You must remember three basic rules when washing your car:

· Never wash or detail your car in direct heavy sunlight.

· Never wash or detail your car in extremely cold weather, if you have to, do it in the garage (the goal is to wash the car in a somewhat heated place).

· Do not wash your car after you have driven it. Do the hand test, by placing your hand on the hood to feel if there is any heat, to test if the car has cooled.

After you have found the perfect car-washing environment, you are ready to start.

1. The first thing you should do is wet the car with a hose adjusted to medium spray. This will wash off any lose dirt, or pollutants.

2. Do not use regular dishwashing or hand soap to wash your car. Use any type of car washing solution, which you can find in any auto store.

3. Mix a small amount of the soap with water in a small bucket. You want the soap to get sudsy.

4. Using a clean cloth, dip it into the bucket, getting as much suds as you can get.

5. Using little application pressure rub the cloth in a back and forth motion to eliminate swirl marks in the finish. ( The goal of this step is to loosen the dirt on the car, and hold them in suspension within the solution)

6. Remember: To dunk the cloth frequently in the bucket to get rid of the dirt trapped on the cloth.’

7. Wash sections at a time. Some people wash the car from the wheels up, others from the roof down. It does not make a difference; it is how you prefer to do it.

8. Do not forget to wash the hard to reach places like the bumper or hood edges. Opening your hood may help in getting those areas.

9. Do not forget to also wash your wheel well, and spokes.

10.Rinse the car off with a hose, again adjusted to medium spray.

11.Dry the car with clean cotton cloths. The best cloth to dry your car with is terry towels.

Some people prefer to drive the car around after the washed off the soap to get rid of excess water, but not to dry the car you still want moisture. Drive around the block and then towel dry your car, so you will not get water spots.

Remember to dry your bumpers, wheels, and chrome pieces; leaving no water droplets, because they leave water spots. If you see any dirt on the towel, you did not wash the car properly.

I tend to wash the top first and do the wheels and lower parts last to stop the sponge getting dirty and scratching the paintwork.

Its a good idea to t-cut your paintwork now and again (not too often) to bring back the colour, but make sure you protect the paintwork again using lots of wax.

Oh yeah, and white cars are a git to keep clean

and buy diamond brite to stop the paint fading and do this after a good buff up to help prevent oxidising altough u need sunshine for this and as there is only 4 days of this per year in the uk..............

oh, p.s car wash for me, stuff scratches, sorry boys and girls but my motor is a working vehicle and i dont have the time (plus i am lazy)

3 I think you'll find

i am working on the hunch of it being sunny this leap year

Me too, cba with hand washing... pop down the local Arc 5 minutes and its done... hence al get it detailed in the summer.

plus it gets a dicenfectant wash twice a week at work

I always clean my car myself, that way I know it's done properly

+1

u wanna do mine as well then lol

is it bad ive never washed me car myself... ive hoovered inside a few times but jonah does it when hes doing his haha!

are u meant to vacuum them to, shit i never knew that

Lol I cant see the point in spending hours doing it, then for it to feckin rain a few hours later and wreck all ye hard work... until its sunny i dont see the point.

In the summer i dont mind doing stuff to it though!

i am still shocked u gotta vac them too

rofl u nutter placid...r u up to ur eyes in big mac boxes haha!!

big macs, how dare you, i only eat the finest of burger king i will have you know

ooo double whoppper!!

drooling over my laptop babe, stop it i am getting all tingly

Here's my full wash routine....Grab a coffee!

Equipment/products:

Pressure washer + foaming attachment
2 buckets
Microfibre wash mitt (meguires in my case)
Applicator pads (x10)
Micro fibre clothes x8
Wheel Brush x2
Detail brush
detail swabs
Glass cleaning clothes x 2
Meguires Water Magnet


Snow foam (mine comes from Clean and Shiney)
Meguires NXT shampoo
Meguires satge 1 and 2 paint cleaner and polish
Meguires Scratch X
Clay Bars 1 per wash
Colinite 915 Wax
Colinite 476 Wax
Tyre Gell (Meguires)
Chemical guys Alloy cleaner
Megs Glass Cleaner
Megs interior Cleaner
Meguires Last touch detail spray
Meguires Wheel Cleaner


I stick the clothes in the wash the night before I start.

1. use the pressure washer and Foam Attachment with the snow foam and cover the car in a liberal layer of foam. This lifts surface dirt from the paintwork.

Leave for 5 - 10 minutes soaking.

2. fill 1 bucket with clean water and the other with water and shampoo

3. Rinse the foam off the car.

4. Using the mitt starting wash 1 panel and then rinse it in the clean bucket of water. THe dirt wil rinse out into the second bucket. The bucket with the shampoo is still clean and you wont be rubbingdirt into the paint. Do this with each panel, leaving the sills till the end.

5. Rinse the car and dry it.

6. Use the megs scratch x to remove any blemishes. by rubbing with a single finger in a microfibre

6. Twice a year I clay the car. This pulls contaminant out hte paint. A simple test is to get the selophane off a fag packet or the like. Stick ya finger in it ad run it over the bonnet. I may feel like sand paper....It needs claying:

Spray some detail spray on a 12 inch x 12 area. Take the clay bar and kneed it to soften it. Now rub it in straight lines over the sprayed area. Wipe of hte spray with mirco fibre clothe and do the next section. Repeat the fag packet test and it should feel like glass.

7. Now use the paint cleaner (not T-cut as its too harsh) to remove the remaining oxidants.

8. Polish up to give a shine using the Megs stage 2 polish

9. Now I wax the paint work....twice a year I use the Colinite 915. This is a baot wax that has to be softened in th oven of in the summer on the dash. THis year I'm gonna try 915 and 476.

10. Clean the glass using the glas cleaner and two clothes one to clean the other to polish. Do the same to the lights

11. Now the wheels....Spray on the whel cleaner and scrub it with the brushes leave it 30 seconds then rinse with a hose.

12 Use the Chemical guys wheel wax to coat the wheel. (next time the dust will rinse off.

13. Now the chrome (exhaust, boot trim door handles etc using the chimcal guys wax.

so that 4-6 hours for the outside!

Inside is a little easier,

14. Hoover, and clean the plastics with the interior cleaner.

15. Open the doors and the boot and wash and wax the interior painted surfaces.

16. Finally and most importantly stand back open a beer and admire!

I do this twice a year. In between I foam, rinse, wash, and top up the wax. Then do the wheels and windows. (about 3 hours)

i find ARC useful lol

Exactly, I have used hand car washes in the past, but the roller type can leave marks on the paint. Takes me about 30 mins to wash, rinse, shammy the car.

....I think it has even been mentioned that my sponge has done more miles than the car

i find that i could not give a chuff as i am to lazy lol and it takes about 5 minites for me to get y car washed and dryed and all the scratches are free, no hassle at all. sometimes it gets very tiring sitting watching the rollers so for energy, i sit there drinking red bull and eating a mars bar, this then gives me the energy i need to unscew the valve caps to put air in the tyres, it is very hard work sometimes you know!

All hail Meguiars.

I love the megs products, NXT gen shampoo smells really nicee too!
Best investment was the megs wash mitt, brilliant thing

Investing in a clay bar to do the paint this year, could do with it by now.

Was lookin at these today in Halfords mate, think i may invest in some before April....

They really are worth the money (plus it keeps your hands warm )

My hand was like Ice today

The latest gadget in the detailing wolrd is the Smitt. A bit like a sponge but you can put ya hand in:

this is like what customice was sayin about before i think....

This is what Ice meant:

thaaaaaaats the 1 .....

lol!

what u tittering at mrs ? you dont wash ur car...... I do... or is that what ur laughing at ?

see up i admited that

All the talk has made me get the kit out....

Before:





Snowed the car...and while it did the business got the buckets ready.



Rinsed the snow away and its looking better already



A quick wash, and a wax:



Windows cleaned:



This was the fresh water bucket. Would you really want to rub that on the paint work?



Finally a quick rinse of the wheels



Hopefully tomorrow I can do the inside! Its minging!!!

niceeeee!!!

i used to work in the all american hand carwash in heswall... was a shite job lol... got pissed in the park along the road (towards the glegg pub i think it was called, might be gettin mixed up) before going to work then got stoned in the toilets durin the day... some job ey... complete shambles

wow, the little one has earned their pocket money there, well done.