Car Washes?

[swampy76]

Double bucket with grit guards
Lambs wool mit for washing down
I have a small jet sprayer to apply snow foam to the plastic grills then another to blast them off with
All dried down with a sams detailing super shaggy drying towel
Have a shed full of products ranging from autoglym to autofinesse to poorboys and chemical guys

I’m sat on holiday in the south of France and even bring a small cleaning kit of shampoo a couple of microfibres and a drying cloth with me

[ballbagbagins]

Aug 7, 2022 16:38:43 GMT swampy76 said:

Double bucket with grit guards
Lambs wool mit for washing down
I have a small jet sprayer to apply snow foam to the plastic grills then another to blast them off with
All dried down with a sams detailing super shaggy drying towel
Have a shed full of products ranging from autoglym to autofinesse to poorboys and chemical guys

I’m sat on holiday in the south of France and even bring a small cleaning kit of shampoo a couple of microfibres and a drying cloth with me

I do all of that but very infrequently. It's like gardening, I'd like my garden to look nice but I'm not going to do some every week.

[norm75]

Aug 7, 2022 11:40:11 GMT rattlecan said:

Looks like those of you in the some areas of the south won’t have to worry about soon, as you won’t be allowed to wash it anyway.
As for myself, I use the double bucket method & decent car wash liquid

you are allowed to wash it, with buckets though not a hosepipe.

[Roach]

[swampy76]

Aug 7, 2022 20:17:29 GMT Roach said:

ooh nice
Do all mine by hand
I do have a few marks that a da would get out but I don’t have enough marks to warrant one
If your ever near Peterborough and fancy a brew and chat let me know

[stealthstylz]

The lime tree at the end of my drive has been dropping gallons of sap for a couple of years, so I tend to badly wash my car once a week just so the windows don't get stuck shut. Only a quick blast off with lots of TFR with the steamer at work, once over with a bit of sponge then rinse off though. Only time I've ever really cleaned stuff properly is if I'm selling the car, the interiors in particular as smoker + engine builder dirt means they're a dark clothes only zone and even when I have deep cleaned them it's only good for a week

[Jonny69]

I hate washing cars. Funnily, I can’t put my 105E Anglia through a car wash because the back window confuses it. I found that out the hard way shortly after I bought the car and the brush thing proceeded to try and push/lift the car out the car wash on its way back.

[joda]

Always go to the car wash, they do give some funny looks when you turn up in a 1920's Austin or a 70's Escort -

[RobinOliver]

As a professional detailer, watching the tips and tricks being shared on forums as well as watching nice cars go to the dodgy hand car washes (almost worse than automated washes!) is music to my ears and my bank account!
If you're unsure as to what to use, nothing beats speaking to your local detailer. Find someone who has invested in themselves, usually they will have a well set up studio and accreditations from multiple brands to their name. They will always be happy to spare time to talk to you about the best things to use and avoid.
I run training courses at my place, often in small groups and mostly "Detail what ya bring" style days for one to one tuition. Many detailers offer similar things. Be wary of courses promoted by manufacturers/brands, most are just a sales pitch. I used to work with one company, so I know very well that this is the case.

If anyone would be interested in me setting up a Weekend one for retrorides members then I would be more than happy to oblige. I'm based in Salisbury. If there's interest then I'll start a thread.
You can find my business online, Viking_Detail on Instagram.

[Imperial]

If I don’t do it , it doesn’t get done.
Automatic car washes scour the paint and I can’t trust these hand car washes to know what they are doing.
The last straw came when the wife took the daily in and the numpties used neat tfr and burnt the paint off a wheel
Never ever again

[Mercdan68]

Car cleaning crazy unfortunately or fortunately for all my pals and family

[Mercdan68]

Aug 9, 2022 19:46:19 GMT Mercdan68 said:

To put it simply I’d spend all week washing and detailing my fleet
If I didnt have to work for a living👍

[jader1973]

In the late 60s / early 70s (I vaguely remember the second one) my Grandad had 2 Sunbeam Rapier Fastbacks as company cars.

The first one got put through a car wash every weekend, until he realised it was wearing away the paint!

[sarkie83]

I wish I could extract some kind of joy or satisfaction from car cleaning - but that is not gonna happen 🤣. Using wax to make it easier next time round I’m up for trying tho.

Car detailers look away now.
So on the subject - ‘waterless’ wash sprays - anyone use them?

[60six]

I always end up with cars with swirls in the paintwork, but I discovered this 3M stuff which removes them or masks them - I would be interested in a meetup about car detailing as when done right, nothing looks better. Then someone can explain to me what the hell a clay bar is!

[jmsheahan]

Aug 7, 2022 15:11:08 GMT ChasR said:

You can make your armpower easier, but you have to accept it will involve you putting it more effort now and again. This is what I do, or rather what I try to do

-At a minimum, 1 bucket with a grit guard and a wash mitt, or two if you can be bothered. Even the 1 bucket method will inflict way less scratches than the above 3 by quite a way IMHO.
-A good snow foam agent. Not all are made the same. Bilt Hamber's ones as shown via the Forensic detail channel really reduce the armpower needed, and thus, the scratches, all without damaging the car's bodywork
-Invest in a proper wax. Not one which really makes a car pop, but one which actually lasts. Collinite 476S or Bilt Hamber's wax is good here, lasting with full protection for around 8 months, with it ideally needing doing around once a year.

The latter really helps. Instead of scrubbing like crazy, you literally glide the mitt across, with the dirt falling off the car.

Finally?

-Get a proper sized hand drying towel. Yes, they're not cheap, but they save alot of time, and do dry a car well
-If you really can splash some cash, get yourself an inline water de-ioniser. This will remove alot of the water from the cash once it is washed.

That for me, has saved me alot of time. I hate cleaning cars now where there is zero wax on the surface, turning a 10 minute wash into a 30 minute scrubbing routine.

Absolutely this! Also not a fan of cleaning cars, however, once I started looking at it like a maintenance item, it's now part of the routine like an oil change etc.

Time-wise, you can't avoid the initial commitment, but once protected with a good quality coating, most of the crud hoses off. I HATE cleaning the mesh-style wheels on my Golf GTI, especially with aggressive pads and the dust they create, but half hour spent coating them, the dirt literally blasts off now.

You can get some really great products as ChasR has mentioned above for not a ridiculous amount of money.

I've been using GYEON products recently - the spray wax in particular. Spray on, rinse off. On the daily with less than ideal prep it's holding up very well!

[ChasR]

Aug 14, 2022 11:08:27 GMT sarkie83 said:

I wish I could extract some kind of joy or satisfaction from car cleaning - but that is not gonna happen 🤣. Using wax to make it easier next time round I’m up for trying tho.

Car detailers look away now.
So on the subject - ‘waterless’ wash sprays - anyone use them?

I have tried but they do tend to inflict swirls, as there is simply not enough fluid/substance to penetrate the dirt, unless it's a very light dusting of it. Even then, it can be marginal.

The only waterless wash I've heard of working is AMMO's Frotthy. That is as good as a proper wet wash to most people out there. However, that's not a cheap thing to do, but handy if:

-You are in an area where there is a hosepipe ban
-Where you don't have access to running tap (i.e a flat, terraced house etc.)


You do however need alot of microfibre towels. ALOT! They, along with the thick frothy solution, are the substitute for water. A couple of friends have used AMMO's Frothy who are particular folks, and are happy with it.

As for folks saying, don't worry about swirls, you can always polish them out. Yes you can. However
-It's taking paint away
-There won't always be enough paint (I know, I have occasionally in my 20 years of polishing cars now and again been caught out)
-If there is less paint, there is less chance of mopping it out if it gets scratched inadvertently.
-Chucking on more paint so you can polish more doesn't always work, as I'm finding out now. Some paints are more forgivable here. Others are not.

[ChasR]

Aug 14, 2022 11:27:49 GMT 60six said:

I always end up with cars with swirls in the paintwork, but I discovered this 3M stuff which removes them or masks them - I would be interested in a meetup about car detailing as when done right, nothing looks better. Then someone can explain to me what the hell a clay bar is!

Whenever I've used that by itself it's never got to the result I've wanted, I've always needed a compound or a polish beforehand ; After all, it's a glaze, with zero cutting power, unless the mop head does some cutting instead, grade dependant. My ST220 wouldn't have been touched by this straight from the off, but that was especially bad to be fair. I cover some tips and tricks in that ST220 thread to be fair. It was not perfect but the car looked alot more honest, and clean.

These few shots will show how bad the swirling was. From a distance, the pillars looked slightly grey/matt!





Unless the car is a Pebble Beach show car, there will always be swirls, but it's the minimisation which counts for it, and keeping the swirls from coming back sooner, which good car cleaning techniques bring.

Speaking of which, it's time I mopped my 325d.

[spacekadett]

It’s something I’d love the time for as much as the enthusiasm for. I used to be quite particular, and still don’t mind setting to with the soap, clay, wax etc on the toys. Dailies however……
The Freelander I used to take to one particular hand car wash, once a year usually just before Christmas . Recently though we’ve had chaps at work who, unusually don’t hose everything down with neat wheel acid and go for a fag break. So I’ve been getting them to give the Focus a once over now and again. He even did a great job on the Metro, much to the annoyance of one of the sales girls who had a car going out that he’d ignored in favour of finishing the mighty metro

[yellowmexrep]

So I didn't realise how much experience I had of car cleaning until I read this thread, and then realised that I'd last washed one of my car's at Christmas 2018!!! (there has been a change in the daily and that turned up clean!!)

Now, this isn't because I'm a slob who is allergic to water, more that I'm never happy with how clean the car I've just cleaned isn't actually that clean, shows all the paint defects, usually gets dirty within minute's of washing and I've probably cleaned too many car's!! My Saturday job as a teenager was (with another lad) to wash the forecourt of the main Ford dealership, usually 35-45 car's. Was basically a rinse over with plain water and chamois down, they picked up a lot of pollution dust due to the city centre location.

Fast forward a few years and I'm now fixing automated car washes (the one's with an attendant who does a pre wash) as opposed to the petrol station type where the machine moves around the car and my car was probably washed about 6 time's every day that I worked. We used to check the machine with the company car's before letting the paying customers through. Obviously after 120+ car washes per month the paintwork ended up with more than a few swirl marks but chucking the wax cycle on regularly made a bit of a difference given the extreme numbers of washing!

The point of my ramblings is that in my opinion the best way to get a clean car is to just pay a good valeter!!! If you must do it yourself then to use a low powered jet wash, a good car shampoo and elbow grease, a water scraper blade with a chamois to get the missed bit's and then put a really good wax/polish on to stop the dirt getting ingrained in the first place. That way you don't generally have any grit rubbed into the paint or someone who thought it would be hilarious to cable tie a nut to the brush bristles of the local car wash!!