How Do You Clean Your Car?

[Teh_singh]

How often and how do you clean your car on the weekend ;).

Due to college I only get time twice a week but have spent some money on some

new stuff ;).

My process:

1. Light rinse

2. SNOWFOAM!

3. Wash off after 10 minutes.

4. Iron x the car (DO THIS!)

5. Clean the engine and dress it.

6. Clean and then seal the alloys.

7. Two bucket method to clean car using microfibre mit.

8. clay the car.

9. Polish

10. Treat all the plastics on the car.

11. Wax.

12. All the glass on the car.

13. Lastly all the interior

[bigmunkynutz]

I start by getting my gear out and setting up the power washer, the I fill one bucket with soap a little dash of snow foam and water and another with just water. I then fill my snow foam lance. I apply chemical guys diablo wheel cleaner to the wheels on just one side at a time and then cover that with a short squirt of snowfoam and agitate very gently with a wheel brush, power hose off and this should leave you with mostly clean wheels just follow this up till 100% clean. I then snow foam the car and let it dwell for 5-8 minutes.

Once the snowfoam has been left to dwell power hose off paying a bit of extra attention to bug splats and tar spots.

I wash the roof and front window with a supernatural wash mitt then rinse in the clean water bucket, I then do side and rear windows and return to the rinse bucket, bonnet and top half of one side and return to the rinse bucket, rear bumper and the top half of the other side then back to the rinse bucket, Front bumper and back to the rinse bucket, half of one side bottom half and back to rinse bucket, the other three half side bottoms rinsing between. I then grab my old megs wash mitt with the netting and wash sills and the undersides if the bumpers.

Throughout this process always wash in straight-line and not in circular motions as this will reduce the risk of swirl marks.

Dry car with super fluffy microfiber towel, apply tire seal, chamois the windows and stand back and admire your 45 minute wash.

1-4 washes I'll apply a quick sealant to top up the Collonite 845 Wax, this will last 12 months but I add a claybar and ironx phase followed by a quick Machine polish and reapply in March/April and Sept/Oct as for the alloys I've applied c5 techniq so that's good for 12 months too. After year of experimentation with wax's I've stuck with the 845 as its durability and gloss is unbeaten (unless you spend a few hundred quid)

I alternate the interior clean as one week I'll vacuum another I'll apply dash & plastic sealer and another I'll do interior windows.

[stevegtuk]

Mines washed "act of god style",,,,,, leave it out in the rain

[b4zz]

clean mine every weekend weather permiting.

rinse of lose dust etc with hose pipe.

then wash from the roof down and do wheels last.

then go over paint work with megs quick detaliar or quick wax to keep the wax toped up

then about every 3 months but a coat of proper megs wax on.

go over my wheels with megs wheel detaliar .

seal with poorboys or wheel wax about every 3 months.

got rain x on all the windows

[b1g_dav3]

I just let the dirt accumulate, washing in puddles and heavy down pours.

[Stoney871]

Hot foam and jet wash once a week, wax spray monthly.

Car needs doing weekly as it accumulates road grime, seagull crap and diesel fumes on it constantly.

[Guest]

1. Rinse car

2. Wash car with Meguairs Gold Class

3. Rinse off

4. clay (if it needs it)

5. Rinse again

6. Scratch X (if I can be bothered)

7. Polish (if I can be bothered)

8. Wax

I haven't done this method for quite a while since I get leg ulcers and i had sciatica last October for 4 months. I didn't even wash my Fiesta 2004 for at least a year!!

I washed (just lightly washed with Gold Class) my new car (then dried) last week because the rain left marks and there was a lot of seeds off trees all over it.

[Guest]

These are the products I use:

Meguiars Gold Class Car Wash Shampoo & Conditioner

Meguiars Wash Mitt

Meguiars NXT Generation Tech Wax 2.0 Paste

Meguiars NXT Generation Glass Cleaner

Meguiars Quik clay detailing System

Auto Glym Super Resin Polish

Auto Glym Intensive Tar Remover

[Emma727]

1. pre-rinse the car with the hosepipe to shift loose dust and dirt.

2. wash the wheels, currently using demon shine wheel cleaner but am looking into others for waxstock.

3. 2 bucket method car wash using megs gold class shampoo in 1 and plain water in the 2nd bucket, using a washmitt.

4. Rinse car off using the hosepipe again.

5. de-tar/iron-x/clay depending on paintwork condition.

6. lime prime entire car to give a nice fresh finish.

7. coat with 1 coat of dodo snh a leave to cure for 20-30 minutes.

8. clean windows inside and out while waiting for wax to cure.

9. buff off 1st coat of wax and leave for an hour then apply a 2nd coat of dodo snh, leaving to cure for another 30 minutes.

10. buff off 2nd coat and leave the car for 24 hours.

11. next day apply 2 coats of dodo rfr leaving an hour between coats.

I do this probably every 2 months as my car lives on the m25.

for a top up wash in between i wash with megs gold class, clean the windows and top up the wax with dodo b.o.b detailer spray.