Cleaning your car - product recommendations

[Deleted User]

Since cleaning your car is such a dying art these days and me being the nostalgic sort, I fancy rolling up my sleeves once again this Bank Holiday weekend

I literally haven't cleaned a car properly since I was at Uni, over ten years ago, bar jetwashing once or twice to remove excess bird s**t... I've just thrown out a load of dried out Autoglym product that used to be well regarded back in the day. - I don't know, does that still stand?

I'm after recommendations for polish, glass/dash cleaner, bumper shine etc. Pretty much the lot :cool:

Thanks.

Geodark

Have to say I swear by the autoglym stuff

UncleZen

+1 for autoglym

[Deleted User]

Thanks people! That settles it then, time to redeem some serious Amazon credit

Unless of course someone is going to recommend me somewhere else that does Autoglym stuff cheaper?!

force_ten

have you got a halfords near by they often have 3 for 2 on car cleaning products but i think at the moment they have 20% off autoglym products

autoglym is still a popular go to product for many and a wash with autoglym shampoo and conditioner, a polish with super resin polish and sealed with extra gloss protection should make the car look good and it will be easy to wash in future due to the sealant you add

I used the above regime twice a year and then once a fortnight washed the car with autoglym shampoo and conditioner and then went around with meguiars ultimate quick detailer easily sprayed on wiped off just to keep the car looking nice

there are a lot more expensive and high tech options available now with trick coatings that give the car a hydrophobic coating but they can be expensive to apply properly

for old school hands on car cleaning you cant beat autoglym

facade

Another +1 for autoglym.

I do the cars with them when I first get them (and I'm still enthusiastic), the current one has managed 5 years without looking too shabby.

Wait until the Easter weekend, as the weather is always grey & cold, which is what you want for car polishing, warm sunshine just dries everything up too quickly and you have to work twice as hard polishing.

photome

Wash, clay,wash, polish , sealant is what I do

I use autoglym shampoo, any clay bar,

Poorboys black hole, then poorboys xp sealant

Twice a year in spring and autumn, beads all year round with quick washes inbetween

bowlhead99

As an alternative to Autoglym, Meguiars have a decent range on all sorts of cleaning kit.

I do rate Autoglym's 'super resin polish' as mentioned above which is not an aggressive polish in terms of actually doing much to fix your scratches and swirls, but has fillers which will help cover them up, and it's easy to use.

For a last stage coating over the top after you have done your wash and polish - as the protective layer - there are all sorts of brands of wax / sealant. I really rate Collinite 915 which is high carnauba, will survive a good few washes before reapplication, and the £30-40 12oz tub will last what seems like forever (well, at the frequency you wash your car you'll be passing it down to your kids...).

As force 10 says, there are various hydrophobic and high tech nanocoatings these days but they can be tricky to apply yourself and it's easier to go old school with the old favourites like Autoglym. For a more manageable chunk of the high-tech stuff, you could do your windows with Gtechniq G1 after first giving them a proper clean with glass cleaner and a polish with a dedicated polish such as G4. A pack like http://www.theultimatefinish.co.uk/gtechniq/clearvision-screen-kit.aspx can be quite satisfying to use.

Lastly if it has been a while since your did your car, definitely consider claying it after washing it, and then washing it again before moving on to the polishing and waxing. Claying picks up a lot of contaminants, impurities and tar deposits etc that have got embedded into your paint over the years and would never come out with car shampoo and wash mitt - it's always surprising the extra dirt you can get off with a deeper clean process. The process basically involves smoothly dragging a malleable bit of car clay (think a harder and less sticky version of blu-tac or silly putty) over your paintwork while keeping it lubricated with a spritz of quick detailer spray or dedicated clay lube; as it gets dirtier you can fold it over on itself to keep using a fresh bit against the paint.

Though Autoglym do have a clay kit, the ones from Meguiars or Dodo Juice are generally cheaper. Or Bilt Hamber do clays which apparently can just use regular water as the lubricant so may end up cheaper still but I haven't tried theirs.

As an alternative supplier to Amazon, http://www.theultimatefinish.co.uk is dedicated to car cleaning kit. It tends to not be much below RRP so is bound to be beaten on price by Amazon on a some things but they have a good range from all the serious products companies including high end ones.

Richard53

I'm a big Autoglym fan too, although my experience with other brands is limited. I used to laugh at the Sunday morning bucket brigade and the 'detailers', but then I got a really nice car that was worth a bit of effort. I did all the Autoglym things with it and got addicted. However, I am going back to an old Land Rover this weekend, so not sure how I will approach the cleaning regime with that.


When I first got the nice car, I cleaned it with AG shampoo, then clayed it (first time I'd done this, strangely pleasing thing to do) and gave it Super Resin Polish and Extra Gloss Protection. Much to my cynical surprise, these really really work. After spending a day or so doing all that, I did nothing else to the car except maybe a hose down every few weeks, and after 6 months the car was still clean. The AG polishes really do let the rain and dirt slide off. In fact, in terms of time and effort, doing this routine is probably much quicker overall than a weekly quick wash & wipe.

mutley74

Are the windscreen rain repellant sprays any good (such as rain x)?

neilmcl

mutley74 wrote: »

Are the windscreen rain repellant sprays any good (such as rain x)?

There are better, such as Gtechniq G5, Angelwax h2go. There's a good thread on the detailingworld interior & glass forums regarding glass sealants.

And as a general point I'd recommend the OP visit the detailingworld forums - http://www.detailingworld.co.uk/forum/index.php