marked nowadays, ranging from lambswool and sheepswool to cotton chenille to microfibre. In my experience the best mitts are the lambswool and sheepswool. When choosing a mitt, choose one with a soft deep pile that will be kind to paintwork. Two excellent mitts are:

Meguiars Lambswool Wash Mitt
Eurow Sheepskin Wash Mitt

and there are others too.


So Many Shampoos! Which to Choose?
At the end of the day, shampoo choice for your car is going to come down to personal prefernce. But there are so many shampoos on the market its hard to know which ones to go for! A couple of things to look for when choosing a car shampoo:

1. Lubricity in the washing solution - you want a shampoo that makes the washing solution feel nice and lubricated so that dirt particles can be encapsulated by this lubricant and any that aren't absorbed into the wash mitt will slide off the paint without scratching in the rinsing water. Soapy suds are pleasing and can make car washing fun, but lubricated wash solution is more important.

2. A shampoo should contain no harsh detergents if you are washing a car that you have spent many hours polishing, sealing and waxing. Harsh detergents strip wax straight off the paintwork leaving your paint surface dried out and unprotected. Fairy Liquid is therefore a big no no for washing cars. You feel what happens to the sking on your hand if in prolonged contact with harsh detergents, it dires the skin out - it will do similar damage to paint.

With this in mind, there are still a huge number of car shampoos that fit the bill - ones that I have used and rate are the following, so if you're struggling on which to choose, try one of the following:

Meguiars #62 Bodywork Shampoo & Conditioner (my favourite)
Meguiars Gold Class Bodywork Shampoo & Conditioner
Meguiars Hyper Wash (awsome dilution ratio of 400:1 - lasts ages!)
Poorboys Super Slick & Suds
Pinnacle Bodywork Shampoo & Conditioner
Einszett Perls


What is the "Two-Bucket Method"
Again, millions of people use a single bucket of car wash solution to wash their car, but if you read the threads on this site you will find most members wash their cars using the "Two-Bucket Method" - whats that?

As suggested by the name, the two bucket method uses two buckets, not one. In thie first bucket, you have your car wash solution as normal. In the second bucket you have clean fresh water. First off you soak your mitt in the wash solution and begin washing the car (as described below). Then, before dunking the wash mitt back into the wash solution, you rinse it out in the second bucket of fresh water - this rinses out the dirt and grit particles from this mitt so that they cannot come into contact with your paint, reducing the number of swirls inflicted.

A grit-guard is also a very worthwhile investment and sits at the bottom of the bucket (I have two, one in the rinsing bucket and one in the wash solution bucket). When dunking you mitt into the fresh water bucket, rub it across the grit guard to increase the amount of grit particles which are removed from the mitt. Also, it keeps them trapped at the bottom of the bucket so even less chance of the mitt picking them back up and them reaching your paintwork to inflict scratches.

[jimmyson]

got to agree a lambs wool wash mit will save you loads of swirl marks
all the rest is down to your budget
but a good carnauba wax gives a good finish to your car

[Quinny1995]

Thanks guys, deffo not going to be using a sponge from now on, never give it a 2nd thought tbh. And joker I just got a hand held steam cleaner and plugged it in the extension lead and off I went lol made the car a bit steamy and only got a few little marks out so thinking I may rent a rug doctor or something lol

[-kane-]

ring a local carpet cleaner out he will do inside your car

[jokerer]

Thanks guys, deffo not going to be using a sponge from now on, never give it a 2nd thought tbh. And joker I just got a hand held steam cleaner and plugged it in the extension lead and off I went lol made the car a bit steamy and only got a few little marks out so thinking I may rent a rug doctor or something lol

haha aye that wont do too much, if you rent a rug doctor do another car or the house too then it pays for itself haha!

[Quinny1995]

Yeah may just do both cars it's only 25 quid for the day anyway so if I get all the seats out before shouldn't need it much longer, cheers mate

[CraigLovelock]

I used to be bothered about waxing, polishing and sealants etc.

Now i

- two bucket method
- demon shine / autosmart tango straight onto the wet paint and just waffle weave towel dry
- maybe if im feeling excited ill give it another little buff over with a microfibre

- normally do wheels with demon shine too, and also the door shuts. Basically anywhere...

Takes under and hour all in. Happy days.

[Quinny1995]

Cheers mate , so that gives a nice finish then and it doesn't take long mate?? Sounds like a winner lol