Just bought a nearly new car, (not showing off BTW) talking to my mate last night it seems I've been cleaning my cars all wrong for years? Apparently I need citrus cleaner, snow foam, 2 buckets (that's the only thing that makes sense) the list is almost endless. My thoughts are surely if you clean it regularly all I need to change is use 2 buckets? The thought of all that rigmarole to then have a bird shit on your pride and joy (seems you need a special product for bird shit as well 🙄) Or if it pisses down with rain what a waste of effort?
I don't even have a pressure washer but I did by a drying towel! 🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄So is it worth it, do I need to get a life?
same as bikes innit
Depends what condition you want to keep it in. FWIW one of my cars hasn't been washed in the two years I've owned it nor most likely the preceding two years.
And I have all that stuff. Mostly unused.
Just like bikes, they get a once over with the brush with the water running through before the MOT, and the night before a holiday.
We bought a new car for mrs njee20, so I bought all that shit, because I’m a man and I like buying shit. I do quite enjoy cleaning it now. Snow foam is very satisfying. Using a decent wash mitt and 2 buckets has meant I don’t tend to miss patches like I did with a bucket and sponge, and you can feel the paintwork is cleaner, doesn’t take as long if you do it semi-regularly too.
Makes my car look a bit rubbish now though. Obviously I bought more stuff to try and polish out scratches in mine, to poor effect.
same as bikes innit
So hose down each use, full wash each month and annual strip down and full degrease, re-lubes and warm wash while inspecting for damage?
You can spend as little or as much time doing it as you want.
I enjoy cleaning my car. But I'm quite happy to give it a quick once over when I don't have the time for the full rigmarole.
2 buckets and a decent car shampoo is fine. It's better than the gritty sponge at the local money laundering slave wash and better than a garage machine wash too.
It's worth using proper glass cleaner for the windscreen too. Glass cleaner can also be spayed onto a cloth and used for cleaning all the interior plastics
My last car ended up a bit of a pop up SSSI. It had 3 different species of lichen growing on it. Taking a bit more care of the current one although it’s the front wheel brake dust that really put me off washing it.
I’ve had my car 14 months now and have taken it to a full Eastern European valet once, for £12. They did such a good job and took a lot of time so I refused the change from the £20 note I handed over.
Other than that, I’ve been lucky enough to have a recall and a free service from BMW both of which ended with a free valet.
None of this manual labour rubbish... 😀
Not taking it to the local £6 splash & dash ??
Pre-internet we used to do most things badly, including car washing, but ignorance was bliss and nobody noticed. Swirl marks were nothing to be ashamed of and it was considered acceptable to use a sponge to wash your car and only 1 bucket with no grit guard*
*the 2-bucket method is now coming under internet scrutiny too! Is it really necessary after all the hype? See here:-
Bad news for bucket sales if true!
Anyway, it's not called washing, it's called 'detailing' now. 😂
when did it become so complicated?
When people realized they could bore each other to tears about the "proper" way of doing things via youtube. Probably.
Depends what condition you want to keep it in.
Yep. One gets washed when it gets serviced as it is complimentary. Then I probably wash it 1 or 2 times at most in between that. I live in the countryside and it will look dirty within a few days of washing it so it seems like a great big waste of time and effort to me.
It can be quite therapeutic if you have the time hard work though if you do a proper wash, clay bar and then wax.
I always do a two bucket wash with wash mitt then use a drying towel followed by autoglym aquawax.
I came to the conclusion that the ire of self described 'detailers' for cheap and nasty silicone based liquid wax is becsuse it does in 5 minutes what takes them a wholeday.
It might not last for months like a hard wax, but then neither does a hard wax if you believe it needs topping up every week/month like wax rather than jetwash/tfr/jetwash/shampoo/jetwash/cheap silicone wax (which in itself is more faff than 99% of rational people would subject themselves to).
Think my car has been washed (by somebody else) twice in five years. Windows get cleaned pretty regularly. Other than that it spends its life being driven on shitty roads and I have much less boring things to do. It’s gonna get dirty very quickly. I like to think of the dirt as protection against more dirt.
Modern life innit. Of course there is nothing wrong with just washing your car with a bucket of soapy water and a sponge and it does a perfectly adequate job, however for those in life who believe there is a 'proper' and 'ultimate' way to do everything form making a cup of coffee to washing their car to grooming their beards, then of course its not a proper job unless you've spend hundreds of pounds on products and invested months of your life meticulously analysing every single square mm of the surface of the car ridding every single blemish.
I never wash cars...or very rarely and every time I do wash them they come up like new so seem non the worse for their coating of grime and muck. Same with bikes.
If you're worried about damage caused by washing it, just don't wash it so often. My van gets done once/twice per year.
I like to think of the dirt as protection against more dirt.
That's my way of thinking also!
It (very) occasionally gets a quick blast with a £2 jetwash.
I just use 8 litre (x2) of garden manual pressure water spray bottle to wash the car on the street.
For spray form just use the 2 litre manual pressure water bottle with forming liquid in the bottle then spray all over the car.
Polishing just a quick water based wax polisher (hard wax once in one or two year) then for the screen just some rain-x type liquid.
😀
Two buckets? Eh?
Steam clean and TFR in work every now and again when I can't see out. No good getting precious about the state of a car where we live.
I think the bullshit factor has gone through the roof. Halfords have a bucket with Megulars logo on £10!!!! Come on their own brand bucket is a quid FFS!!!
Don’t buy the halfrauds clay mitt. It’s a mitt that has a mauve/purple’ish back and a clay grey front.
The “clay” element of the mitt comes off and leaves a thick smear residue all over your car, then you have to get something like paint restorer polish to get the grey gunk off.
🤷♂️🤮
Garage washes mine when it’s in for its service. I clean the glass / lights / number plates about once a month. Under the layer of road grime I’m pretty confident the paintwork is pristine. It’s like one of those fancy paint protection things, but free.
like most things in life there's an effective middle ground
dont go the way of the zealots on the detailing forum , you'll disappear down a rabbit hole of researching "nano sealants" and devote every weekend examing bird poop stains.
on the other hand simply washing the motor with a bucket of fairy liquid and a sponge you found on the garage flloor will lead to shit results accompanied with slowly worsening paint condition.
a small tub of decent cleaning products and an acceptance that a few hours need to be put aside for a respectable job is a manageable compromise
oh and i call bollocks on the whole snow foam / claybar recommendations , more scene nonsense , neither necessary.
Don’t buy the halfrauds clay mitt. It’s a mitt that has a mauve/purple’ish back and a clay grey front.The “clay” element of the mitt comes off and leaves a thick smear residue all over your car, then you have to get something like paint restorer polish to get the grey gunk off.
Did you use a lubricant or just water/rub it on the paint ?
oh and i call bollocks on the whole snow foam / claybar recommendations , more scene nonsense , neither necessary.
Neither are “necessary” but both work.
Clay bar used right will remove loads of crap from a visually clean car.
Still not “necessary” as in “you must do it” but if you want to do a thorough job, and cause no damage while doing it, that’s the way to do it.
same as bikes innit
Agreed. Why the **** anyone would waste their life away washing a car/bike is beyond me.
The only exception being if you're about to sell it.
Well a clay bar is abrasive so it is doing damage. there is only so many times you can clay and polish your car because every time you do it you're thinning out the paint layer. Any detailer worth their salt measures the thickness of the paint around the car before they let any clay or polish anywhere near a car.
I've a bit more acceptance of snow foam as it is genuinely just about cleaning the car and has assorts of chemicals in it to strip away contaminants that get on the paint like oils, chemicals and all the usual road detritus, that water and soap might not get rid of and before you start claying and polishing you ideally need a properly clean surface to be working on. But totally unnecessary if you just want to wash your car. Soap and water and a bit of elbow grease is all that is required.
Anything else is all about getting a perfect finish. Cars paint is not perfect because its applied using automation during an automated production process and polishes and clay are there to 'correct' imperfections in the paint. Nothing to do with doing a thorough job in the context of cleaning your car, it's just about the pursuit of achieving as close to perfection the perfect paint finish...or just to satisfy peoples OCD on these things.
But I've been to many a car show and detailing is a hobby and the results can look properly spectacular...but way way too much work for your normal day to day daily runner. If you've a classic car tucked away in the garage then fair enough, I can understand the obsession with perfection on a treasured car.
Good quality polish and wax twice a year for me. Before and after winter.
Quick wash with whatever car shampoo in between.
I did get heavily engrossed into the detailing scene at one point, just enough to get a decent enough understanding of it. At the end of the day, a good quality wax or sealant lasts months. And the more you wash it in between, the more you're scratching up the paintwork.
My car gets washed annually just before the MOT. After a while it doesn't get any dirtier. I'm guessing it's the same principle as people who don't wash their hair and say it becomes self-cleaning after a while.
Detailing = you have way too much time on your hands. Ride a bike instead..
Did you use a lubricant or just water/rub it on the paint ?
Followed the instructions: wash car with xxxx car shampoo, whilst wet rub clay mitt over surface maintaining a wet surface to lubricate. Then paint restorer and a cloth, then wash again, then polish with erm... polish, buff to super shiny paintwork.
Its plenty shiny now, since I’ve had to wash it three times, use some pretty aggressive action to remove the “clay” from the mitt, then polished the car..🤩 it’s gleaming all orange like again.
Thing is, I looked at the car this morning and thought.... “ahhh, don’t need cleaning really... might leave it.... Oh hang on the wheels look a bit brake dust covered... yeah I’ll wash it.. oh yeah I bought that clay mitt thing , I’ll use that whilst I’m at it”
Its my weekend/pub car BTW, it sits outside and the paint on the rear is fading due to the sun.. have thought about taking it to a body shop (already had a quote to respray and touch up the bits that need doing £640) but whilst I’m still in “top down” mode whilst the remnants of summer still appear every other day here I’ve not bothered to take it over there yet.
So really, the clay mitt thing is just my opinion ^^ I’m sure some of you specialists would balk at the thought of using one, but I’m just a bloke who thought “I’ll try it”
Not best pleased, but as said... it’s super shiny now and that’s all that matters to me.
Oh, yeah. I’m one of those idiots that wash cars once a week. I’ve also got a black car that I use mostly and keeping that clean is a chuffing nightmare.. but that’s only a couple of years old and no bloomin way am I ever going near that with a clay mitt.
Clay bar used right will remove loads of crap from a visually clean car.
To clean a car that already looks clean? Why?
Wash ours weekly. Bucket and sponge, then hose off, or jet wash the underside. Waxed every few months.
Don't we wring our wash mitts out between rinses? Or is that not allowed?
Trip to the car wash once in a blue moon.
ransos
Subscriber
Clay bar used right will remove loads of crap from a visually clean car.To clean a car that already looks clean? Why?
Once you've done it the car looks *really* clean. It also means you're applying wax/polish to the paint not a thin layer of encrusted crack. Shines more, water beads and rolls off, dirt sticks less in future.
Wow. 😳 I wish I had a little bit of OCD. It would probably come in useful...
I (VERY) occasionally use a bucket and a brush. A little bit of fairy liquid goes along way, too.
Like anything, you can be obsessive about it, make it your hobby, or just do the job.
I have a neighbour who cleans his car obsessively every single day (no lie!)
It makes me leave mine filthy as I’m sure he twitches when he sees it sat in the drive.
His is (arf) a Ford Focus 😂
Clay bar used right will remove loads of crap from a visually clean car.To clean a car that already looks clean? Why?
So you took the time to quote half of my post and ask a question, but didn’t have the time to read the answer in the very next line after the one you quoted ?
..... Still not “necessary” as in “you must do it” but if you want to do a thorough job, and cause no damage while doing it, that’s the way to do it.
So you took the time to quote half of my post and ask a question, but didn’t have the time to read the answer in the very next line after the one you quoted ?
It doesn't answer my question.
To do a thorough job. (Clean all contamination from the paint surface before polishing and sealing/waxing)
If you machine polish before removing contaminants with clay, you risk grinding stuff into your paintwork and causing damage.
People who "detail" a car rather than clean it are up there with roadies in my opinion . . . . absolute weirdo's.
There is a level of madness.....
The only thing I'll say is a good cheap investment, is the foam polishing pads - they don't half cut down on polish being wasted by being absorbed by various cloths. My car is 17 years old, and you'd not know it's that old. It's a 'used car' but I wash it every week as the alloys get filthy with brake dust. Waxed about 4x a year - Autoglym Super Resin is very good, get's the crap off. Then use the more basic Turtle Wax tub (it's a fiver) and that lasts with the 'foam pads'.
It makes washing the car really easy, same with bikes TBH.
We have a perfectly good jet washer at home. Son has his first car now but my 'jet wash' doesn't do 'snow foam'... I said doesn't matter... He went out and ought one that does.... his money...
Jet wash doesn't get the fine dirt off. You use it for under the car and excess crap. I just stick with buckets - wash top to bottom. If the car if filthy, then a jet wash first, then sponge wash, and rinse.
If you wash/polish the car sort of regularly, it makes cleaning it easy. Just like the bikes...
Jet wash took the paint off my Mondeo. Or rather the tar I was hitting did. Oops.
People who voluntarily spend their own time cleaning their car (especially those who do it regularly) must lead such boring lives. IMO of course.
My car is 17 years old, and you’d not know it’s that old
Reg number
My car is 17 years old, and you’d not know it’s that old
and one of my cars is almost 10 years old and has 90,000 on it. The couple of times a year I do wash it the paint work looks like new (the alloy wheels are another matter!).
I am guessing that the layer of dirt is protecting the paint
People who voluntarily spend their own time cleaning their car (especially those who do it regularly) must lead such boring lives.
Ya got me..
Reg number
Private plate? Or whatever they are called
It's no different to other hobbies or interests, there's different levels.
If you see a car as a white good then you're not going to spend 3 hours washing it. But for someone who's into cars...
Take audio. You've got your average listener, using an iPhone and corded apple headphones. Then your person who is willing to spend a bit more, they might have a couple of £50-100 pairs of headphones. Then there's your full on audiophile with £100's/1000's of worth of kit.
Computers. Same there.
Bicycles. Same there 🤣 I bet there's a thread on a forum somewhere along the lines of "buying a bicycle, when did it become so complicated?"
As for the 2 bucket thing, that's just common sense, things have moved on from grit covered sponges and chamois leather to dry your car. *shudders*
I've got a decent amount of detailing kit, and claying a car does get a really good finish. It's also useful for getting rid of tree sap etc on your windows. I don't spend 5 hours every week though, maybe 5 hours every few months,so when I do wash my car I want to get a decent result.
DezB
Subscriber
Like anything, you can be obsessive about it, make it your hobby, or just do the job.
I have a neighbour who cleans his car obsessively every single day (no lie!)
It makes me leave mine filthy as I’m sure he twitches when he sees it sat in the drive.
His is (arf) a Ford Focus 😂
He's not called Colin is he as I worked with a lad who would do a light wash of his car every day at work with the pressure washer and spend at least 4hrs on it at the weekend.
The only cars he ever had were Ford Focus's
acceptance that a few hours need to be put aside for a respectable job is a manageable compromise
I don’t accept this! Half hour maybe, once ‘unacceptably filthy’ has been reached. Then a two hours on the bike too. A much better compromise.
Though this thread has reminded me to clean the glass.
I tend to favour the Waterfall method over AGILE. Just squirt it with a hose from a distance for a bit rather than go to the trouble of jumping around reaching under wheel arches with sponges and stuff.
I got a £10 gift voucher and bought some autoglym stuff called magma for getting iron bits off yer wheels. It's turns red after a couple of minutes so it's worth getting! A quick pressure wash off and bobs your uncle 👍👍😁
I bought a silicon squeegee about 15 years ago for wiping dry the car, takes no time at all 😊
I bought a silicon squeegee about 15 years ago for wiping dry the car, takes no time at all
used to love those, lots of work repairing long straight scratches on otherwise spotless panels 🤔👍
Oldfart, not read whole thread but yes what you've said in first post is correct. I only need to use the citrus stuff in winter when the grime is thicker, this time of year snow foam is enough.
I now use Sonnax bsd after the wash and it's great stuff £7 odd from ECP. Easy to use, spray on and buff off, two cloths. Water it down as it makes it easier to use.
I've honestly never had a problem with the silicon squeegee marking panels. I always give it a clean down before I use it tho
I presently go for a protective layer of road crap to protect the paintwork but a proper job is
1. Tfr on the wheels and sills
2 hot water foam jet wash top to bottom
3 cold rinse top to bottom
4 clean chamois leather to wipe away water residue
This will give a showroom finish.