Help - Cleaning Advice!

donal7

Hi All,

I'm looking to give my car a good clean and looking for some advice on bringing the paintwork back to life! Over the last few months it was parked near a tree but not directly underneath and horrible sticky stuff built up over the bonnet and roof.
I washed the car last week using the 2 bucket method and a washmit and got some of the gunk cleaned but it still needs another going over. Still a little tree sap/tar on parts of the paintwork. I had been using Zip Wax as a shampoo. I have a power washer.

Could anyone recommend anything to help with the above? I can't commit hours polishing and on a small budget so if somebody could recommend a few things with that in mind I'd really appreciate it.

Cheers

randy hickey

Ok, the first thing to note is that your on a small budget, so no point in recommending snow foam, citrus pre-wash products, tardis, clay bars etc.

I am surrounded by sycamore trees , and get my daily coating of fine sap spots at this time of year. I know you said shampooing doesn't remove them, but how hot was the water?
I find that a good warm (not anywhere near boiling,mind!) shampoo solution will do the trick.
I've never had to deal with longterm "baked-on" sap that a lot of guys use the likes of Tardis to remove, but if your sap is in this category, you could try some white spirit on a microfibre instead.Just make sure you shampoo the car immediately after to remove the residue.

Hth.

randy hickey

On your other query about bringing your paintwork back to life, and again on a small budget, a product like AG SRP or Meguiar's Ultimate Polish is what you need.
The Autoglym Super Resin Polish is fairly widely available, and it's about €14ish for a bottle.
While you will never get near the finish you'd achieve with a machine polisher etc., I've seen some quite decent results from hand polishing, and you should definitely be able to revive your paintwork this way.
I take it you already have a car wax in your arsenal?

donal7

randy hickey wrote: »

On your other query about bringing your paintwork back to life, and again on a small budget, a product like AG SRP or Meguiar's Ultimate Polish is what you need.
The Autoglym Super Resin Polish is fairly widely available, and it's about €14ish for a bottle.
While you will never get near the finish you'd achieve with a machine polisher etc., I've seen some quite decent results from hand polishing, and you should definitely be able to revive your paintwork this way.
I take it you already have a car wax in your arsenal?

Hi,

Thanks a lot for the help with this.

I had a look through the garage last night and have the following:

Autoglymn SRP, Tesco (Daisy All Purpose Cleaner), Eurow Microfibre Drying Towel, Sonus Sheepskin Washmit.

Could the all purpose cleaner help at all? I've never used it so not sure how or how much to be applied?

Cheers

Curran

The All Purpose Cleaner would have dont a more effective job on the tree sap, but perhaps not removed it all!
However, it would strip away any protection, should you decide to apply it and use APC to help remove it again.

On a budget - a good wash, de-tar, AG SRP, sealed with AG Extra Gloss Protection! Happy days! :cool:

donal7

Curran wrote: »

The All Purpose Cleaner would have dont a more effective job on the tree sap, but perhaps not removed it all!
However, it would strip away any protection, should you decide to apply it and use APC to help remove it again.

On a budget - a good wash, de-tar, AG SRP, sealed with AG Extra Gloss Protection! Happy days! :cool:

Thanks man 😄

What would you recommend as a good de-tar?

donal7

Curran wrote: »

The All Purpose Cleaner would have dont a more effective job on the tree sap, but perhaps not removed it all!
However, it would strip away any protection, should you decide to apply it and use APC to help remove it again.

On a budget - a good wash, de-tar, AG SRP, sealed with AG Extra Gloss Protection! Happy days! :cool:

Thanks man

What would you recommend as a good de-tar?

Curran

Tar Cleanse is my favourite, but there are others. ..Tardis is another good one

Avoid the Holts...nightmare to use, gets everywhere and stains trim.

166man

If you're on a budget and need a good detar, go off to the local forecourt and puchase 2 litres of their finest petrol. Works wonders on tar and just wash it off after. Then use the money saved from this and buy a decent clay bar. Using the wash, detar, clay and polish should see you sorted for under €20.


Simples.

Chimaera

What I did last time for detarring was mix some petrol and diesel in a trigger bottle (I always hang onto empty de-icer bottles for stuff like this) and use that with a J-cloth to get the worst of the tar off. I followed up with Chemical Guys Bug Bugger mixed with Meguiar's NXT to take off the petrol/diesel/tar residue. I had tried the Bug Bugger on its own but it couldn't deal with the blobs of tar stuck to the paint.