How to rubba dub tub your vee dub..

[99gti]

Hi troopers,

Firstly, I'm a sponge and bucket kinda man. I know very little about detailing.

I want the smurfet looking like she's getting ready for a night out on the town whilst on heat. I know there are a few of you guys on here who wash and clean your cars probably more often you treat yourself and I'm after some basics to get me started.

First question, do you pollish and wax your cars? I know the concept of polishing but what advantage does waxing have? Is it just for protection?

I have a few days off next week - so I want to really get stuck into it then and get her ready to go out dancing for the Vic bay cruise. I hear meguires are quite good, am I right in saying this?

Are their and specific products you can all personaly recomend. I'm just after some stuff that I can get from my local auto barn.

[hazards_golf74]

Hi troopers,

Firstly, I'm a sponge and bucket kinda man. I know very little about detailing.

First question, do you pollish and wax your cars? I know the concept of polishing but what advantage does waxing have? Is it just for protection?

I hear meguires are quite good, am I right in saying this?

Are their and specific products you can all personaly recomend. I'm just after some stuff that I can get from my local auto barn.


well best stuff you can get of the shelf is eagle one nano wax, well this is wat i use on my car and all the people that show me to detail, that wat they use on the wiz bang cars, as for the protection thing yes as far as i know that all it for, meguires i ve heard is good but i ve never tried it.

p.s always wax your car in the shade

[The_Hawk]

I use Auto Glym:

http://www.autoglym.com/enGB/default.asp

There is a HUGE range of podcuts, mind you they are on the higher end of the price scale.

For car wash I'm still using some green goo they recommended when I picked up the Auto Glym, not sure what it is, but it works.

I also have one of those kitchen scrubber things you put dish washing liquid in the handle... use that to clean up the alloys.

Find a cool, shady place:

Inside:
1. Remove the car mats, (also any junk you have inside).
2. Vacuum everything including the mats, go under the carpet in the boot and round the spare.
3. Go over all harder surfaces with a chamios cloth to remove dirt and dust. Remember the small bits, like seat belt buttons, under the hand brake, the intrucment cluster...
4. Use your choice of product on dash, door panels, steering wheel. (many people will just stick to warm water with a little soap from step 3).
5. If you have leather seats use a nice leather cleaner/conditioner.
6. Put the mats back in.

Outside:
1. Wet alloys, Clean with scrubber, rinse off.
2. Wet down car, wash from top to bottom with a hot bucket of water with car wash. (hose off as necessary if it's warmer and the suds are drying on the car)
3. Rinse off whole car.
4. Dry with chamois. Take care to open doors, hatch, bonnet, petrol cap etc to dry in the cracks.
5. Clean windows with your choice of glass cleaner. Onlyuse glass cleaner on virgin glass, NOT on tint unless you have something that reckons it's good on tint, many glass cleaners will speed up the break down of window tint. Mind you it also depends on your tint. I use warm water for the inside of tinted windows and glass cleaner everywhere else. Kitten is my cleaner of choice, although I will try the AutoGlym when I next run out.

While your there check the windsceen washer level and top up as needed, might as well check the oil and coolant while your under the bonnet too :)

Thats about it if you just want to wash. If you want to polish/was as well I'd suggest all the above before you even think about it.

The AutoGlym I use is easy as, rub it on a panel or so at a time, then buff it off with another clean cloth. Brings the car up you bute! VERY little effort required.

[gpk_gti]

which autoglym product are you using?

[anarchycamp]

Autoglymn has Royal Stamp of Approval, dont mess with the Royal Stamp :)

They do make damn fine products, even though they are fairly pricey.:cool:

[BlackVr6ix]

Autoglym is no more expensive than the comparable meguiars or Mothers product.

Zymol on the other hand is a completely different ballgame.

[ScienceVR6]

Kitten is my cleaner of choice, although I will try the AutoGlym when I next run out.


The kitten window cleaner is the best one i have ever used. And i was a detailer. Warm water and metho is also a very good window cleaner.

[MattyT]

Meguiars fast glass has to be the best window cleaner I've ever used. I'm not a fan of the autoglym one at all, leaves some dirty crud on my windows.

[BlackVr6ix]

Autogylm glass cleaner sucks, Mothers professional glass cleaner (clear bottle blue liquid) i find is the best one.

[hazards_golf74]

glass cleaner i use is halo fast dry but i don t know how easy it is to get

[Lukev85]

Meguiars quick wax. Its a spray on stuff and it gives a great long lasting shine

[The_Hawk]

which autoglym product are you using?

Bumper care on the bumpers (as of Saturday) which seems to be pretty good so far. Will see how it fares after we get some rain, or just over time.

Also the Polish, although which one I don't exactly recall, will have to have a look when I'm at home.

[belle]

I have to agree with hawk, I used AutoGlym products (they were on the seat.co.uk website as the repalcement product) yeaterday to clean up my "new" cordy and couldn't be more happy with them (only thing is the price cost me about $100 on stuff) should last for ages though.

Car loked matt red before I got my hands on it, I used...

Bodywork Shampoo Conditioner with one of those noodle things, 2 buckets.
Super Resin Polish
Extra Gloss Protection

on the inside - Interior Shampoo

well it took me 6 hours all up:o, but i think its now spotless:cool:!

I'll post picks when I figure out how:D

[belle]

http://www.vwwatercooled.com.au/forums/images/imported/2007/10/PA170288-1.jpg

http://www.vwwatercooled.com.au/forums/images/imported/2007/10/PA170294-1.jpg

[99gti]

Wow - it does look amazing!

I ended up getting Meguiars deep crystal polish and also their spray on wax. Hopefull on Sunday the weather will be up for it and I'll give it a good detail then. I'll do before and after shots for you too.

[velly_16v_cab]

neil, have you looked in the detailing setion on our fourm, a guy who post on there (forum name w3lsh) really knows his beans when it coms to cleaning a car!!!

look what he did to my bora...
http://newportedition.myfreeforum.org/about2043.html

[99gti]

Wow - that's amazing! Has anyone here in Melb got one of these polishing machines? I was thinging that I was going to do it by hand.

[rayray086]

Neil, check out Final Inspection's forums (http://finalinspection.com.au/forums/). Some very good stuff there and I usually ask all my detailing questions there and get back some good answers. Final Inspection is a detailing company by the way.

With using a rotary machine, it'd definitely speed the polishing process up a lot as opposed to hand polishing, but results can be bad if you're not well-practised with one. I find that detailing is a whole other type of game and knowing your stuff like what pads to use, what polishing abrasive to use for certain scratches etc really goes a long way.

Anyway, on a side note, I just bought one of these:

http://www.vwwatercooled.com.au/forums/images/imported/2007/10/CIMG7817-1.jpg

http://www.vwwatercooled.com.au/forums/images/imported/2007/10/CIMG7815-1.jpg

More of an impulse buy when I was shopping around :rolleyes: Haven't used it yet, but I'm sure I'll be doing a favour for my back!

[velly_16v_cab]

detailing is way too anal for me, but as you can see my mate W3lsh is really good at it.
there are some great forums about about detailing, my cars are lucky to be washed between shows lol

[phaeton]

I'm the most basic car washer here lol j:

1st I rinse the KG

2nd Start from the roof and work my way down
a) wash
b) rinse

3rdly do wheels and chrome bits
a)wash
b)rinse

4th dry windows with sguigy

and finally I don't chamois the rest I just let it drip dry :D

[belle]

I want one of those machines, how much does it cost for someone to do it professionally? I have never paid for detailing. But I am with 99 and would pay for something that good:D

Anyone else with pics using other products?

[VWEAPN]

seriously there is no better way to clean your windows other than just a damp cloth with water and a dry cloth. no smudges. meguires 'quickclay' is a crazy product