What do you clean and polish yours with

[richlumb]

I know I am perceived to have an axe to grind but after 20 years in the car care business, I am amazed people still use, let alone recommend, Super Resin Polish.
Its chalky, dusty, leaves white marks on black trim that are almost impossible to remove, and residue around metal trim, decals etc. If unprotected, it dulls again in 3 weeks. Life has moved on....

Any clay bar or mitt will do, rather than overpriced ones with a proprietary Quick Detailer as the overspecced lubricant.

Megs products are OK, very mid-market but freely available but a small increased investment in better, niche products will pay dividends in shine and durability. Adding a QD at the start of the process in my mind highlights a shortfall in the product being used under it.

True ceramics are only good for pristine paint, and if £20 seems a lot for any product, I'd venture the car doesnt have it. Ditto, if you have no clue what brand to buy, you'll ideally be looking for a product with fillers to hide swirls, and a ceramic will accentuate rather than hide those imperfections. A Ceramic detailer has questionanable bonding to various coatings, which, after all, are designed to repel liquids. So they do have a role but are not for everyone.

Best advice I can give is, try a few products yourself, from different brands, maybe use or obtain samples, and see how they suit YOUR car, paint, care routine and time you have available to spend on cleaning YOUR car.

Couldn’t have said that better, best advice on this thread by far !

 

[onefortheroad]

Every time I wash mine it gets filthy immediately. I have now Given Up.

That's what you get with black unfortunately. Looks good till you drive it .

 

[markben]

My statement was in jest and not directed you - I’d have quoted part of your statement if I was responding to your post. Just a co-incidence that it immediately followed yours. Nothing else.

However, now that I have read your post, there is the caption 'The Best or Nothing’ for you photo.

Ahhh.. I see, crossed wires I think. 'The Best or Nothing' used to be a tagline for the Mercedes Benz brand.

 

[Morethanpolish]

OK so what would you recommend polish wise for dark cars that will fill small swirls before wax is applied

In that question you have highligted a common misconception - the polishing process removes swirls by gradually taking away the surface of the paint to the level of the depth of the valleys of the scratches, leaving no (though in the real world not all tbh) swirls behind. Once you have no swirls, you dont need fillers, just a protective coating eg wax, sealant, ceramic, graphene - pick any...
If you want a filler, so avoiding any abrasive polishing exercise, then seek one listed as such, and seal it in with a sealant or wax. High quality paste waxes will fill to some degree as the carnauba is a filler, but youre takling a £4-50+ product here - many paste waxes have no more carnuaba in them then liquid ones eg Megs Gold Class liquid or paste is the same thing +/- a solidifying agent. Misnaming of carauba content further muddies the waters - 'contains 100% carnauba wax' eg Mothers is not the same as '100% of this tin is carnauba' - that'd be rock solid and unusable. In practice, total wax content of above 70% by volume is very hard to make. But you're looking at bourtiue waxes there costing £200+, which many do consider worth it.

You asked...

I'm not goign to suggest actual products unless by DM as I'm trying to be informative generally.

 

[Morethanpolish]

I will also add that we are an Authorised Distributor of Zymol products and Sponsors of this Forum, so if anyone does wish to buy this brand, we would very much appreciate your business at:

Zymöl - from Morethanpolish Ltd

UK Distributor for world-leading car care brand Zymöl. Stocking all products including Cleaner Wax, AutoWash, Glasur, Titanium and more.

morethanpolish.com

 

[richlumb]

I will also add that we are an Authorised Distributor of Zymol products and Sponsors of this Forum, so if anyone does wish to buy this brand, we would very much appreciate your business at:

Zymöl - from Morethanpolish Ltd

UK Distributor for world-leading car care brand Zymöl. Stocking all products including Cleaner Wax, AutoWash, Glasur, Titanium and more.

morethanpolish.com

Do we get discount ?

 

[rorywquin]

OK so what would you recommend polish wise for dark cars that will fill small swirls before wax is applied

TW do a Hybrid sealant specifically for black.

 

[Morethanpolish]

Do we get discount ?

I'm afraid we dont offer discounts to anyone, but lots of free advice (see above) and do sponsor this Forum, and our Zymol stock has many special offers at the moment too...

 

[DREAMER NO2]

Just another day at the office

 

[Blobcat]

Just another day at the office

That’s a lot of wax you’ve put on the roof…

 

[DREAMER NO2]

I have in the past , but only for protection . These old mercs come with a good protective clear coat .No mater how you polish them, they just come up looking good .Original one owner car [in our family ] . Never used a product like this Ultima for beading the rain off the car body . And after the day in the office yesterday ,it raind over night this is sods law lol . . Locals can tell the weather by me . If i polish the car it will rain . But i have a special synthetic leather that i use Best thing i have ever bought for drying the body work after a rain fall . And if it rains 6 times a day, i go out and dry it off ASAP . And in the picture , that it on the roof is an Autoglym synthetic leather . Do get one, you will be glad you did. Dry the car in half the time and they last 10 times longer than any normal wash leather .

 

[onefortheroad]

Just another day at the office

View attachment 83601 View attachment 83602 View attachment 83603 View attachment 83604

Are you Shaun Wallace .

 

[Morethanpolish]

If I may - the problem with chamois, real or synthetic, is that they are smooth, so any grain of dirt, maybe washed out of window seals, is trapped bewteen the cloth and paintwork and dragged for a couple of feet before anyone notices.

Chamois also tend to go smelly and slimy, the best thing for drying is now considered to be a microfibre drying cloth as its always ready, never pongy but crucially, has depth of pile so any dirt is not pushed against the paint. In the same way that the market uses wash mitts with depth of pile rather than sponges thse days.

 

[Blobcat]

If I may - the problem with chamois, real or synthetic, is that they are smooth, so any grain of dirt, maybe washed out of window seals, is trapped bewteen the cloth and paintwork and dragged for a couple of feet before anyone notices.

Chamois also tend to go smelly and slimy, the best thing for drying is now considered to be a microfibre drying cloth as its always ready, never pongy but crucially, has depth of pile so any dirt is not pushed against the paint. In the same way that the market uses wash mitts with depth of pile rather than sponges thse days.

Everyday is a school day…

 

[daveenty]

Everyday is a school day…

That's one of the reasons why us "careful" old gits will only use a Korean drying towel. I used to always use a Meg's water magnet but the towel is far more absorbent therefore needing less, if any, movement over your nice freshly cleaned paint. Recommended to me by my detailing person who is a bit obsessive and very good so no reason to doubt him.

Chamois has been a definite NO here for well over 20 years.

 

[Blobcat]

That's one of the reasons why us "careful" old gits will only use a Korean drying towel. I used to always use a Meg's water magnet but the towel is far more absorbent therefore needing less, if any, movement over your nice freshly cleaned paint. Recommended to me by my detailing person who is a bit obsessive and very good so no reason to doubt him.

Chamois has been a definite NO here for well over 20 years.

No wonder Kim Jong and his boys are unhappy if you keep swiping his towel… There’s surely enough sun beds for everyone…

 

[Manc Rick]

That's one of the reasons why us "careful" old gits will only use a Korean drying towel. I used to always use a Meg's water magnet but the towel is far more absorbent therefore needing less, if any, movement over your nice freshly cleaned paint. Recommended to me by my detailing person who is a bit obsessive and very good so no reason to doubt him.

Chamois has been a definite NO here for well over 20 years.

Yes, you can’t beat proper Korean microfibre. I use a Korean twisted loop type drying towel.

My weekly wash routine is as follows:

- Bilt Hamber snow foam all over
- Pressure wash the car until all foam gone
- Wash with Bilt Hamber Auto Wash pure shampoo
- Pressure wash again
- Open hose rinse (which leaves the car pretty much dry
- Dry with drying towel
- Spray detailer and buff (Koch Chemie FSE at the moment)

Separately I will shampoo the wheels (periodically with fallout remover, although they are ceramic coated so usually just shampoo is all that’s required) and Surfex HD the tyre walls with a tyre brush, then dry.

Then apply Auto Glym high performance tyre gel.

I machine polish when required using Scholl S20 and I have used many many waxes / sealants from cheap to boutique high purity waxes. I haven’t found that holy grail yet.

Just bought a tin of Finish Care FK1000p to try as it’s very durable and is supposed to be particularly suited to silver (in terms of gloss).

 

[rorywquin]

Or you could buy a water filter and not have to dry the car. I happen to have one for sale.

 

[DREAMER NO2]

Nothing better than a good pressure wash , it is much like a fine sand blaster ..

 

[A.J.]

Nothing better than a good pressure wash , it is much like a fine sand blaster ..

The only thing I don't like about pressure washers is that it blows all of your polish off of the paintwork