Car Show Prep and detailing

[Rob82DZL]

As mentioned on the National Events thread by niedzial1983 I agreed that a new thread would be a good idea to compile ideas tips and tricks for getting our cars looking good for shows, events, meets or just generally because you/we care about our cars.

So I've created one. Hopefully the title says it all and it has enough/the right tags to make it easily searchable.

Hopefully it takes off  Enjoy 

 

[Rob82DZL]

To get the ball rolling I thought I share how I generally go about cleaning my pride and joy, so here we go!

1) I start with a full rinse with the pressure washer to remove as much loose dirt and grit as possible. I usually go over the bottom half of the car twice for good measure.

 

2) Next I clean the wheels one at a time which takes anywhere from 15 - 40 min per wheel depending on if I'm just cleaning or applying wheel wax as well. For this I usually use non-acid based cleaners like "Merlin's Blood", but I've run out of that at the moment so I've got some Swarfega wheel cleaner. This is an acid base one which I wouldn't normally use but so far has done the job quite well and is quite cheap for a 5 ltr bottle. Generally a chefs pastry brush, a tooth brush and a soft cloth are the only tools need to finish the job. Remember if you do you an acid based cleaner to thoroughly rinse afterwards especially if you have painted calipers as well!

 

3) Next I usually give another rinse round the car again as the moisture sat on any muck and grit for the duration of cleaning the wheels will likely come off now.

 

 

4) Now for the shampoo, At the moment I'm using a cheap "Carplan" brand shampoo which I can't really say anything bad about, it does have a wax in it which if I'd noticed I'd prefer one without the wax! Although it does help with drying the car.

I always use the two bucket method, one clean one with your shampoo. This is highly advisable especially if you have a black car! 

Now some may say this next bit of my method is wrong but I'll explain why I do it. Most will say you should always work from the bottom up so you can see where you have been! I "ALWAYS" work from the top down, the reason being is that although I've already thoroughly rinsed the car several time by this stage I work from the top down to reduce the risk of pulling grit up the paint work from the generally dirtier lower sections of the car.  For anyone not familiar with the to bucket method it's:

a) your sponge in the shampoo bucket

b) then to car

c) then rinse in clean water bucket

d) repeat from step "a"  

 

5) Next I towel dry the car with large microfiber towels. I find this to be kinder to you paintwork than chamois leather which car easily pull missed grit across you paint work giving you more to do when you get to polishing!

 

6) Once dry I then polish the car one panel at a time working slowly round the car until finished. If it's a hot or very sunny day I'll quite often do the roof first if on a morning or I'll come back to it later in the evening once it has cooled down. If it's too hot it's not impossible to do but you'll most likely find yourself rushing the job unintentionally ending up with poor results which are obviously noticeable as the roof is right in you eye line!

Product wise I'm currently using Autoglim Super Resin Polish. I've used others like Maguires Gold which was really good but I do really like my Autoglim products.

 

Hopefully that's enough to get people talking and please share your experiences and different methods as we can all learn something off each other sometimes even when you think your own way is best, (I do like to be proven wrong! :)

 

[WPAWS]

I pretty much do as you do my only difference is i use one bucket to wash and a hose with hose gun to wash off shampoo 

i`m also now an Autoglym product user  

[Rob82DZL]

Just now, Paul A6 said:

I pretty much do as you do my only difference is i use one bucket to wash and a hose with hose gun to wash off shampoo 

i`m also now an Autoglym product user  

Just to clarify the second bucket with clean water isn't to rinse off the shampoo but to rinse any dirt and grit from the sponge. I use one of them one's that have the really soft finger but only on one side, I let it float in the clean water bucket fingers side down and sort of ruffle them some any debris will fall out.

Ha ha reading over my original post I missed out the rinse after the shampoo, I do that with my pressure washer, so step 5) should be a rinse!

[WPAWS]

Robin there is this section near the bottom of the forums 

http://www.audiownersclub.com/forums/forum/39-audi-car-care-detailing/

[Rob82DZL]

1 minute ago, Paul A6 said:

Robin there is this section near the bottom of the forums 

http://www.audiownersclub.com/forums/forum/39-audi-car-care-detailing/

I did see that as well as plenty of others but there isn't one thread which members can scroll through to see post relating to all aspect of car cleaning and detailing under the same thread! Also if they haven't been commented on for some time they get pushed down the lists and as different aspects of cleaning/detailing aren't consolidated under one thread it makes viewing less fluid! 

Maybe we could have one of the threads made into a sticky which will stay at the top but as I mentioned it would be difficult to pick an existing one as my idea would be to consolidate all aspects under one thread for easy viewing. 

[WPAWS]

2 hours ago, Rob82DZL said:

As mentioned on the National Events thread by niedzial1983 I agreed that a new thread would be a good idea to compile ideas tips and tricks for getting our cars looking good for shows, events, meets or just generally because you/we care about our cars.

So I've created one. Hopefully the title says it all and it has enough/the right tags to make it easily searchable.

Hopefully it takes off  Enjoy 

 

Moved it to Car care and detailing and pinned and featured the post so its always at the top m8 

[Rob82DZL]

I saw that mate cheers :) Hopefully it'll gather some good content over time. 

[WPAWS]

I hope so i`m always up for learning how better to look after my car, and yes its sadly black and a dust magnet lol

[Baggy]

The only Extra couple of steps I use is a clay bar before the polish and a decent wax after the polish. The wax protects the paintwork as polish takes off a very thin layer of paint.

[Rob82DZL]

I recently been looking into investing in a decent polishing mop (angle grinder type) has anyone got any recommendations?

[niedzial1983]

Any £150+ dual action polisher will be good . 

[WPAWS]

Throughout today i`ve had time to clean the car inside and out really happy with results  i really need to get a life  and again Jacob photobombed my pics 

[Rob82DZL]

Looking very nice indeed :) I'll be doing mine sometime this week and I'll post some pic's once she's shiny again! :)

[niedzial1983]

7 minutes ago, Paul A6 said:

Throughout today i`ve had time to clean the car inside and out really happy with results  i really need to get a life  and again Jacob photobombed my pics 

How is the autoglym sealant holding on ? 

[WPAWS]

19 minutes ago, Rob82DZL said:

Looking very nice indeed :) I'll be doing mine sometime this week and I'll post some pic's once she's shiny again! :)

Cheers m8 :)

13 minutes ago, niedzial1983 said:

How is the autoglym sealant holding on ? 

Ya really well m8 very impressed with it, today as i had time using only Autoglym products i shampooed then resin polished and applied another coat of the sealant wax :) 

[WPAWS]

forgot to say interior i used VINYL & RUBBER CARE nice lemon smell to it 

[Rob82DZL]

Hi Paul, how do you get on with the "Vinyl and Leather Care" stuff compared to other products. I would asume being Autoglim it doesn't leave any sort of residue, does it?

[WPAWS]

Hi Robin, the Vinyl spray is nice to use and comes of easy and smear free :) for my seats i`m still using our DFS leather wipes for some reason when we brought our sofa we ended up with a ton of the wipes lol

[Rob82DZL]

So an unexpected new toy arrived today (my dad's a legend😎), he asked me for a link to the DA polisher I was looking at getting and bought me it out of the blue, said he wanted one for himself.

I'll do a review probably next week sometime weather permiting 😊.

[niedzial1983]

30 minutes ago, Rob82DZL said:

So an unexpected new toy arrived today (my dad's a legend😎), he asked me for a link to the DA polisher I was looking at getting and bought me it out of the blue, said he wanted one for himself.

I'll do a review probably next week sometime weather permiting 😊.

Lots of goodies !!! Have fun :) 

[Trevor]

52 minutes ago, Rob82DZL said:

So an unexpected new toy arrived today (my dad's a legend😎), he asked me for a link to the DA polisher I was looking at getting and bought me it out of the blue, said he wanted one for himself.

I'll do a review probably next week sometime weather permiting 😊.

1

lol....he'll probably get you to practice on your car and then ask you to do his 

[Rob82DZL]

That's already happend! Lol.

[Southampton Graham]

Nice day in Southampton today.  So took the opportunity to give the car a clean this afternoon.

Started with a water wash all over and then a soapy wash using snow foam and a Lambs wool mit.

First time I had used snow foam and found that it kept its bubble and soapy nature for the whole wash.

Rinse again and then dry using a chamois leather.

Next I use an instant show shine from Williams F1. I really like this but you need a good finish to begin with and this was achieved on many previous occasions using Autoglym Super resin polish..

All the wheels were sprayed with Autoglym wheel cleaner  and left to the end to wash and clean using what is left in the bucket..

With the hose out I took the opportunity to wash all the suspension underneath and clean any paintwork the can been seen underneath.

Bonnet was the opened and all dead leaves removed and all plastic cleaned with surface wipes and then Autoglym vinyl and rubber care..

Next job is to clean the inside.

 

 

 

[WPAWS]

With our upcoming meet and the nice weather today i started getting the beast ready, today was a wash followed by polish then protection. was losing light so pics not so great but she looks nice. rest of the week is inside, glass and wheels 😉