Flash car cleaning.

[ImpJimbo]

Has amyone seen the new car cleaner from Flash? It has been advertised on TV and they sell it in Halfords. They reckon you don't need to dry the car after useing it. I hate washing the cars so anything that makes it easier would be great.

[skoda_norman]

i've seen the advert and was wondering about it myself...

[BigWig]

Would be ok for a quick once over. But the chances are it contains more harmful chemicals over proper shampoo such as: Meguiars, Autoglym & Zymol because with the flash you don't need a shampoo to remove any debris so don't expect a good finish...

Eg. Fairy liquid contains salt that completely strips the wax off your car leaving it unprotected.

Heres how to do it properly, even though you hate it the results will be great, plus by doing it properly first time round it will be an absoloute doddle cleaning it next time round.

* Soak the car with a hose.
* Buy a shampoo such as Autoglyms bodywork shampoo conditioner.
* Fill bucket with warm water, add shampoo
* make sure the sponge has plenty of suds before you apply it to the body, as the suds act as a lubricant, a bit like KY jelly Rinse the body, just using the flow from the hose pipe, without the jet spray bit on the end.
* Then leather it off >>> use a micro fibre towel
* now the elbow grease: apply 2 coats of Autoglym super resin polish
* Afterwards its time to seal it, using a wax, this will give protection for up to 6 months plus the dirt will just fall off so easy next time you clean it.

That was a basic run down of the body, theres so much more to it, but for products go to:

www.seriousperformance.co.uk/sp/products/polish_wax.php#14

[rmad]

TaitRacing said:

Would be ok for a quick once over. But the chances are it contains more harmful chemicals over proper shampoo such as: Meguiars, Autoglym & Zymol because with the flash you don't need a shampoo to remove any debris so don't expect a good finish...

Eg. Fairy liquid contains salt that completely strips the wax off your car leaving it unprotected.

Heres how to do it properly, even though you hate it the results will be great, plus by doing it properly first time round it will be an absoloute doddle cleaning it next time round.

* Soak the car with a hose.
* Buy a shampoo such as Autoglyms bodywork shampoo conditioner.
* Fill bucket with warm water, add shampoo
* make sure the sponge has plenty of suds before you apply it to the body, as the suds act as a lubricant, a bit like KY jelly Rinse the body, just using the flow from the hose pipe, without the jet spray bit on the end.
* Then leather it off >>> use a micro fibre towel
* now the elbow grease: apply 2 coats of Autoglym super resin polish
* Afterwards its time to seal it, using a wax, this will give protection for up to 6 months plus the dirt will just fall off so easy next time you clean it.

That was a basic run down of the body, theres so much more to it, but for products go to:

www.seriousperformance.co.uk/sp/products/polish_wax.php#14

Or call the Taity-boy himself, and get him to do it for a reasonable fee, thus saving yourself time and effort whilst having a chat and adding to Adam's Retro-fund.

[HytestA]

rmad said:

Or call the Taity-boy himself, and get him to do it for a reasonable fee, thus saving yourself time and effort whilst having a chat and adding to Adam's Retro-fund.

Or get a car that you needn't bother washing, thats my plan anyway ;D

[BigWig]

Si,

Good call but ImpJimbo is miles away!

[rmad]

TaitRacing said:

Si,

Good call but ImpJimbo is miles away!

40p/mile? ;D

[richy]

I'm with Tait, but it's wort bearing in mind that a lot of the car cleaning products sold in 'pound' shops are made by reputable suppliers flogging on excess product!

[ImpJimbo]

The flash kit is about £20! Think i will stick with normal car car cleaning stuff from my local A1 Stores. The Imp dosent take long to clean but the Range Rover and the other halfs Cherokee take ages

[Alfasudcrazy]

TaitRacing said:

That was a basic run down of the body, theres so much more to it, but for products go to:

CAN YOU GIVE US YOUR DIFINITIVE ACCOUNT ON CAR CLEANING. i AM A BIT OF A CAR CLEANING FREAK SO THAT WOULD BE INTERESTING TO ME

[SkoCan]

If its what I think it is (different brand over here) it actually does work. Its not a chemical process and will not harm the paint.

And no, you still need to wax ;D

[jamieandthemagictorch]

bought one this weekend

yep it works

the de-ionised water is a fine mist.

only downsides are as follows;
Big & heavy
uses a lot of the suds........would suggest still having a bucket of soapy water & a spounge along with it, as it doesnt seem to put enough water on the car in sud mode.
how long will they make the refills for the de-ionised water ?................the pack I bought came with a 3 wash de-ioniser + strapped to the side a 10 wash de-ioniser & another bottle of suds.

think I will make sure that in 6 months time I buy at least a years worth of de-ioniser thingys, so that if they stop making them or change the fitting, I'm not stuck with just the washer...........................comes from experience of the glade plug ins................cant buy the refills for the old version I have anymore !!!!! how sad.

[BigWig]

Alfasud, I'll try and write a proper guide and get hotwire to put it under the articles section, I'm the same as you, car cleaning nut...at the same time though I'm not afraid of getting them dirty!

Jamie, you said you still need a bucket + sponge for the flash kit, surely that defeats the object of the product???

The advert on TV makes out you don't need to do curse word all apart from stand there and spray your ST24 mondeo, then take the mother in law home sharpish as you don't need to wait for it to dry.

[jamieandthemagictorch]

TaitRacing said:

Jamie, you said you still need a bucket + sponge for the flash kit, surely that defeats the object of the product???

The advert on TV makes out you don't need to do curse word all apart from stand there and spray your ST24 mondeo, then take the mother in law home sharpish as you don't need to wait for it to dry.

true you don't need to let it dry - spotless.

I tried it on the 75 & had some mud on the car - you could do without the bucket, but you would need to keet the hose in one hand whilst having the spounge in the other, to make sure the spounge doesnt get loaded with curse word - keep spraying or washing the spounge with the hose. Easier to just have a bucket as well IMO