Cleaning a Car for the First Time Ever

Kintarō Hattori

Hey Folks,

As the title may indicate I've never cleaned a car in my life ever. Growing up my folks never had a car so there's no history of it in my side of the family. Now that we have our own car I want to take care of it as well as I possibly can. I know I could just go to the shop, pick up a chamois or two and some wax but I'm sure there's more to cleaning a car than just that.

What's the best way to go about cleaning the body? I bought a 12v hoover for inside but how should I go about cleaning the seats and door panels? How do I avoid the headlights turning an ugly yellow such as I see on many older cars.

If you didn't know already we just have a 12 year old Micra but any information you can give me will obviously apply to more worthy cars down the line!

nuttlys

This is a video I saw through work*, should give you the basics if your looking to get it right on the outside anyway

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVRz6ibbv-s

*I work for 3M, not specifically these range of products though.

bfocusd

Anything Autoglym, blue tcut and tcut wax to protect the bodywork!

sentient_6

Depends on how much money your wanting to spend. I just started washing my car at home properly lately & i spend €90 between shampoo, couple of b&q buckets, tar remover, wash mitt, clay bar kit, good wax, couple of giant micro fibre drying towels, & loads of regular micro fibres. I already had alloy wheeler cleaner & a few scrubers.

Then there's general interior cleaner, leather cleaner & conditioner.

Youtube has loads of good tutorial videos. If you can get through the americanisms this crowd are good:

http://www.youtube.com/user/autogeek.

General things to look up & this is the right order to do everything as well:

Good wash
Dry
Clay Bar
Polish if your up for it
Wash & dry again
Wax

There's people mental into this stuff. They tend to congregate here:

http://www.detailingworld.co.uk/forum/index.php

Everything you need to find out about will either be on youtube or detailingworld.

Chuck_Norris

sentient_6 wrote: »

Depends on how much money your wanting to spend. I just started washing my car at home properly lately & i spend €90 between shampoo, couple of b&q buckets, tar remover, wash mitt, clay bar kit, good wax, couple of giant micro fibre drying towels, & loads of regular micro fibres. I already had alloy wheeler cleaner & a few scrubers.

Then there's general interior cleaner, leather cleaner & conditioner.

Youtube has loads of good tutorial videos. If you can get through the americanisms this crowd are good:

http://www.youtube.com/user/autogeek.

General things to look up & this is the right order to do everything as well:

Good wash
Dry
Clay Bar
Polish if your up for it
Wash & dry again
Wax

There's people mental into this stuff. They tend to congregate here:

http://www.detailingworld.co.uk/forum/index.php

Everything you need to find out about will either be on youtube or detailingworld.

Washing the car again after polishing? Would you not apply wax directly on top? Pardon my ignorance if it's a stupid question.

sentient_6

Chuck_Norris wrote: »

Washing the car again after polishing? Would you not apply wax directly on top? Pardon my ignorance if it's a stupid question.

Some do it seems, or use alcohol wipes to get rid of the polish residue, im not going to swear to whats absolutely right or wrong as im only getting into this myself.

Hal1

Hey, halfords still have the 3 for 2 offer on cleaning products. I use the autogylm stuff and find it great to use. The car shampoo is good, the fast glass for dash and windows, and the super resign polish is great stuff. A good wax then protects it then.

challengemaster

Toothpaste will sort out the yellowing of headlights (and I'm aware this sounds crazy)

VolvoMan

nuttlys wrote: »

This is a video I saw through work*, should give you the basics if your looking to get it right on the outside anyway

That guy provides the most expensive car wash in the world, yet he uses a sponge!:eek:

Compton

he also washes the mitt in the clean bucket then dips it in the dirty one haha

MugMugs

Firstly clear out the car. CD's. Fag boxes and Angry Girlfriend pictured in the image above. Angry Girlfriends left in the car can get angrier and cause condensation.

Hoover using a proper hoover and use that furry bit you get for the dash. Works great.

Wash with power hose giving it a good rinse to take off all of the loose dirt. Wash again with brush and Car Shampoo (I use Turtle Wax) (and power hose if you can)

Rinse again.

Wax with a good decent wax for your car colour type after a good chamois session.

Use Autoglym glass polish on inside and outside panes.

Place Angry Girlfriend back into car but leave the window ajar to allow moisture escape

Mr Benevolent

Washing a car the Confab way

WARNING: Allow dirt to accumulate for at least four months before washing.

When bored and slightly hungover one Saturday, go to Halfords and buy the following:

Two buckets
Bottle of car shampoo
Washing muffs, the bright orange ones for preference.
Big packet of yellow dusters
Bottle of T-Cut 2 in 1.
Bumper restorer.

Method:

Fill boths buckets with water, one hot, one cold. Dump a capful of car shampoo into the hot one.

Put on a washing muff and stir the hot water until foamy. Scream like a girl.

Wash car until muff is dirty, rinse in cold water, dip into hot water, repeat. Wash every bit of metal and plastic, insides of doors, inside of boot, everything except the engine bay. Nobody looks at that bit.

Chances are the rest of the car will be dry by the time you finish the last panel.

Grab the T-Cut and ignore the instructions. Waxing a car is a man's job.

Splodge a bit of T-Cut onto a duster, point at the cloudiest area and rub in. Keep rubbing. When the effort required starts to decrease the rubbed bit will be shiny underneath the wax.

Once dry wipe the waxed bit with a clean duster and marvel at the shinyness.

Don't forget the roof.

Run you hand over the now shiny paintwork and discover that you forgot to clay the car. Oh well, it's only a Corsa.

When you're doing the black plastic trim you'll have to rewax the bits of paint that are covered with trim restorer.

You'll know you're done when the car gleams but you're tired, sweaty and desperate for a beer.

neilthefunkeone

The neilthefunkeone school of washing your car..

When i had my old 1990 323f id wash it randomly with a sh1tty sponge and never got a wax..

Now my E36 gets a different treatment..
Regular wash includes:

Body:
Washed using the 2 bucket method
Lambs wool wash mitt.
Chemical guys maxi suds II..
Dried with a plush microfibre towl.

Wheels:
Meguires wheel brightner
Swissvax Wheel brush
Dried with a microfibre towel..(different one from the body)
Chemical guys wheel guard/ poorboys wheel sealant..

Every 6-8 weeks it gets a wax top up:
Chemical guys XXX hardcore wax paste, Dodo Juice Rainforest rub or Dodo juice hard candy..(depends what im feeling)

Then for the twice a year detail... (which is needed soon)

Wash
De-Tar: Tardis
Clay: Dodo Juice Basics of bling bar and Born slippy lube.
Wheels(removed)
Polish : Chemical guys P40 polish
Wax.

I spent quite a bit building up my kit.. Still want a snow foam lance and a DA polisher.. Then ill be happy!!

MrDerp

The Mr Derp method:

1. Clean all ****e out of the car.
2. Get the hoover, remove mats, hoover car, hoover mats, replace mats
3. Apply slightly damp cloth to troublesome bits around car
4. Get car polish, polish dash, and all non-leather areas.
5. Apply leather cleaner to seats
6. windolene the inside of the windows
7. Drive to Tesco
8. Beckon autoclean guys and ask for an outside wash
9. Go into tesco and buy 2 fillet steaks, a bottle of red wine, and some baking potatoes (roosters are best)
10. Come out of tesco and inspect the guys work.
11. Check alloys in particular: if well cleaned give 10 euro charge + tip. If not, no tip.
12. Drive home
13. Call MrsDerp to the window and say 'look at my nice clean car!'
14. Give MrsDerp 13 seconds of **** about all the crap found in the passenger side door pocket
15. Swear the dog is never getting in the car again
16. Cook steaks medium and serve with pepper sauce and a glass of wine

pat127

Confab wrote: »

Washing a car the Confab way

WARNING: Allow dirt to accumulate for at least four months before washing.

When bored and slightly hungover one Saturday, go to Halfords and buy the following:

Two buckets
Bottle of car shampoo
Washing muffs, the bright orange ones for preference.
Big packet of yellow dusters
Bottle of T-Cut 2 in 1.
Bumper restorer.
nce dry wipe the waxed bit with a clean duster and marvel at the shinyness.

...................................................

You'll know you're done when the car gleams but you're tired, sweaty and desperate for a beer.

Excellent! Now here's my way...

Buy brand-new car with metallic paint.
Go to Halfords. Buy bottle of Turtle Zip Wax (combined wash and wax), a plastic bucket and a big sponge.
Periodically (monthly/when you've nothing better to do/when the neighbours complain etc) pour capful of Turtle wax/wash into bucket and fill with warm water.
Wash car from roof down, dipping sponge straight back into bucket as you go. Use brush (old paint-brush works for me) to wash wheels.
Empty bucket of its gungy, black contents, rinse for a second or two and re-fill with cold water. Rinse sponge under the tap.
Dip sponge into bucket and rinse car from roof down.
11 years later, bring car into dealer to discuss trade-in. Get compliments on superb condition of bodywork. Dealer invites all staff out to view the car. Receive nice trade-in value and hear later that one of the mechanics has bought the car!
PS You'll almost certainly have to replace the bottle of Turtle Wax but the sponge, even though it has turned black, will still be serviceable.

Northern Monkey

VolvoMan wrote: »

That guy provides the most expensive car wash in the world, yet he uses a sponge!:eek:

He uses a Zymol sponge which isn't the same as a normal sponge

Northern Monkey

sentient_6 wrote: »

Some do it seems, or use alcohol wipes to get rid of the polish residue, im not going to swear to whats absolutely right or wrong as im only getting into this myself.

This would be to mostly remove any leftover dust from the polishing stage if it was machine polished.

bfocusd

does anyone have a good method of getting break dust out of rivets in alloy wheels?

mine are a nightmare and each have 15 rivets per wheel so by the time i do the two rear wheels im in no mood to spend another 2 hours doing the front two, which are always worse!

i took the wheels off yesterday and gave them a good clean they are spotless except for the rivets they are impossible to clean!

link to the wheels:
https://us.v-cdn.net/6034073/uploads/attachments/304153/172951.JPG

Mr Magners

I'll share my method.

1. Get newish car in February.

2. Drive apprx 25,000 km in 3 months.

3. Spend €6 on a machine car wash. Admire car's original colour which I'd forgotten.

4. Swear to wash it more often cos it looks so good when it's clean

5. Drive another 25-30,000 km in 3-4 months

6. Spend €8 on a good machine wash

7. As in step 4 above.

8. Repeat all previous steps.