Basic car cleaning kit

[Yugguy]

Yug, I can see where I'll be taking my cars to get them properly cleaned in the future!

No bud, it's a list my obsessive detailing mate sent me after I asked "whats a good shampoon and wax?"

I tried claying and quickly realised I just couldnt be bothered,

 

[Craiglxviii]

No bud, it's a list my obsessive detailing mate sent me after I asked "whats a good shampoon and wax?"

I tried claying and quickly realised I just couldnt be bothered,

Damn, I was going to be stacking them up on your driveway on Saturday otherwise

 

[C350Carl]

Damn, I was going to be stacking them up on your driveway on Saturday otherwise

If you want your car detailing then you do know someone in North Yorkshire....

The only clay I would recommend though is Bilt Hamber Auto Clay.

Not saying the others are bad. But I've tried most and found that to be the best. It also doesn't require anything other than water to keep it lubricated.

This is a before during and after doing a bonnet on a C Class coupe is detailed.

 

[Craiglxviii]

Right now I'd settle for a good washing, I've got proper manful so don't want to be stood outside in the cold and damp. I'm delicate I'll have you know.



Reality- I've not had a free day since the start of December which is the last time I washed one of the cars!! Yes I do want to get the 215 detailed, but there are some paint jobs that need doing first- wheelarch rust that Malcolm spotted, plus a couple of paint chips that I've filled and rubbed down but not had time to touch up yet (I don't usually hang around on touching up as I'm sure you can guess). After that, it's a 17 year old silver car that could do with being brought back to a degree of brilliance, a good claying, machine mopping then several latyers of wax should sort her out.

On the 211, I need to have the rear bumper resprayed and (again- you'd think there was a pattern here!) rear wheelarch rust sorted out, then the same job done on that too.

By the way- thanks for the offer, I'll almost certainly take you up on it throughout the year.

 

[rexemper]

Here's the car beading up today. Haven't washed it yet.

 

[Rotorhead500]

You CANNOT beat Costco's microfiber cloths. £14 for 50. They're A3 sized, thick and superb quality. Next time you need some, if you're not a member or don't have a store nearby, let me know, I can get some for you and stick them in the post.

An SL is bigger than an A3 though... :lol:

I would also order a grit guard off Amazon - only a fiver but really does help keep the nasty cack away from the mitt... and your car!

 

[rexemper]

So my son and I washed and detailed both cars yesterday as the weather was mostly dry.

Not sure that we did the best job with rinsing the mitts as the shampoo bucket seemed to be only a little less black than the rinse bucket. But we were just dunking the mitts in the rinse bucket as opposed to doing anything else.

Applied the Sonar BSD using a couple of microfibre cloths and that seemed to go well. Cars are being rained on now and the water is beading and running off. Did my wife's car twice as that was the test run with the BSD - realised we hadn't really polished it off, just wiped it off. So went over and did it again.

Was probably a bit over generous with the wheel cleaner as we used the entire bottle on 2 cars. But the wheels on the SL have come up really well.

Threw all the cloths and mitts into the washing machine afterwards.

So relatively pleased at the first attempt. Will see what they look like when dry and re-assess.

Thanks for all the tips and pointers on here.

PS Buckets from Poundland - 1 green and 1 purple - perfect size and price.

Some pics:

 

[rexemper]

Links broken...

Here's one of the pics...

 

[littlebrooklyn]

You CANNOT beat Costco's microfiber cloths. £14 for 50. They're A3 sized, thick and superb quality. Next time you need some, if you're not a member or don't have a store nearby, let me know, I can get some for you and stick them in the post.

Will have to try some of those