Styling How do you clean your Panda?

[DaveMcT]

I use Aldi car wash n wax. Wet the car from the top down with a cheapo sponge and lots of water, then before it dries rinse away with the hosepipe. Water in my area is so soft the scale in our electric kettle was dissolved way in a few months (no worries with water streaks. ) In hard water areas use rain water for car washing.


IMO the posh products dont make the car look any better but absolutely do not use any other detergents as many contain salt to help them cope with hard water.

If my car was new I would have the bumpers and bonnet wrapped with self healing anti scuff film. Not low cost but it copes with car park scuffs and stone chips.

 

[AndyRKett]

We are all doing it wrong :bang:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fN9k81hpmMY

As if I have the time

Aside from the fact that using two buckets to clean your car, (to me) goes from Sunday afternoon job to serious anal retentive car cleaning, that video also shows him using a clay bar which all of those anal retentives will tell you not to do these days as you rub the removed contamination all over the paint scratching it further!

Also the guy who claims to charge up to £5k for a detail, has a mucky yard with an old metro parked in front of his building and doesn’t even seem to have a proper waste water trap under the cars he is cleaning, just jet blasting them on a gravel drive.

 

[SB1500]

Aside from the fact that using two buckets to clean your car, (to me) goes from Sunday afternoon job to serious anal retentive car cleaning, that video also shows him using a clay bar which all of those anal retentives will tell you not to do these days as you rub the removed contamination all over the paint scratching it further!

Also the guy who claims to charge up to £5k for a detail, has a mucky yard with an old metro parked in front of his building and doesn’t even seem to have a proper waste water trap under the cars he is cleaning, just jet blasting them on a gravel drive.

His customers have definitely been mis-sold his 'state of the art' and 'superior' car wash by being too ignorant to look into the basics of why it's not all it's cracked up to be, as you rightly pointed out...

I wonder if this has any link to do with how they also decided to buy 'state of the art' and 'superior' cars like the Bentley in the video thumbnail, which I reckon they were also mis-sold on the grounds of 'superior' too!

 

[AndyRKett]

His customers have definitely been mis-sold his 'state of the art' and 'superior' car wash by being too ignorant to look into the basics of why it's not all it's cracked up to be, as you rightly pointed out...

I wonder if this has any link to do with how they also decided to buy 'state of the art' and 'superior' cars like the Bentley in the video thumbnail, which I reckon they were also mis-sold on the grounds of 'superior' too!

I think the tv company many have been told he was a lot better than he was. Anyone can put a £5k price on something doesn’t mean anyone will buy it.

The car was actually a brand new Rolls Royce Ghost, which you can claim missold on the grounds of superiority, I’ve done some reading up on new rollers and there is a guy online who has bought an old one and is doing his own repair work and making some interesting videos about it, honestly If you see how those cars are built you will see why they are so hugely expensive, also that they are all hand built here in the U.K. not slapped together in an automated factory churning out 50 cars an hour.
One suspension arm, usually a bit of pressed steel with a bearing pressed into it, on a Rolls is a huge chunk of solid aluminium and the ball joints and bushings are all massive. Now take every piece of the car and engineer it to that standard, hand build it and you’ll see why they charge upward of 200k.

 

[Motorcyclist Colin]

How do you
1) Keep the black plastic bits, clean and still black? (I seemto get the polish on them however careful I am and can't remoive the white marks)
2) Keep the tyres black?

Seagulls in our neck of the woods, leave c==p that sets like what it is, ie fish glue. Little short of a hammer and chisel seems to shift it Any ideas/tips:bang:

 

[SB1500]

How do you
1) Keep the black plastic bits, clean and still black? (I seemto get the polish on them however careful I am and can't remoive the white marks)
2) Keep the tyres black?

Seagulls in our neck of the woods, leave c==p that sets like what it is, ie fish glue. Little short of a hammer and chisel seems to shift it Any ideas/tips:bang:

Well I never worry when I apply wax to mine. As using a standard pencil eraser will remove it perfectly without much effort. It’ll leave ‘rubber shreds’ everywhere, but rub them off with your hands and wait a day and the black plastic will be as black / new looking as possible. It’s a cheap trick the wax makers don’t want you to know so you’ll buy their removal products. Try it, promise it’ll work!

 

[babbo_umbro]

How do you
1) Keep the black plastic bits, clean and still black? (I seemto get the polish on them however careful I am and can't remoive the white marks)
2) Keep the tyres black?

Seagulls in our neck of the woods, leave c==p that sets like what it is, ie fish glue. Little short of a hammer and chisel seems to shift it Any ideas/tips:bang:

I use Turtle Wax Ice polish - polishes paint and black trim and leaves no residue.

 

[Leroypanda]

Glass, put some household vinegar and water in a spray bottle, spray on to the glass do not soak just a mist, get some old newspaper and clean like you would with a cloth do not scrub.

Black bits, get some ACF50 on there it also works as an anti corrosion lubricant so you can pop under your rear axle and give that a coat to.

Bodywork https://www.wilko.com/en-uk/triplewax-1l-waterless-wash/p/0323209 , i havent 'washed' a car for years.

 

[perelaar]

I spray the panda from time to time at a "self car wash". First foam lance, then rinse at the end rinse with denaturalised water to avoid streaks.

I might have a wax or other protective coating applied before the winter.

Keep in mind my car is parked outside (our Cupra Ateca takes up the garage) all the time, next to a busy road so lots of road grime and dust. And I use as my shooting vehicle, so a lot of offroad