[Closed] Detailers of STW - what have you been up to?

Well I have at least washed both our cars. First time in about 8 months. Does that count?

Well I have at least w̶a̶s̶h̶e̶d̶
detailed both our cars. First time in about 8 months. Does that count?

Does now. 😉

That looks like a great job 🙂

Dunno about detailing, but my Mk2 GTi was leaking oil and a little coolant over the front of the block from the rocker cover gasket area. New, upgraded gasket fitted, plan now is to use a gentle Dodo Juice engine degreaser plus steam cleaner on the block, not so much for cosmetics, but so I can see if bad things are leaking out generally.

I'm also pondering repainting the faded red GTi stripe on the front grille.

I should probably wash it as well and replace the rusty screws holding the rear number plate on.

None of this feels very urgent tbh.

Was going to give ours a proper clean and polish to get 4 years of accumulated scratches off, but didn't get any stuff bought in time.

Any suggestions for products and online ordering would be appreciated

I 'detailed' my car earlier in lock down and it rained the next night. Pretty water patterns though

What's this detailing cleaning of cars you speak of!? 🤔

I had planned to do a wheels off clean and ceramic coat them . But instead I painted the kitchen so its on the back burner

On the cards for our two cars. New to the whole detailing scene - not looking to do a concourse job but a better than 'bucket and sponge' job. I also want to apply ceramic coating but really should do a proper polish first so not locking in imperfections...but that is opening up a whole new world I wasn't aware of leading to a situation where it will take a couple or three days to wash the car rather than 30 mins!

Also only got a single garage so doesn't seem to make sense to polish and ceramic coat outdoors where airborne contaminates can settle on the car and get locked into the finish.

I did my annual polish and wax sunday. Then got pollen bombed over night.

Finished polishing and sealing yesterday. Took ages but looks great and should be fine for another year.

Nope, still not got to my octy. Still to many other jobs and looking after two preschool kids. I try and do a full detail each spring and a lap top up in Autumn but never managed either let year.... Thank heavens for sonax bsd!

The wife's i10 got its first ever full detail just before lockdown, Restoring the paint after 6.5 years of abuse, and looks good. A bit dusty at the mo though.... Hoping it'll rain and wash that off.... Should still be beading for a couple of months yet

I resprayed part of my bumper that had some really big and deep stone chips. Looks really good now. I quite enjoy minor body work repairs, with a bit of care and patience you can get a really good finish and a couple of rattle cans is a lot cheaper than a body shop.

can someone point mcmoonter at this thread.  He has a disco that needs a little work I believe

Just came here to post that...

https://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/the-resurrection-land-rover-content/

Spent the day cleaning my Mini Clubman.
Rinsed, washed ,de tarrred , dried then Sonax BSD all over, plastic trim and tyres dressed, wheels waxed, interior hoovered and glass polished with Autoglym glass polish.
Already covered with pollen and dust......

I did my annual polish and wax sunday. Then got pollen bombed over night.
Finished polishing and sealing yesterday. Took ages but looks great and should be fine for another year.

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Cleaned inside and out, polished and back in the garage under car cover.... for the foreseeable. More importantly all the bikes are cleaned and serviced

Sick E46M3. I traded mine for an I30N. Have not used it much, covered up waiting. Only mod is rally flapz lol.

Just a coating of Fusso Soft99 Dark Wax. Then in got covered in dust, then it rained and now it looks filthy despite not moving an inch for weeks.

Some impressive work there!

Unlike McMoonter’s Landy which needs to be less green, I did a bit of work to make mine more green!

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Lovely ^

When did this "detailing" become a thing? I appreciate that there's always been a car cleaning industry but there does seem to have been an massive upgrade in it's status since the moniker first appeared.

I don’t think I’ll bother

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@mcmoonter my Superb didn't look too far off that before I started, the recent 20-25 degrees here in the south seems to have made every single plant release all it's pollen at once, everyone's cars were yellow!!!

When did this “detailing” become a thing? I appreciate that there’s always been a car cleaning industry but there does seem to have been an massive upgrade in it’s status since the moniker first appeared.

Since there's been a whole industry and market for it I suppose.

As with everything, there's different levels, things have moved since the days of washing your car with a gravel filled sponge and drying it with a chamois...

Lols at the Badger pic 😂

Mine wasn't detailed, not up to those standards but I gave my wifes car and mine a really good wash and wax this weekend. They both looked fantastic and I questioned why I don't do it more often.

This morning both cars are covered in dust and pollen. That is the answer why I don't do it more often!

Ooooh! So many shiny cars.

I was working.

Bear that’s brilliant. 😂

6 hours?
6 HOURS?!

When i can't see out tge non wiped areas of the windscreen... I might clean the windows and splash the left over water about a bit...

Spent about 4 days trying to get the exhaust off my Panigale to deal with the wobbly heat shields. Finally got it off after dismantling what felt like the entire bike and decided to give it a clean up whilst off.

Have now painted the heat shields a satin black so once back on I think it’ll look better

Oooh, Panigale.

1199?

@joshvegas - yep, 6 bloody hours.

It's the first proper wash and protection I've given it since I bought it, and I was trying to undo nearly 3 years of poor washing. I could easily have spent another couple of hours. Then started polishing it....

If anyone in the SE is handy with a DA and fancies a project, let me know 😀 Happy to put in the effort for prep.

6 hours?
6 HOURS?!

When i can’t see out tge non wiped areas of the windscreen… I might clean the windows and splash the left over water about a bit…

Not much else to do at the moment.

I'm putting some effort into getting rid of the stink in my car. 9 years of wet kit, and a recent upturned dishwasher have not been kind to it 🤮

‘Fraid so, just a lowly ABS model so nothing fancy. But it feels like a rocket ship to me and I think it looks pretty

That is a thing of beauty Flange, it really is

Nice! Owner of the 'other' Italian brand myself.

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Plus my old VFR800 in the background. God I loved the noise it made. Straight cut cam gears, delkevic pipe, V4... An old 'detailing' before and after from winter:

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Thank you! It’ll look better once I’ve finished with all the fixing and a few upgrades. New chain and sprockets, new tail tidy, I’ve got a new screen to go on and my mate is painting the nose fairing as it’s a bit chipped. Will be nice when it’s done.

Ooh I love a Tuono! Such a nice bike to ride and fits us taller folks. Factory too, so all the flash bits. I’d love ohlins for mine but they’re all the electronic versions on eBay and that’s a right faff!

@MoreCashThanDash I've just started using Autofinesse products and find them really good and each product has a guide to use on the product and their website!

New to detailing, but my car was covered in road grime and mud from collecting something from a farm pre lockdown, it had the following:

Pressure Washer Rinse
AutoFinesse Citrus Power sprayed all over
Pressure Washer Rinse
Wheels and Arches Sprayed, Scrubbed and Rinsed
2 Bucket Wash Top to Bottom inc shuts
Pressure Washer Rinse
Dry
AutoFinesse Glisten spray on wax
Wheels Sealed/Waxed
Chrome Polished
Tyres Dressed
Glass Polished

The spray on wax has left a really good shine to the car. Typically the car has been peppered with seagull droppings which have wiped off with a damp cloth really easily!

@ta11pau1 how do you find Autofinesse Tripple? I had some generic polish around which I used before Xmas which did an okay job, but tempted by this product as the others in the range have really worked for me.

Walking around you can certainly see who the key workers are, they are the ones with no car on the drive or if it is it's filthy as they don't have the time or energy to even through a bucket of water at it

Well if they want to drop it off at mine I’ll happily wash it for them

things have moved since the days of washing your car with a gravel filled sponge and drying it with a chamois…

Have they?

I have the same car as the OP, albeit in silver. It's 2 years into its lease & it's been washed once, and that was when the dealership serviced it 🙂

There is a reason why I picked a silver one! The extent of my detailing at the weekend was to throw away the rubbish from the door pockets.

Hope you didn’t leave it under the trees for the birds to crap on and pollen to fall on 😂

I've got a 25 year old Caterham 7 with bare aluminium bodywork and black fibreglass wings and nose , the bare Ali parts are looking pretty tatty.

Anyone know whats the best approach to make it look a bit neater without attempting to polish it up to a mirror finish. I was thinking that a brushed Ali finish would look pretty nice and probably be more hard wearing than going for a mirror finish, but I haven't got a clue about how to achieve a nice uniform brushed Ali finish.

@ta11pau1 how do you find Autofinesse Tripple? I had some generic polish around which I used before Xmas which did an okay job, but tempted by this product as the others in the range have really worked for me.

I like it, it's got a light polish and a glaze so fills a few of the swirl marks, I've also got the full carnuba wax Radiance for the full treatment. I'm most impressed with the Meguairs ultimate fast finish, so easy to apply and just gives the final coat and protection. Takes maybe 5 minutes to do the whole car with it.

This is what's in my box of tricks, although I've run out of citrus power so used fenwicks bike wash for the wheels, it did the trick and cleared the months of brake dust!
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I cleaned the inside of mine. 1st time in 4 years. Outside can wait until next lockdown 😊

rOcKeTdOg
Subscriber

Walking around you can certainly see who the key workers are, they are the ones with no car on the drive or if it is it’s filthy as they don’t have the time or energy to even through a bucket of water at it

Guilty 😉
But then it must be 10 years since I washed a car, I would rather pay the nice bunch of Polish people that run a superb hand car wash just up the road, sadly unavailable now 🙁
I'm sure it’s one of those things if you get into it It's addictive and I must admit when I look at the car when back from said hand wash it does look blood good.

Am I going to get into trouble for mentioning they are Polish ?

Mine needs done, but I’m currently fixing the 3 oil leaks which have appeared since the end of Feb.

My car rarely does more than 30miles a week and often sits for weeks. Why do I suddenly have 3 oil leaks?

Polish or polish?

Detailers of STW – what have you been up to?

Absolutely nothing, not even washed my tiguan since getting it back from a new car detail and C Quartz Professional ceramic coating last July done by a mate, see here for examples of his work

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What happens with the ceramic finish when it starts to fail?

Can you just patch it up or do you need to do a complete strip and reapply?

I hate having a dirty car but I also don’t enjoy washing them.

Our usual guy that comes around to do them isn’t working at the moment so I might have to do them myself this week.

I’ve got a 25 year old Caterham 7 with bare aluminium bodywork and black fibreglass wings and nose , the bare Ali parts are looking pretty tatty.

Anyone know whats the best approach to make it look a bit neater without attempting to polish it up to a mirror finish.

Magic sponges are good for cleaning up bare aluminium. Just with a bit of warm water. You might want to hit it with some iron x or similar and a clay bar too, to get rid of contaminants.

I would rather pay the nice bunch of Polish people that run a superb hand car wash just up the road, sadly unavailable now 🙁
I’m sure it’s one of those things if you get into it It’s addictive and I must admit when I look at the car when back from said hand wash it does look blood good.

Might look good for a bit but they wreck your paintwork with swirls after a few goes. Fine if it's a lease you hand back in a couple of years.

Magic sponges are good for cleaning up bare aluminium. Just with a bit of warm water. You might want to hit it with some iron x or similar and a clay bar too, to get rid of contaminants.

Think I have a few magic sponges under the sink, will give them a go, ta.

WCA : When the ceramic coat starts to fail will depend on how the paintwork is prepared beforehand and the skill of the person applying the coating, as far as i know (from speaking to my mate referenced above) you cannot patch up sections but need to start from scratch (so to speak), not all ceramic coatings are created equal as you can get polymer based that are reasonably priced and easier to apply but not as protective and quartz protective coatings that are more akin to a nanotech diamond strength coating on the paintwork.

I think i have a minimum of 3-5 years protection on mine, prob more if i bothered to give it a wash, i may get help t'morn to go over it with the snow lance attachment

I washed mine today- it was absolutely disgusting- and then, for the first time in my life, I clay barred one side. Mostly because it had some paint overspray that I wanted to deal with but I have to admit, it is an incredibly pleasing thing to do... rough, oooh, smooooooth.

I did a bit of a garage clear up at the weekend and found some Mer polish.

I was trying to think when I would have bought it so had a quick Google and found out it is Vintage"https://www.ebay.co.uk/i/193391051302?chn=ps&norover=1&mkevt=1&mkrid=710-134428-41853-0&mkcid=2&itemid=193391051302&targetid=876487124366&device=c&mktype=pla&googleloc=9045701&poi=&campaignid=9441124701&mkgroupid=91043569850&rlsatarget=pla-876487124366&abcId=1140496&merchantid=6995734&gclid=CjwKCAjwvtX0BRAFEiwAGWJyZGYmZZ9FfqXUC90y1G2O5HNt5EslHmqzsGQwhFYnHY5hGOA3ILPXUxoC1KIQAvD_BwE"

Have now traced it back to when I had a Vauxhal Chevette about 30+ years ago.

We have moved house twice since then. Do you think it will be any good? There is about 1/4 of the bottle left

Some great looking clean cars up there.

So whats the best way to dry a car off after washing?

Been spending some time polishing my 20 year old e39 touring and it was looking really good. Then it was sat on the drive and got really dirty so i washed it again and dried it with a chamois but its left lots of crap all over it. Needs washing again now to get rid of all the water marks.

What's the best way to dry it?

it is an incredibly pleasing thing to do… rough, oooh, smooooooth.

Wire wool on a bit of wood gives a similar satisfaction.

My car needs some attention in terms of paintwork, probably a good job for lockdown that I'd not thought of.

Some **** keyed it recently too, it's one of the few things that makes me think of getting CCTV.

@oikeith @ tallpaul I got a bottle of tripl3 as a freebie from cleanyourcar iirc when I bought a gallon of citrus power. It gave a great finish on the octy, filling the small swirls brilliantly, but it didn't last. Beading stopped in about a third the time I'd expect, which with a garaged car, is normally 6+ months. I did my usual prep citrus, pressure wash, 2 bucket, iron X, pressure rinse, detar, clay g3 mitt and super soapy water for lube, pressure rinse. Then tripl3 with the da and finishing pad. I then, thinking the tripl3 must be about the same as autoglym srp, I assumed my usual lsp, autoglym egp, would go over it fine so applied as usual. I wonder if the sealant didn't adhere over the tripl3 though, and a wax would have been better

Did the car and the van on lockdown weekend 1 and since then, the car has moved 5 miles and the van has been moved nose into the garage so when the battery inevitably dies I can easily get into it and charge it.

I'm not a "detailer" but biggish wash of the year was:
- snowfoam (Auto Finesse stuff)
- rinse
- decontaminate it with AF Iron Out
- rinse
- clay bar
- rinse
- polish with AF Tripple
- 2 coats of Fusso

Doing the car and the van took me most of the weekend. Need a rotary.

Van wheels had just been refurbed so gave them a coat of G-Techniq and the tyres some AF dressing before putting them on. Need to do the interior on both vehicles but I'm doing some chassis work on the van in the coming week so will be washing underneath and wheel arches etc then.

VS the bike that gets thrown in the garage and a bit of lube thrown at it now and then.

@neilnevill - I've had good results using tripple topped with 2 coats of C2v3 and then a coat of Supernatural hybrid wax/sealant.
I really like C2v3, it's easy to apply and can be watered down as a QD as well for a quick top up.

Anyone after good quality and relatively cheap cloths, I've just order from Paragon microfibre and they seem spot on.

For drying the car you can get specific drying aids which reduce the water marks left behind and I use a micro fibre towel rather than a chamois.

<I did a bit of a garage clear up at the weekend and found some Mer polish.>

My container of Mer dates back to 1973 when my dad assured it was the thing to use on black cars (Hillman Imp rally car, 915cc, rootes R17 cam, twin SU's = 55bhp & 40+mpg).

Planning to do the current car next week so looking at:-
Jet wash rinse
Snowfoam
Rinse
De-tar the sides
claybar
polish

First time using the claybar - any tips?

First time using the claybar – any tips

Cut the clay in to several pieces so you can throw one away when you inevitably drop it on the drive half way through.

Use loads and loads of lube and pass in straight lines with light pressure.

Seen AF Citrus Power mentioned a few times - does anyone else think its a bit crap? I've been using it for a few years but never been particularly happy with it as it barely seems to do anything. Any else come recommended?

I've not used AF citrus power but do use Valet Pro Citrus pre-wash and rate it.
It seems to be a similar product to the AF citrus but cheaper.
It can be diluted to various strengths depending on grime levels and I use it instead of a snow foam pre wash.

Interested to see that people de-tar after the foam/wash? I'd have though it would be best to wash - possibly a second time - after this step, to get the solvent off no?

[i]Use loads and loads of lube and pass in straight lines with light pressure[/i]

Can you just use water as lube?

I guess the lube will slide a bit better but it is not actually doing anything other than letting the clay slide which water does as well. Happy to stand corrected

Can you just use water as lube?

It probably depends on the clay. Bilt Hamber Auto Clay is designed to be used with water, and I've read that the clay mitts can be used with soapy water.

chrisdb
Member
Might look good for a bit but they wreck your paintwork with swirls after a few goes. Fine if it’s a lease you hand back in a couple of years.

Only get it washed 3 or 4 times a year, I bought it outright @ 9 months old.
I intend to run it till its into banger mode so a few swirls won't matter

Planning to do the current car next week so looking at:-
Jet wash rinse
Snow foam
Rinse
De-tar the sides
claybar
polish

Put the claybar on a cup of hot water to soften it.
Polish will leave a residue which you'll need to clean off. Then Do a wax or sealant after polishing.

@neilnevill I didnt think AF Tripple was a DA polish? Thought it was hand application only.

Reading this thread reminds me I need to pick up a clay bar, Iron remover and Tar remover to really get the bonnet and lowers gleaming.

Not a proper detail as I haven’t got a DA.. but about as close as I get.

7hours. Bike rack and plates off, rinse, prewash, wheels including the arch liners, foam, rinse, fallout remover and foam again, wash including roof, dry, claybar whole van, rinse again, hand polish. Interior stripped, vacuum, clean, wash down everywhere, pressure wash all the carpets, clean seats, I’m pooped.

Worst part is it’ll just sit there for weeks now!