Need some tips!

[Mr Pants]

Right, used to be quite keen with detailing but not been that way for awhile.

I really gotta give the LY a clean. It's looking so sorry for itself. The weather this weekend looks like I'll get a chance.

I'm not sure I fancy giving it a polish right now. Think I'd rather wait til we get a bit closer to spring. So I was thinking of giving it a good wash and then some wax just to tick it over.

First problem, car is filthy with loads of dirt / road grime. Not cleaned in a few months now! I don't have an external tap so don't have a jet or snow foam. I usually just take it down to a garage and use their jet to get most of the dirt off, then wash it 2 bucket method. Can I get away with this bearing in mind how filthy the car is?

What I want to do is thus:

- Give the car a good wash down with the jet at a garage.
- Get the car back to mine. Tackle the wheels first with Bilberry and gives the tyres a quick scrub with APC.
- Wash the car with wool mitt + 2 bucket method. I'll be using Optimum shampoo, really like it.
- Cleanse the paintwork. This bit I'm unsure of. I've got a sample of Dodo lime prime or some Swissvax cleaner fluid. I'm thinking these would give a bit more depth / shine to the paintwork as well as help the wax.
- Wax with Dodo banana armour. Like this wax a lot.
- Give the inside / windows a going over.

Is this a decent plan of action? I feel a bit out of touch with all this stuff at the moment. If it's gonna be too risky to wash the car in this process with the substantial amount of dirt I may be able to get down to a mates who has a snow foam but he's 20 or so minutes away and means he's gotta plan around me lol.

Appreciate the help!

 

[Mr Pants]

Right so my mate is actually around Saturday and I'm gonna go round and we're gonna do both cars. So I can now give it a nice snow foam before the 2 bucket method.

Then just the rest I need confirming is okay...

 

[Stuiemc]

Not sure if this helps but my sisters house doesnt have a external tap so she bought this adapter you clamp onto your kitchen tap and connect a hose to it. I use the karcher with it on and everything works sweet. I dont see any problem with your plan though just go easy with the jet wash. You could spray some APC on before you go to the jet wash and by the time you get there it would of losened some of the dirt.

 

[martijn_b]

Your plan is fine, just make sure you keep an eye on your wash buckets. As soon as your water gets real dirty just throw it away and tap new. Why not clean the wheels at the garage too? That way you can spray off all the dirt with the jet washer. Just take a bucket with you.
And, I would use at least 2 washmitts when your car is real dirty! One for everything above the knees and one for below. Don't use a synthetic wool mitt.

Goodluck, show us some pics when done

(as for the cleaner fluid, both are good products. There's probably a more durable wax than banana armour out there...but if you like to use it, then just do so!)

 

[JD]

As above, the route is fine. If you don't feel like giving it a polish, I wouldn't clay at this stage either.

Two mitts, two buckets for the bodywork, decent spray down and you'll be on your way.

 

[Gally]

The detailing section is busier than GC these days.

Same amount of ...

 

[JD]

tat. x

 

[Mr Pants]

Cheers. Just making sure I've not forgotten any of the basic principles! It will need a claying but yeah, I don't wanna do that without a polish so this will suffice for awhile.

 

[adam172]

The detailing section is busier than GC these days.

Same amount of ...

because the weather has been so shite for so long we have all forgotten how to clean our cars, we are just lucyk you and JD are hardcore cleaner freaks :rasp: !!!