Where to buy Car valeting gear in dublin?

shoutman

Hey,
Just looking to get some gear to clean up my Denim Blue Audi A3.
Having visited various Audi forums I've made up a list of what I need for a general wash of my car exterior and am looking for a place to buy them in Dublin.

2 X Buckets: Any hardware store...

lambswool wash mitt

microfibre wash mitt

heavyweight waffle weave microfibre towel

Poorboys Super Slick & Suds

Meguiars APC

Cheers and any advice is appreciated as always.

MercMad

Surprisngly I checked Halfords on Tuesday and discovered their Maguirs was cheaper than elsewhere !

They have a broad range of stuff too !

Also ALDI will have a deal on microfibre towels this Sunday, very cheap !

Theboinkmaster

I started a similar thread awhile ago and went off to halfords and spent €200 on stuff.

In Halfords Carrickmines Retail park I got:

nice red bucket
Meguiars wash mit (about €25 i think but is excellent)
Meguiars nxt gold wash i think it's called (using this made a huge difference, left the car looking superb)
Meguiars spray on wax

They had a 3 for 2 special on the autoglym products so i got the polish, the high gloss finish and the type cleaner. Only used the tyre cleaner and works well gives them a nice wet black look.

I got some microfibe towels, applicators etc also (halfords brand)

That stuff just getting me started in my early detailing career but I plan to buy more on the net once ive tried out a few things. I'd say you get a much better product range on the net and cheaper.

By the way halfords also had the Meguiars clay kit which I believe should be used once a year....

shoutman

Cheers for the replies. I've never done any car detailing before so will just be following online tutorials etc but I will have a trip up to halfords.

Also are Armor All glass wipes any use or are they best avoided. I've heard conflicting reports.

Neilw

Give Daragh a call, he owns http://www.smartcarcare.ie/catalog/index.php
I'd say he would have everything you need, I've bought a lot of stuff from him and cant fault his service and advice.

BTW he is based in Navan.

Neil.

bucks

I too use Halfords for buying my car care stuff, its the only place that has a big enough selection of Meguiars.

Bought a lot of stuff there at the beginning of the summer when they had a deal "buy three, pay for two" on all car care products, saved a fortune id say, wonder if they still have this deal ?

prem_vw

bucks wrote:

I too use Halfords for buying my car care stuff, its the only place that has a big enough selection of Meguiars.

Bought a lot of stuff there at the beginning of the summer when they had a deal "buy three, pay for two" on all car care products, saved a fortune id say, wonder if they still have this deal ?

I was there about a month ago and they were still running that deal.

E92

Here is how you go about doing the job:

RacersHaven.com wrote:

Hi all,

Here's the first of a series of tips on car care. Its the most routine, and when its done properly, its easy and safe for the paintwork as well.
Washing! Now this is just a simple car washing instruction for the weekly wash. It gets more involved than this when prepping for a good waxing - that will come later.

Okay, the best way to start is with all the right gear. Here's the minimum that I recommend:

Car Shampoo
2 Buckets - one for the shampoo mix, the other for dunking the Wash-Mitt into.
Woollen Wash-Mitt or Big Sponge (sponges should be really soft and have big "cell" structure to draw the dirt up.
Soft, feather tip car-washing brush.
Medium brush for tyre-scrub.
Pressure Washer or good flowing water supply.
Cotton Drying Towels

In winter, its much easier to do the job if you have warm water in the buckets. Pour the car shampoo into the bucket as recommended in the instructions for dilution and pour the water in next.
Then drop in the Mitt and brush to soak.
To soak the car, spray it from the bottom up, giving the wheels and arches a good spray to remove the muck in there. Wheel and tyre care is also going to get its own section later. Make sure you spray the uderside of the side-skirting or kick panels and bumpers.
If you are using a pressure washer, do not get too close with the wand and always work at an angle to the car, never point straight at it. Car manufacturers suggest the ideal pressure is 1100 psi or less to avoid weakening or removing paint.


Wash the top part of the car first. Start with the roof and with the horizontal surfaces, always wash with long wipes in the direction of front to back to front. Don't use circular motion. Keep dunking the mitt into the rinse-bucket and then into the shampoo. We want lots of water and lots of suds to keep lift the dirt away from the surface. On the side panels, use up and down pattern.
Here in Ireland, roads can get really mucky and the lower panels of cars can get caked with dirt. The best thing is not scrub this with the mitt, instead give it a very light going over and let the suds soak in. then give it a quick rinse with the hose. On a well waxed car, a lot of the dirt should flow off now so you can return and use the sudsy wash-mitt as usual.
Remember that grit causes scratches, so don't rub the dirt in. Use wipe-off motions to remove the dirt and keep dunking the sponge.

At this stage, the main surfaces of the car should be done, but there will be lots of gaps and crevices around the wheel-fronts, spoiler, bumpers and kits that may not have been done properly and its hard to get at these places with a mitt. So this is the only time that I use a brush on a car as they sometimes trap grit in the bristles. Gently rub the brush in at the gaps, starting at the highest points on the car. The lower ones are usually dirtier.
Make sure you do around the headlights and the radiator-grill and gaps such as around the glass in the wing-mirrors. Lift the wipers and give the base of the windscreen a good cleaning as this area can get really grungy if not taken care of. I usually pop-the bonnet and give the jambs a cleaning as well. Put the wipers down if lifting the bonnet.
Always keep dunking the brush as it won't hold water as well as a mitt. I do the wheel-fronts with soft brush, but I like to keep the tyres clean by giving them a scrub with a slightly harder brush to suds them up and lift the dirt from the rubber.

The very last part of the car that I wash is the extreme lower parts of the kick-boards and bumpers. I keep an older brush for these parts as they can get really mucky at times and will wear out a good brush pretty quickly.
Now its time to rinse off the suds and grime. When rinsing, always start at the top and work down.
Having used the second bucket for dunking the grungy brushes and wash-mitt, you will see that your shampoo mix should still be reasonably clean. This is good because unless the car was fairly clean to begin with, that single wash would rarely be enough. You will still find dirt and grit on the car. The next step is to go over the car once more. This might seem like too much hard work to you, but this second wash happens very quickly since 90% of the dirt has already been removed.
Only use the shampoo-bucket this time as the grunge bucket will most likely be, well, grungy. Use the same tactics again - start at the top and work down. You probably won't need to brush out the cracks this time either.
Rinse it off again and then its time to dry.

You should always dry your car to prevent water marks from forming. I prefer a good 100% cotton bath-towel to dry the car with, rather than a chamois. If a tiny piece of grit gets trapped in the chamois, it will scratch the paint very easily. The cotton pile or loops in the towel will draw dirt up into it so that it isn't exposed to the paint. Simply lay the towel flat over the surface and grab the near corners, pulling it back towards you. Because its a big towel, it works pretty quickly.
Another item I sometimes use the dry the car with is a "Water-Blade". This a strip of soft surgical-grade plastic which you simply drag over the surface of the car to wipe the water off. It works great but you need to be confident there is not dirt still on the surface. It works best with waxed cars.


There's not much to washing and it can be done pretty quickly when you get the hang of doing it properly. An ex-neighbour of mine used to go out with a basin of water and fairy-liquid and his kitchen mop to wash his car. You might think this stuff is all fairly obvious but some folks aren't aware of how delicate car paint actually is. So this just gets us all off in the right direction. The next part of the car will be wheels and tyres but if you think I missed something or have any questions about washing don't hesitate to ask.

shoutman

Cheers for that E92, http://www.polishedbliss.co.uk/acatalog/guides_wash.html this was where I was looking at which is basically the same more or less.

Anyway I;m just back from halfords where they are doing 3 for 2 on Auto Glym stuff now.

So I got:
1 Red Bucket with Yellow handle.
1 Meguiar's large microfiber wash mitt.
1 Meguiars water magnet microfiber drying towel.
1 Halfords water balde car dryer
1 Halfords premium wheel grill and bumper brush, (This be damaging for alloys?)

1 Litre Auto Glym Bodywork Sahmpoo Conditioner.
1 500ml Auto Glym Super Resin Polish
1 500ml Auto Flym Fast glass.

All in all it came to just under 80 euro.

irish.rugby.fan

MercMad wrote:

Surprisngly I checked Halfords on Tuesday and discovered their Maguirs was cheaper than elsewhere !

They have a broad range of stuff too !

Also ALDI will have a deal on microfibre towels this Sunday, very cheap !

As in tomorrow?

shoutman

yes its tommorow ill see you there.

su_dios

shoutman wrote:

Cheers for that E92, http://www.polishedbliss.co.uk/acatalog/guides_wash.html this was where I was looking at which is basically the same more or less.

Anyway I;m just back from halfords where they are doing 3 for 2 on Auto Glym stuff now.

So I got:
1 Red Bucket with Yellow handle.
1 Meguiar's large microfiber wash mitt.
1 Meguiars water magnet microfiber drying towel.
1 Halfords water balde car dryer
1 Halfords premium wheel grill and bumper brush, (This be damaging for alloys?)

1 Litre Auto Glym Bodywork Sahmpoo Conditioner.
1 500ml Auto Glym Super Resin Polish
1 500ml Auto Flym Fast glass.

All in all it came to just under 80 euro.

Hey luke stay away from that one! Unless you only use it on your windows. They will just drag the grit over the paintwork and destroy it. Using one of those will cancel out using the expensive microfibers.

shoutman

Well duh! It says only for windows on it I believe.