Car Cleaning / Detailing

[fuel925]

Everyone post your car cleaning procedure here :D We might be able to salvage some handy tips from each other. Mine is as follows:

1) Rinse off car with trigger hose to remove loose dirt and crap.

2) Fill one bucket with water and one capful of car shampoo, then start to clean car with car cleaning brush, starting at the top and working my way down putting extra effort near the bottom of the doors where most of the grime accumulates.

3) Rinse off car again with trigger hose.

4) Dry immediately with Turtle Wax car drying squeegie to prevent streaking/spotting.

5) Doing one at a time, I spray my allow wheels with TW extreme wheel cleaner, wipe with sponge then rinse with trigger hose.

6) I then use Carplan Back to Black on my exterior trim and bumpers, rubbing it in with a cloth.

7) I then apply TW Wet and Black to my tyre walls.

8) Once all the exterior is done, I then hoover my interior, giving my mats a shake outside first, then hoovering them, and the floor underneath them.

9) Once all the hoovering is done I will dust my dashboard, steering wheel etc if necessary.

10) I then give my dash a wipe over with a dashboard polish pad to make it gleam.

Thats about it! It takes me between 1 hour and 1 hour 45mins to complete all this.

[samg]

i do it the other way around to you.

wheels, interior then exterior. Doesnt make much difference though.

One thing i would like to point out is i dont trust "soft brushes", can do some damage if you buy a cheap one.

One other thing i find, every time i wash my car there seems to be another dent of scratch on it! so im washing it on a yearly basis now :D

[fuel925]

One thing i would like to point out is i dont trust "soft brushes", can do some damage if you buy a cheap one.

585292303[/snapback]

What do you use instead of soft brushes?

[samg]

a sponge. a soft one at that.

[+chorpeac MVC]

Ok here is what I do, and it works great!

I get one of those cottony mitts. I use the Mr Clean auto washing thing. You spray water over the spot you are going to clean. Then switch it to soap mode, then soap the spot, then hand wash it with the mitt, then rinse it off, then switch to the ionized water and respray the washed area. No water spots, no drying!

Mr. Clean Auto washer. I won't use anything else.

http://www.homemadesimple.com/mrcleanautodry/index.shtml

Oh and then I use a bucket and sponge to do the wheels afterwards.

[fuel925]

a sponge. a soft one at that.

585292316[/snapback]

I used a sponge the first couple of times, but found it just didnt shift the muck, especially the stuff that lingers near the bottom of my doors. Its like baked-on crap :p

[samg]

Ok here is what I do, and it works great!

I get one of those cottony mitts. I use the Mr Clean auto washing thing. You spray water over the spot you are going to clean. Then switch it to soap mode, then soap the spot, then hand wash it with the mitt, then rinse it off, then switch to the ionized water and respray the washed area. No water spots, no drying!

Mr. Clean Auto washer. I won't use anything else.

http://www.homemadesimple.com/mrcleanautodry/index.shtml

Oh and then I use a bucket and sponge to do the wheels afterwards.

585292326[/snapback]

Dont think we can get that in the UK, but i do have a pressure washer i use to loosen the dirt.

I used a sponge the first couple of times, but found it just didnt shift the muck, especially the stuff that lingers near the bottom of my doors. Its like baked-on crap :p

585292327[/snapback]

I got a "dirty" sponge for those bits, also a "fly sponge" but i use if for the minging bits. works a treat.

[San Diego]

I think some of your ways are not good for your car. First, always use a microfiber cloth to both wash and dry your vehicle. Using anything else will result in scratches that are minor, but overtime will ruin your clearcoat.

Secondly, use more than a capful of soap in your bucket. Sometimes less is more but not in this case.

When washing, make sure to rinse your washing cloth with your hose so that dirt and grime does not come off inside of the bucket and everytime you dip back into it, you're scrubbing your paint with foreign, dirty particles.

When drying, do NOT use a scrapper of any kind no matter what the manufacturer suggests. All of those will scratch your paint, again, minorly but overtime will look horrible.

Just a few tips for you car washers! :)

[JakeM741]

Step 1: Get in car

Step 2: Drive to carwash

Step 3: Get out of car

Step 4: Wait

Step 5: Get back into car and drive home :)

[pimpshiznid]

1. Wash the entire car with a cotton mitt and the good ol car soap, avoiding the front bumper and headlights, tires and wheels.

2. Wash wheels with remaining soap water and special tire brush.

3. Dry car and wheels with terry cloths.

4. Return to the front bumper and head lights. I drive in the country a lot, so I always come home to a bug covered bumper. But I found a solution. Get some clean fresh motor oil, and stick it in a spray bottle. Shake the bottle up so the oil gets frothy, and spray on the bumper and headlights, avoiding the paint. Wait 5 minutes and run a dry rag over the bumper. You'll notice that it removes almost all the bugs very easily, because the bugs absorb the oil, and want to slide off. Then I wash the bumper 2-3 times, and dry it. (This oil treatment also makes it very easy to get bugs off the second time around, and you don't even notice the thin oil on the bumper.)

5. Windex mirrors and windows, inside and out.

6. Clean out car.

7. Run dust buster and vacuum all inside the car. (Dust buster for hard to get places).

8. Shampoo the carpets with industrial car detailers shampoo and a brush. Run the wet/dry vac over the wet carpet to suck out excess moisture.

9. Condition leather with leather conditioning treatment.

10. Armor-all the interior.

11. Spray a squirt of air freshener in the air vent.

12. Finish up with some tire shine around the tires.

And that doesn't include waxing. If I haven't waxed in a few months, my car gets a clay bar treatment. Otherwise, cleaner wax once every couple of weeks.

Normal detail happens every two weeks, and takes me about 4 hours to complete everything.

Clay bar treatment can take up to 3-4 hours by yourself, and helps big time to have a friend to help.

I'm a clean freak when it comes to my car. :D

[fuel925]

1. Wash the entire car with a cotton mitt and the good ol car soap, avoiding the front bumper and headlights, tires and wheels.

2. Wash wheels with remaining soap water and special tire brush.

3. Dry car and wheels with terry cloths.

4. Return to the front bumper and head lights. I drive in the country a lot, so I always come home to a bug covered bumper. But I found a solution. Get some clean fresh motor oil, and stick it in a spray bottle. Shake the bottle up so the oil gets frothy, and spray on the bumper and headlights, avoiding the paint. Wait 5 minutes and run a dry rag over the bumper. You'll notice that it removes almost all the bugs very easily, because the bugs absorb the oil, and want to slide off. Then I wash the bumper 2-3 times, and dry it. (This oil treatment also makes it very easy to get bugs off the second time around, and you don't even notice the thin oil on the bumper.)

5. Windex mirrors and windows, inside and out.

6. Clean out car.

7. Run dust buster and vacuum all inside the car. (Dust buster for hard to get places).

8. Shampoo the carpets with industrial car detailers shampoo and a brush. Run the wet/dry vac over the wet carpet to suck out excess moisture.

9. Condition leather with leather conditioning treatment.

10. Armor-all the interior.

11. Spray a squirt of air freshener in the air vent.

12. Finish up with some tire shine around the tires.

And that doesn't include waxing. If I haven't waxed in a few months, my car gets a clay bar treatment. Otherwise, cleaner wax once every couple of weeks.

Normal detail happens every two weeks, and takes me about 4 hours to complete everything.

Clay bar treatment can take up to 3-4 hours by yourself, and helps big time to have a friend to help.

I'm a clean freak when it comes to my car.  :D

585366508[/snapback]

nice :D

My car is that weird colour where it shows up the dirt and muck REALLY bad, but by the same token it scrubs up really well, and looks mint when clean :)