what are your favoured car care products

[ben711200]

I can't say I've ever been good at washing cars.. I don't have the patience and prefer dirty mechanical things and driving to buffing, but my girlfriend was using Mer's 'ultimate polish' this weekend and I was so impressed with the results (with her just boshing it on and rubbing it off) that I've gone and bought a litre of it. The fact you can use it on a wet car, can 'top up' the finish by sloshing a bit in your bucket when you wash the car.. Perfect for someone who wants a jolly good finish without having the patience to spend my entire saturday cleaning my car.

Just wandered what everyone else's chosen products are. What works? What is a con?...

Looking in the shed I seem to have a mix of cheap rubbish shampoo from halfords, autoglym for specific cleaning applications, some turtlewax in a squirty bottle (I'm not a fan of it) and now this shiny new bottle of Mer.

[PandaSelecta]

Bilt Hamber Clay bay (as you don't need any special creams), and the rest are the Meguiars tech range

Mer just strips the top off the paint, so only use it now and again. Best to use bilt hamber clay bar, then Meguiars tech wash, then tech wax. that will make any paintwork look fab

[jettadeluxe]

I've never found Mer products to be that great, personally.

I use Megs stuff, with Menzerna Polishes for paint correction, and Collonite 476 Wax

[jettadeluxe]

Mar 17, 2009 13:09:26 GMT PandaSelecta said:

Bilt Hamber Clay bay (as you don't need any special creams), and the rest are the Meguiars tech range

I've got soem Bilt Hamber too, its the daddy, although I still use a 50:50 mix between Megs Quik Details and mineral water as lube

[Nathan]

Auto Gylm Polish
Auto Sol for the Chrome

And thats it, no wonder products etc just simple wax on wax off.

[richy]

Farecla - even better than Autoglym!

[alolympic]

This is a minefield this sort of stuff, and addictive. Check out the Detailing world forum.
Favourite products I have discovered since detailing -
Bilberry wheel cleaner (non acidic but powerful)
Duragloss 901 shampoo (very good and smells of cherries)
Bilt Hamber auto clay (easiest and best)
Polish wise, AutoGlym Super Resin Polish
followed by Collinite 476 wax for long lasting protection
or do the polish and wax in one step with Bilt Hamber Autobalm. This stuff is great, can be used on paint, chrome, glass and is a rust inhibitor too.
Get rid of a normal sponge & never use brush car washes - they both create swirls.
Use a wool was mitt or Chubby microfibre sponge to wash.
Dry with a microfibre towel, not a chamois.
Use Clearkote Quikshine quick detailer to help drying and for keeping the car looking great between washes (can be used on everything, glass, interior etc.)
Buy microfibre cloths from £ shop.
IMHO

[purplevanman]

My landy gets a regular dose of mudpack rinsed off with the occasional gallon or two of river water ;D ;D ;D

[Ray Singh]

Zymol auto wash, paint cleanser and polish. Just the smell is enough to sell it to me.

[Blown_Imp]

Dodo hard wax is ace, amazing shine, long lasting, and can go on over all plastics and rubber without leaving a residue!

[popuptoaster]

Haven't washed the coupe since i bought it.

[mudbitz]

Solvol Autosol
been using it 30 plus years
the best on chrome and alloy
tyke in alffords told me it had gone off the market cos his manager told him to promote own brands
shove own brands nothing beats sa

[devilishdesigner]

Haven't hound a good cutting compound yet, but good old Turtle Wax is always a winner for me when finishing up.

[briandamaged]

It gets cleaned when it rains!

[Deleted]

i use meguires gold class wash and gold class wax found that best I've used so far when i was doing valeting we had a guy show us all the zymol stuff and to be honest found it to be a lot of money for a load of tosh really it gave no better results than pink wax (budget showroom detailer) we did have a guy who used to come round and his version of pink wax was called cherry shine i found that to be great really easy to apply and lasted not long but a bit better than the other showroom detailers

[ben711200]

oh god, this is going to get very complicated if I start paying attention... Maybe I should just crack out a can of satin black and be done with it!

Thanks for the input from everyone, it's certainly interesting seeing what everyone likes to use. I'll be experimenting a bit more over the summer...

[maiders]

i use fairy washing up liquid! ;D

[gingerphil]

Mar 17, 2009 13:49:27 GMT alolympic said:

This is a minefield this sort of stuff, and addictive. Check out the Detailing world forum.
Favourite products I have discovered since detailing -
Bilberry wheel cleaner (non acidic but powerful)
Duragloss 901 shampoo (very good and smells of cherries)
Bilt Hamber auto clay (easiest and best)
Polish wise, AutoGlym Super Resin Polish
followed by Collinite 476 wax for long lasting protection
or do the polish and wax in one step with Bilt Hamber Autobalm. This stuff is great, can be used on paint, chrome, glass and is a rust inhibitor too.
Get rid of a normal sponge & never use brush car washes - they both create swirls.
Use a wool was mitt or Chubby microfibre sponge to wash.
Dry with a microfibre towel, not a chamois.
Use Clearkote Quikshine quick detailer to help drying and for keeping the car looking great between washes (can be used on everything, glass, interior etc.)
Buy microfibre cloths from £ shop.
IMHO

Bar the bilt hamber stuff its pretty much a big ^^^^WHS^^^^ from me

[jettadeluxe]

Mar 17, 2009 13:27:51 GMT richy said:

Farecla - even better than Autoglym!

Farecla make Mer, so we've come full circle!

[jettadeluxe]

Mar 18, 2009 22:57:42 GMT maiders said:

I use fairy washing up liquid! ;D

Washing up liquid is bad, very bad, for paintwork.

Contains salt as a scrubbing agent, and the last thing you want to be rubbing all over your bodywork is salt.