Hello,
My car is going for a little makeover with a certain Mr Gally in the next month once we can get a date organised and i want to keep it as perfect as i can going forward. Apart from my lack of skills and equipment which i hope to rectify the biggest problem i can see is the fact i live in a top floor apartment 3 floors up. How do people who live in this kind of situation cope with washing their car? And doing everything else needed to keep it sparkling?
Without reading the responses I've been doing this for exactly a year now and let me tell you it really makes you appreciate how nice it is to own a house with a drive way. f**k Surrey and its bullshit house prices. I Lived in a shared house for 6 months before buying a flat in Woking with the GF and over this time had no access to an outdoor tap or electricity supply. I can hear people's s**t running down the pipes in the wall ffs.
Started with a waterless wash - ONR. First time id ever used this and id be lying if I said I didn't make mistakes and I cause some nasty RDS. It also leaves behind a residue which covers up any protective layer youve applied like wax or nano's sealant. I rated it highly at first but didnt take me long to figure out a jetwash would be miles better and worth the extra effort.
Go find your local Jetwash.
Ive become the master of this. I rekon it costs me in the region of £10 to wash my car each time too so its certainly not economical. But if this is a problem to you dont wash your car.
Requirements:
2 Buckets
Sponge Or Mitt
Shampoo of choice
6 x 10 litre bottles of water. Tescos are the best with their handles.
Various Brushes Of choice...
1. Drive Down to the jetwash, buy yourself two tickets. Lowest price/time each - enough to give your car a wash down to remove suds and s**t.
2. Park up at the side (Not in the jetwash itself because people get really funny about this) and spray down the car with a pre wash - snowfoam in a spray bottle or Devil Shine Dirt Shifter.
3. Wash your wheels. I Spray on the wheel cleaner and leave it to dwell while I get the rinse bucket and empty two bottles of water into it. Then wash the wheels. Then empty the shitty water over the path and wipe out the dirt in your bucket.
4. Hopefully at this point no b*****d is busy washing their car so drive right in there and park up. Buckets out. Fill with two bottle of water each. Add shampoo.
5. Enter ur code and set to rinse (Note that Morrisons has two jet settings. One a low power filtered water and the other is actually quite powerful (est. 120bar). Rinse car and wheels. Spray the shampoo bucket and make foam. BEWARE the jet has a habbit of randomly cutting out. My bonnet bears the scar from such an occasion.
6. Wash the car as you would normally with two buckets (trust me you REALLY need two buckets!). You should be quick and thorough as usually there's two angry people waiting for me at this point.Empty the buckets once done, put in boot
7. Enter ur second code. Rinse off.
8. Reverse out and park up (Unless no ones around or the other bay is free). Dry the car. Ideally I would store the towels in a dedicated plastic box. Treat your towels better than you do the car and youll minimise any damage.
At this point I drive home. AS its less than a mile down the road and park it up in the cramped shithole basement car park. If you have a fair way to go then you should do this on site.
9. Apply detailing spray. I can recommend Sonax Brilliant Shine. Little fussy to use but great for removing watermarks, tree sap, aphid s**t, and any other crap that washing didnt remove. Its also a great sealant so tops up the shine and beading (Youtube this stuff its great) but it can be fussy to apply and wouldn't recommend applying in high temperatures (Remember mid day-later afternoon during Summer 2013?) so wait until the evening or during the day in winter.
I own a black car so even after washing it looks filthy. I need a QD because when im home ive obviously collected dust on the 2 minute drive back and its still got traces of crap on it and water marks. I also haven't got time to wax. Thats why I rate Sonax BSD so highly. Because its a god send and is better at cleaning paintwork than C2V3 or Reload is.
My parents also live 250 miles away.
!
