My first proper session

[Eklipze3k]

With the Scottish Italian Car Day looming, it was about time I gave the cars a proper clean. I'll warn in advance, I didn't get any pictures during only after so there will be a bit of reading for anyone interested.

I began with the Sei as it has more day-to-day scrapes and bumps.

1. Autoglym Clean Wheels and a clean, stiff bristle paintbrush to get all the cack off the wheels
2. Hose of all the loose dirt, of which there was a lot - there's a 'dustbowl' carpark behind our house and rinse the wheels
3. Using a Sonus sheepskin washmitt and Autoglym Body Shampoo and Conditioner I then set to work getting the heavier deposits shifted, considering how little of this stuff is used (20ml for 10l of water) it fair shifted the muck! Rinse and dried with mf towels
4. Meguiars Clay and QD - first time using clay and it was great, and the amount of filth that came off that I couldn't even see!! Dried off the QD with more mf towels (lucky I have about a dozen of them!)
5. Autoglym Intensive Tar Remover - loads of black spots noticed when claying, used almost the whole bottle! I think in future doing this prior to clay would be a better idea.
6. Autoglym Super Resin Polish and Autoglym Glass Polish - applied and removed with AG professional polishing cloths, good stuff

The 126 followed pretty much the same path, minus the tar remover, as it's not been exposed to much road use yet. After all the polishing had been done, it was Autoglym Bumper Care to get all the black plastic and rubber bits nice and shiny again.

For a first effort I'm very happy with the results, they don't reflect quite like Andy, Tris or Matt's cars do - mainly due to the shockingly poor respray job done on the 126! The results you can see for yourself!

 

[pk090]

very nice!
Did you use anything on the glass?
ive found that i used sainsburys glass cleaner inside and out and it worked fantastic getting loads of C*** off. Also gives beading effect on the glass like auto glym does.

 

[Ninja59]

tar removed before claying, although it makes little differance, did you dry the car after washing as theres not much point if your claying (unless it's seriously sunny), could possibly do with a sealent/wax of some sort although SRP will provide some protection. good stuff apart from that. Oh, dont use clean wheels to much its stupidly acidic look into some bilberry or very berry(cannot exactly rem lol) and then do the wheels i.e clean them, clay, polish, seal and even wax if your like then you can just use normal car wash to clean them save using alloy cleaner which does make the lacquer peel eventually. Megs and QD is ok for a start just change to a sprayer shampoo/water mix after finishing bottle as Meg's and QD in general is pricey to go claying with...

 

[Tris Harris]

cracking effort!!

 

[Andy Monty]

looking nice now all they need is some wax/sealent if your on a budget/time constraint get some Autoglym Extra Gloss protection spread on thinly with a foam pad leave an Hour (longer the better) then buff off

 

[Eklipze3k]

Thanks for your input chaps, as for wax/sealant I am on a budget which is currently £0.00, however I'll invest in some on payday and get them done before Stanford, even though I'm only taking the 126 I may as well seal them both up nice and tight

Obviously having done 2 cars the Megs claybar is now almost dead as a dodo, so will be looking for a replacement soon with some slightly cheaper lube - as ninja said, QD ain't exactly cheap stuff and I'd like it if I could keep it to do it's real job of 'on-stand touchups'.

Did order some AG Engine/Machine Cleaner and was going to blast the 126 with that today but it didn't arrive in time

 

[Ninja59]

be careful to cover electrics up when using AG E/M cleaner, go for sonues extra fine from clean your car or the BH auto clay bar SOFT (easier to work with and unlike the sonus onlu requires water as a lube)

 

[alan mcc]

Cracking results there, i'd like to direct you to www.detailingworld.co.uk - everything you want to know about car cleaning is explained there, and i'll maybe have to join you for a 'session' one day

my favorite thing about a car is probably cleaning it