Car Valeting

Zebra

Going to give my car a proper good valeting - interior, alloys etc.

What's the best way to get a showroom finish?

Are all those specialist products worth it or will usual household cleaners do as good a job?

Hammyman

Many household cleaners can actually damage a car. Can't go wrong with Autoglym however by the time you've bought all the stuff you do want, it'll cost about the same as a valet.

gardner1

as long as you dont use fairy liquid to wash car and pledge to polish it

King_Nothing

Best way to get a showroom finish (for the paintwork) is to do a proper detail of the car which involves stripping the wax layer off the car, various different polishes, maybe glazes, and finally sealant and waxes to finish it. But is a long process and can be wary if you're new to it.

Specialist products are defiantely worth it. What household cleaners were you thinking of? It all boils down to how much do you want to spend on it, I spent £150 the other month getting various different car cleaning stuff, but there's obviously cheaper stuff that will work to an extent.

I could list off a full detail list of my car, and that could take anywhere from 1 day to 3 days depending on the level of cleaning Im doing.

Zebra

Hammyman wrote: »

Can't go wrong with Autoglym however by the time you've bought all the stuff you do want, it'll cost about the same as a valet.

I've been recommended Autoglym before and it seems widely available and not too expensive.
I've also been recommended Bilberry and Wonder Wheels but never tried them.

King_Nothing wrote: »

Specialist products are defiantely worth it. What household cleaners were you thinking of? It all boils down to how much do you want to spend on it, I spent £150 the other month getting various different car cleaning stuff, but there's obviously cheaper stuff that will work to an extent.

The difficulty is that there seems to be so many specialist products, all with a slight different purpose and make-up (Autoglym sell about 60 products alone).
Household cleaner wise I was thinking of stuff like upholstery cleaner, window cleaner, brushes etc. even Tesco's do a wheel cleaner.

Expense wise I was thinking of spending about £40 on shampoo, polish, upholstery cleaner, wheel cleaner and dashboard polish.

BillTrac

I used Autoglym last year when I needed to px my car(due to car allowance restrictions:mad:).

Made it look so good I wanted to keep it...:rotfl:

andygb

Use a vacuum cleaner with a very fine nozzle, in conjunction with a small, stiff paintbrush for the dashboard areas and other plastic trim parts. You will be amazed at how much dust gets in all the nooks and crannies.
For the outside (assuming that the bodywork and paint are in good enough condition to polish), it is a four stage job, but need not cost much.
Basic materials - sponge/wash mitt, selection of soft cloths, two buckets of water (one with car shampoo, one with clean water for rinsing the sponge)> After the first shampoo wash, you may have to rinse the car with water a couple of times, and then use a chamois leather to clean the streaks and water off.
I then use Colour polish on the whole car, which will fill any scratches.
The last stage is to use a good polish - Autoglym, Meguiars.
Always wash the car from the top down, and rinse the sponge/mitt off in the clean water.

hartcjhart

some good tips here

http://www.britishvaleters.org/goodwash.html

dazzadub

first get wash the car with normal water to remove any dust and grit.

use a good car shampoo, autoglym is ok get a nice sponge and go over the car, get under baldes etc, get in the door shuts and around boot etc.

if you can buy and squirty bottle and get in around window areas, lights grills etc.

then jet off and give a good blast in the wheel arches and around the grills

normally i go over once again very quickly.

with wheels, i would by a nail brush, get down and scrub them and go in the wheel as far as you can.

jet the car off and remove all shampoo.

get a water blade to remove surface water, then use a vileda flunky cloth to wipe it down.

you have couple options now.

if you have time buy a nice car polish, a spray one works best, magguires is good.

also grab a few micro fibre clothes to polich on and off.

if you want just a quick clean after shampoo and dont have time to polish, my tip is after you have bladed the surface water get a non acid based window cleaner, and spray over car, then go over with a vileda flunky.

the window cleaner leaves car with nice shine and smear free.


there are loads of way but i use this method and have won a few show with my car.


i think all products ive mentioned above will cost no more then £30

King_Nothing

dazzadub wrote: »

use a good car shampoo, autoglym is ok get a nice sponge and go over the car, get under baldes etc, get in the door shuts and around boot etc.

Ignore this if you want to keep your car swirlmark free, get a wash mitt instead of a sponge.

with wheels, i would by a nail brush, get down and scrub them and go in the wheel as far as you can.

Why buy a nail brush when he can buy a purpose built wheel brush, or a general detailing brush.

get a water blade to remove surface water, then use a vileda flunky cloth to wipe it down.

Again, if you don't want to scratch the crap out of your car, do not get a wiper blade, or a chamois. The best thing for drying your car if a waffle weave or a microfibre towel.

if you have time buy a nice car polish, a spray one works best, magguires is good.

Spray polish works best? I wouldn't exactly say that. I use menzerna but that's best used with a dual action or rotary polisher, meg's stuff is good though. I'f I'm doing it by hand, I've got a litre of AG SRP and ultra deep shine which I'm trying to use up which is good.

also grab a few micro fibre clothes to polich on and off.

Yes, I must have at least over 100 now, really should chuck the old ones out.

if you want just a quick clean after shampoo and dont have time to polish, my tip is after you have bladed the surface water get a non acid based window cleaner, and spray over car, then go over with a vileda flunky.

the window cleaner leaves car with nice shine and smear free.

I wouldn't do this personally.

there are loads of way but i use this method and have won a few show with my car.

I'm surprised to be honest.

I used to use AG stuff for almost everything, which is good to an extent, but there's a reason professional detailers and concours winners don't use it, and use better stuff. But for what it's worth I still rate it, if halford are still doing it you can get it on 2 for 3 so it works out all right.

For the OP I would personally recommend;

- Autoglym Body Work Shampoo (I rate this better than meguiars, but that's a matter of opnion)
- Autoglym Clean Wheels / Wonder Wheels (Both are similar, but wonder wheels seemed to be a bit stronger, and would often clean up quicker, that can be a good thing, or a bad thing depending on how you look at it.)
- Autoglym Super Resin Polish (This is a good product I used to use it, but I moved on to using ultra deep shine due to having a black car.)

Interior wise I just give it a brush down with microfibres, and whatever matt dashboard wipes I have to hand. Upholstry I can't comment on, I have leather seats, so I wouldn't want to guess at this.

Like I said if halfords are doing their 3 for 2 still you should be able to get this all for £40.

property.advert

Stick it through the car wash. It is a car for heavens sake, not a work of art. Quite soon its worth will have depreciated to nothing, irrespective of how many pointless hours you spend polishing it.