How much are you wanting to spend mate? You can do it reasonably cheap, but the bits do add up if you want to do things properly. Ideally you'll need three buckets - one for the soapy water, one for fresh water (you'll want to put grit guards in both) and another solely for the wheels. This is obviously the two bucket (2BM) method that works well. Shampoo wise, I use Meguiars Gold Class which does the job nicely, and you cab get this from your local Halfrauds for about a tenner.
If the car's been detailed then it should have a coat of wax or sealant on so that should last around 6 months dependent on what's been applied so you won't be needing any of that or clay to repeat the decontamination stage for about the same time as the length of the wax/sealant so that'll save you some money as well.
I use a microfibre mitt when in contact with the car (about a tenner as well) - sponges are one of the main causes of inflicting swirls, marring and minor scratches so avoid them like the plague.
This is my basic routine:
-Clean the wheels with various brushes and Bilberry wheel cleaner and scrub the tyre walls with Bilberry as well (for dressing later) and pressure wash them down.
-Soak the lower panels in a pre-wash traffic film remover (TFR). I have been using Auto Finesse Citrus Power, but at about £9 a litre, it's pricey. I'd recommend ValetPro Pre Wash - it's more expensive to start with (~£18) but you get 5 litres and can dilute it. It doesn't strip the wax, either which most others do.
-After leaving to dwell or around 5 minutes, jet wash off.
-Snow foam with a lance and Ultimate Finish foam. You can probably get away without this stage, but I like to do it as it's a laugh and does actually work well. For reference, the lance and foam combo I got from Ultimate Finish is about £65, so again - not cheap.
-Jet wash down
-Starting from the top, doing a panel at a time, rinsing out the mitt after each panel is done.
-Jet wash down.
-Dry off with a fluffy blue drying towel, patting down as you go. I think I bought 3 for ~£15, but believe you can get them for around £8 each.
-Clean all glass with Autosmart Glass cleaner.
-Dress tyres with Chemical Guys rubber/plastic dressing for a satin shine - you might prefer a gloss shine and can recommend Meguiars Endurance Tyre Gel.
Done
Apologies for the essay, but I do enjoy my car cleaning haha. With regards to the buckets - I used to use two small(ish) black buckets with the guards in, but this was a complete PITA as they weren't big enough to rinse the mitt in. I've now got two 5 litre white buckets (costing ~£25 with grit guards) which do the job nicely and with them being white, you can see how dirty the water is easily.
To be honest, keeping the car clean at this time of year is nigh-on impossible but I aim to do mine every 2 weeks or so at least... the weather as it is at present rather determines that. Come summer though and I'll be doing it on a weekly basis.
I get most of my products from
i4detailing.co.uk or
Ultimate Finish and I've never had a problem with either so would happily recommend them. Bit cheeky but I always use
these codes to limit the damage to my wallet slightly as well
Hope this helps!
What and how, to maintain a machine polish?
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