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Do we have a long running thread for this?
I found a few things in Halfords that have pleased me quite a bit lately. One was a dedicated car drying towel that is the thickest, heaviest most luxurious soft pile I've ever seen, and is really effective. I found it better to use a synthetic shammy to wipe most of the water off first though. Definitely recommended as I've previously had trouble drying my car well.
I also bought some 'snow foam ceramic sealant'. You're meant to spray it on with a foam gun and then just hose it off. Well, it didn't really turn to foam with my gun but that may not matter much since the results are amazing. Sprayed on, hosed off and very quickly buffed with a fluffy mitt. It didn't feel quite as slick as wax, but my car is incredibly shiny, and it was really quick to do. Far quicker than even spray wax from a bottle, especially if you have a big car.
I picked up some of that wheel cleaner that turns brake dust deposits into blueberry syrup that you can just hose off. For the most part, anyway - I needed a quick brush in a couple of spots. But it's extremely effective as well.
Really chuffed - saved loads of time and got great results.
What brand was the snow foam? I’ve been using Chemical Guys beer smell snow foam and it really does make your car smell like a pub !
I forget what snow foam I used, but the ceramic coating snow foam was Halfords own. You snow foam first, jetwash, then wash and rinse, then you use the ceramic coating foam.
Do those foams work with just a hosepipe? I've a very tall camper I need to clean and it sounds like less wobbling on a ladder, a good thing to me...
What?
Ceramic stuff can be a pain in the arse on glass, mind you, and it can be big hassle if you ever want to get a paint repair done. But yeah it's great. I like having a shiny car, occasionally, but I cannot be arsed with detailing or proper waxes and all that- nothing wrong with all that but it's a hobby of its own. I forget the brand I use, some cheap internet one, but it makes half-assed washing look better and last longer and that's all I wanted.
Another good un is a clay mitt. Clay barring is too much like effort but I got a cheap mitt a couple of years back and it's fantastic, does I dunno, maybe 75% of the job with a fraction of the effort and no pissing about with the actual clays.
@matt, you can get foam guns for standard hose connections, you do need good water pressure though for it to work well. I had one and it worked fine on a short hose but with the big extension fitted it was just a bit crap.
Do those foams work with just a hosepipe?
No, you need a jetwasher.
There's two things here - snow foam lets you soak the crap off your car before you wash it. You spray it and then leave it for a bit, jetwash it off and then go at it with two buckets and a shaggy mitt.
The thing I just bought was 'foam' ceramic coating, which you do after you've washed it using the same thing as the snow foam you used earlier. It's like wax, a bit more durable, but in this case you can just spray the whole car and rinse off which takes a few minutes, instead of having to rub it in and buff.
If I just keep the moss to a minimum that's good enough for me.
Ceramic stuff can be a pain in the arse on glass, mind you
It advised to clean the windscreen and wiper blades with glass cleaner, which I did - no ill effects it rained today as I drove to the tip.
it can be big hassle if you ever want to get a paint repair done
Hmm, I view this as durable wax not real ceramic coating, but we'll see how it goes!
Another good un is a clay mitt
Yeah the one I have is good, but if you rub too hard it leaves massive black streaks, even if you use detailing spray with it, especially if the bodywork is a bit warm.
If I just keep the moss to a minimum that’s good enough for me.
Then this thread is not for you.
Where do these chemicals you're spraying onto your car end up? Down the drain and into the local river or ground water system?
There are plenty of great products on the saturated “detailing” market. I wanted to clean my car as quickly and effectively as possible, but I fell down the detailing rabbit hole. I’ve wound it back now to some great products from Bilt Hamber.
SurfexHD as an all purpose cleaner / degreaser. Diluted down to 10:1, water to chemical, is for heavy duty cleaning, car wheels, chain degreaser. 20:1 is for filthy car panels, 100:1 for car internal wipe downs.
Touchless as a “snow foam” pre-wash. Foam on, rinse off. I also use it on my bikes as a touchless wash.
Auto Wash is a bucket wash / contact wash. It only needs 5ml in a 15ltr bucket. I’ve also been using it through a snow foam lance. Same amount to cover a large car.
But the best bit is Touch-On ceramic spray on sealant. Again applied through the snow foam lance then rinse off. It’s gives a nice slick feeling to the paintwork and is hydrophobic like wax.
I’ve just started using Korrisol fallout remover. Spray it on to wheels or paintwork and watch the iron particles dissolve and turn pinky-purple. I did a full body decon and even on a black car it removed loads of imbedded contamination. The paint was really smooth afterwards.
I could go on and on but instead of spending ages using crap products using something decent has made the whole thing rather painless, almost enjoyable.
I have to agree with alpin, it's all going down the drain and almost certainly somewhere it shouldn't be
I looked at a bottle of car shampoo I found in my new house. The label said 'harmful to aquatic life'
Our rivers and watecourses are ****ed as it is, our sea water bathing areas deemed polluted
We really aren't helping ourselves
At what stage did car washing get so complicated!?
Back in the 70’s/80’s your dad would give you 50p to wash the cars. You’d traipse outside with a bucket of hot water with load of Fairy Liquid in. Then you’d grab some random sponge off the garage floor and away you’d go!! Hosepipe pissing water everywhere as it had more holes that a sieve!! 🤣🤣🤣
Where does the 60l of chemicals you put into your car or van every few weeks end up?
That's a poor justification at best . But oh so predictable. I think we all knew it was coming.
Any snow foam tips please - just using tne spray bottle that came with my little Nilfisk, and wanting a better, thicker coverage.
Then this thread is not for you.
Tbd. You carry on with your paean to Halfords car cleaning products, I'm hanging out for the moss-killing tips.
johnners
Free Member
If I just keep the moss to a minimum that’s good enough for me
I washed mine for the first time about this time last year when I had covid and was bored, and the algae is starting to grow back already! You can kind of see where the sponge went as it's making pretty streaky patterns.
For killing moss I find upping the washing to once every two years is very effective,
For an in-between wash top up-a salt and rain soaked drive to my parents (6h each way) does wonders for all the hard to get places 😉 ( wink emoji if the emoji gets lost)
I bought some wax for my new car. Used it once, it took ages and felt very much like hard work. The bottle claimed it would be easy, maybe it's easier than other waxes.
Bought some fancy auto glym soap. I've used it 5 times in 5 years. Mostly as my wee one likes "washing the car" aka soaking me with the hose when it's hot.
The car looks nice clean, just not nice enough to spend 30min washing it and getting hosed down
That’s a poor justification
It's not any kind of justification. I put diesel in my own tank. Just pointing out how we're all complicit.
At what stage did car washing get so complicated!?
About the same time as everything else in life. All this is of course optional. Although to be fair, polishing and waxing cars has been around a long time. I never used to wash the Passat or the Prius, it wasn't worth it. However my current car is a nice motor, and it looks terrible when dirty but really fantastic when its clean. The last two cars looked just as boring just slightly shinier after 3hrs of effort.
I did all that stuff on my previous car including carefully hand applying proper wax and everything, the paint on the roof still blistered eventually, people still opened their doors into it in car parks then it was crashed into and written off.
I don't bother anymore.
Just looking at Halfords who in their right minds pays 20 quid for a " detailing " bucket FFS ! 😳😳😳🙄🙄🙄
Drive though car wash for £8.99. Not perfect but theres no point spending ages cleaning the car in this weather.
One was a dedicated car drying towel that is the thickest, heaviest most luxurious soft pile I’ve ever seen, and is really effective.
Yeah, we had one of those for getting most of the water off of motoring school cars after jet washing them outside. Our jet washer was diesel powered with a tank of soap, so ideal for cleaning all the crap (literally) off of cars that had been sitting out of doors for sometimes months! I keep meaning to get one, but the cleaning kit I’ve got is designed to spray the wax straight onto the wet bodywork after rinsing off, then I spray Rain-X onto the glass. Getting a pack or two of microfibre cloths is a good idea for applying wax polish and buffing off - they’re cheap, and dry really quickly.
Yeti bucket with the utility belt under £100 for both surely? https://uk.yeti.com/collections/buckets/products/loadout-bucket
The lad who lives opposite us has all that gear, 20 quid Meguiars buckets and shit. Spends about 2 hour's hoovering his car every weekend then another two hours cleaning and waxing the outside and unfortunately it still comes out looking like a Ford Fiesta when he's done.
“Tbd. You carry on with your paean to Halfords car cleaning products, I’m hanging out for the moss-killing tips”
4 lid caps of Round up, a squirt of Fairy liquid in a bucket of ice cold water.
Follow up with T Cut with all the rubber bits dyed a bit biege.
Win
But then the lad could be looking at you riding your bicycle around the woods whilst making motorbike noises for 4 hours every Sunday and thinking “it’s a bicycle, when’s he going to get a motorbike?”
If it makes him happy then so what?
"If it makes him happy then so what?"
Fair do's. Perhaps I should put excessive car cleaning on my bucket list.
Life's too short.
It's not something I especially enjoy as an activity in its own right, but the thing is that it's a constrained activity. It has no other dependencies, it's just you and the car and you can focus on that and nothing else. And you get results - the car gets nice and shiny and that's pleasing. It's like building the Eiffel tower out of matchsticks or doing jigaws or something. Pointless but absorbing and calming to an extend.
I don't do it often, I just did it at the weekend because the car was filthy. It hadn't been washed all winter and it'd been parked under a tree for a month whilst I sold the Nissan.
Life’s too short.
Too short to judge others?
My car revelation this week was finding (and using) a spare Optimate that was hiding somewhere in the garage. My car gets used about once every four weeks ATM so the stop/start battery is always complaining. Not anymore. Saved me paying the Dealer telling me it was x hundred pounds for two new batteries as well.
I like washing them as well and suffer the green growth issue due to low use/lots of standing. A small stiff brush sorts that out in no time. Bessie Mk2 is still resident tho...
I clean my car probably about every 6 months. I do live in Scotland so I don't really see the point, unless you either don't actually drive anywhere or like washing your car twice a day. Except for them two months a year where it is gloriously above 12 degrees and the car can stay clean for nearly a week. Plus the wind and rain can be so bad that it's like having a jet wash, so it's like a free car wash.
A guy I used to work with, thought washing his 3 series was the highlight of the week. Not for me.
This might be the wrong okace to ask 5his question (I have no idea what 'detailing' is) but does anyone have any extending hosepipe brush recommendations suitable for a large van that gets a wash once or twice a year? I can't reach the top of the sides from the ground, and it's difficult reaching the middle of the roof from a ladder too. The only ones I've had before have been sh1+ and end up leaking after a couple of uses.
I did all that stuff on my previous car including carefully hand applying proper wax and everything, the paint on the roof still blistered eventually, people still opened their doors into it in car parks then it was crashed into and written off.
I don’t bother anymore
You'd be a proper ninny washing a car that's been written off though.
Just pay a fiver to your local ilegal car-wash, they need to eat too.
The ones at my local work like dogs...and I bet they are not earing much cash. it's pretty bad... the local police and council must be aware about it, modern day slavery in the open.
"The ones at my local work like dogs…and I bet they are not earing much cash. it’s pretty bad… the local police and council must be aware about it, modern day slavery in the open."
Regular targets for the relevant authorities, I can assure you.
If you pay less than a tenner for a hand car wash you are almost certainly contributing to some sort of illegal activity.
I've fallen quite deep into the detailing rabbit hole to (even though I don't actually enjoy the process).
For snow foam you need a decent foam cannon & pressure washer, MJJC ones get good reviews (I have the v2 but they released the v3 not long ago). I don't think any work with just hose mains pressure but you can do it out of a hand pumped spray tank instead (albeit with a fair bit more effort).
+1 For Bilt-Hamber touch-less foam and Car Pro Reset is the best (non-stripping) shampoo I've found, along with Soft99's Fusso Coat wax (just be careful when using it not to get it on plastic trim etc. as it's a pain to get off)
I would say that any spray-on/rinse-off type products with wax or ceramics in them are mostly marketing (in terms of any long-lasting benefits they claim) but if used just when maintenance washing they can work well. Applying a proper long-lasting (12-24 month) ceramic coating is a lot of work (you need to strip wash, clay, polish, IPA rub down and then apply the ceramic coat carefully and it really should be done indoors).
I really want a blower dryer but I don't want to be the knob making a racket whilst using it on a Sunday with everyone wondering wtf is he using a leaf blower on a car for...
"Fair do’s. Perhaps I should put excessive car cleaning on my bucket list."
Add it to your 25-quid-detailing-bucket list I should.