Car cleaning for the lazy man

[JP83]

So admittedly, if anyone has seen my car, or spoken to me about it's cleanliness, you'll know that it generally sees the Euro's down the hand car wash every so often.

It didn't have the best of starts in it's cleaning life, as when I picked it up, it already had numerous scratches around the bodywork. Not many deep ones, bar the rear bumper by the boot, where the previous lady owner looks to have dropped 20 cats on it. The same for the passenger side inner door sill.

So, for a cleaning virgin like myself, where should I start.

I don't think I'm ever going to be a detailing freak, but it'd be nice to at least keep it clean, maybe get rid of the shallow marks.

Any advice welcome...

 

[Chip-mk1]

If you dont ever really want to get into detailing ,you probably arent goign to want to be buying machines to polish out scuffs etc.

So I reckon your best bet as you live in Banbury not too far from Dawn (magpiev6 on here) is drop it off to her, pay her to detail it for you properly to correct all those issues, and then just follow her advice on how you can then keep on top of it yourself from there on in.

 

[JP83]

Who knows, if I get into the detailing malarky, I might get on top of it and get a polisher.

I did toy with the idea of paying a detailer to give it the once over, but then loathed the idea of spending that amount of money, only for me to make it dirty again. LOL.

 

[Chip-mk1]

Paint correction isnt just about cleaning though, its much more involved than that.

The cleaning is a good place to start yourself.

I dont think dawn is massively dear, PM her and ask?

 

[Yellow Dave]

Removing scratches and marks on a budget or a starter is simple not going to happen, or not effectively IMO.

find someone local to you hat knows what they're doing, ie Dawn, to sort it out and give you a good base to start from, that way you won't be paying £££'s for products you won't use again or have to learn how to machine polish. Yu can then get a basic kit for wash and protection and maintain it

 

[Alex_225]

Get yourself down to Halfords and buy yourself a selection of relatively cheap products. No point shelling out on the more pricey detailing gear and you can make your car look a hell of a lot better with a few hours elbow grease and a selection of off the shelf products.

Buy yourself a wash mitt, two buckets, shampoo (Meguiars/Autoglym) and a drying towel (ideally two) for the basic outside wash.

At a minimum get yourself a bottle of Autoglym Super Resin Polish as although it doesn't have really any cut to it, it will leave a great finish and is easy to use by hand. It won't correct swirls and will only if very light blemishes but it'll give a great look to the paint. Then consider something to protect it so maybe go for Autoglym Extra Gloss Protection as a fairly long lasting sealant.

You could also go down the road of buying a clay kit and do that after you've washed and before you polish.

For about £50 from Halfords you'll be able to make your car look really good and then go from there.

 

[Thrill]

Get yourself down to Halfords and buy yourself a selection of relatively cheap products. No point shelling out on the more pricey detailing gear and you can make your car look a hell of a lot better with a few hours elbow grease and a selection of off the shelf products.

Buy yourself a wash mitt, two buckets, shampoo (Meguiars/Autoglym) and a drying towel (ideally two) for the basic outside wash.

At a minimum get yourself a bottle of Autoglym Super Resin Polish as although it doesn't have really any cut to it, it will leave a great finish and is easy to use by hand. It won't correct swirls and will only if very light blemishes but it'll give a great look to the paint. Then consider something to protect it so maybe go for Autoglym Extra Gloss Protection as a fairly long lasting sealant.

You could also go down the road of buying a clay kit and do that after you've washed and before you polish.

For about £50 from Halfords you'll be able to make your car look really good and then go from there.

This man speaks sense. Get some Meguiars Gold Class Shampoo, two buckets, bunch of Microfibres, some Super Resin Polish and some Autoglym HD Wax. The HD wax is fairly expensive, but it's good and easy to use. That lot should get your paint looking much better, infact it'll look pretty damn good. If you want to up it a bit more, get some tyre gel (Meguiars Endurance gel is brill).

Would reccomend eBay over Halfords though!

 

[Alex_225]

This man speaks sense. Get some Meguiars Gold Class Shampoo, two buckets, bunch of Microfibres, some Super Resin Polish and some Autoglym HD Wax. The HD wax is fairly expensive, but it's good and easy to use. That lot should get your paint looking much better, infact it'll look pretty damn good. If you want to up it a bit more, get some tyre gel (Meguiars Endurance gel is brill).

Would recommend eBay over Halfords though!

It's not often that people say I make sense haha. (Perhaps due to my choice of wheels)

E-bay as you say is a good one for detailing gear although not as immediate in terms of having it delivered. Also with regards microfibres, the Meguiars ones are actually quite expensive for what you get (£15 for three I think?!) but for a first time buy, just aim to get some decent sized microfibre cloths of any brand. If you have a Pound Shop locally they often sell microfibres which aren't too bad for as you'd guess £1 each!

 

[Thrill]

I never said get meguairs microfibers Expensive! Id get some off amazon, amazon basics 24 for a tenner delivered.

 

[Chip-mk1]

Good advice not getting sucked into spending hundred, but it still wont correct his paint defects, that going to need a machine.

 

[JD]

Good advice not getting sucked into spending hundred, but it still wont correct his paint defects, that going to need a machine.

This.

Faints.

 

[JP83]

To be fair, the defects aren't too bad. A lot of them are very light, and I reckon would come out with a good polish.

The ones of the bumper around the boot though, would need work (plastic bumper, so bodyshop job?), and the top of the passenger sill is slightly dented so definitely a bodyshop job.

 

[JD]

It would benefit from a filler heavy product, such as Super Resin Polish, AF Tripple, BlackMax, Red Moose Glaze etc etc the list is endless. Just adding this alone will make the paintwork stand out and you can then do as above and not spend £££ on products (AG HD is not expensive, £20 for a pretty decent wax).

Plastics, painted or not? If so, yes, bodyshop required. And dents, dent man could pull them out, unless paint surface is damaged.

 

[JP83]

I'll get some pics up tonight, weather allowing to show you the bits I mean. Doubt a dent man could touch the one on the passenger sill though, as it's very small and like something sharp-edged has been dropped on it.

 

[JP83]

1st pic is the passenger sill.
2nd, bumper has a few marks. Only about 1mm deep.
3rd pic is driver's wing. Very light scratch

 

[Jaff.]

Pay someone to do it properly first time, get a ceramic sealant on it and enjoy how clean your car stays for ages and how easy it is to wash when it is dirty

 

[CL10 CJD]

Pay someone to do it properly first time, get a ceramic sealant on it and enjoy how clean your car stays for ages and how easy it is to wash when it is dirty

+1 well worth the money

 

[banther]

Pay someone to do it properly first time, get a ceramic sealant on it and enjoy how clean your car stays for ages and how easy it is to wash when it is dirty

How much should you be looking to pay for that?

Something I might look into.

 

[Jaff.]

£2-300

 

[banther]

That seems reasonable to me.

Sorry to threadjack OP.

 

[Jaff.]

For £250 I got a new car protection detail.

Think its £150 + £100 for the cquartz finest I chose. Comes with a 2 year warranty

 

[banther]

Where from mate?

 

[Jaff.]

That was midlands car care