Novice Help! What products?!

[Deaks]

I will one day upgrade to the famous snow lance.

But as a complete novice to looking after a car properly - I'd really appreciate if someone could link me or inform me of basically a starter kit type of thing.

Clays, waxes, shampoos, wheel cleaners, brushes etc. (All in one bag typa thing?! inky

Cheers,

Will

 

[Mentalpen]

basics are wash and dry

then there is pre wash (foam) wash and dry

then there is wash, clay, polish and dry

then there is wash, cleanse (fallout & tar remover) polish and clay

Its a minefield and depends on how much you want to spend and how much time you want to put in.

If you do the last of those correctly then the simple weekly wash and dry is good enough.

detailing world is great for tips.

I'm currently entered in to a cleaning comp, have a look and read of what i've done BY CLICKING HERE. You can even vote for me if you like.

 

[Deaks]

basics are wash and dry

then there is pre wash (foam) wash and dry

then there is wash, clay, polish and dry

then there is wash, cleanse (fallout & tar remover) polish and clay

Its a minefield and depends on how much you want to spend and how much time you want to put in.

If you do the last of those correctly then the simple weekly wash and dry is good enough.

detailing world is great for tips.

I'm currently entered in to a cleaning comp, have a look and read of what i've done BY CLICKING HERE. You can even vote for me if you like.

Cheers mate very helpful, read your process on that site to and then voted for you

 

[Mentalpen]

Thank you, they said you a email to confirm the vote.

Like i say a good base is the key. With the wax i use you have to strip the car back to the paint so to speak to apply it and its not cheap to buy but it is fantastic wax and it will last you well over 5 years for one tub.

My advice would be choose how anal you want to be and go from there, its far better to do a job correctly with less expensive products than spend a boat load and do a poor job.

birthdays, valentines days, xmas etc i only ask for 2 things. Cleaning products and track day vouchers. Being a paid member gets you a discount from someone on here in the traders section that deals with cleaning products or that website i use gives you a discount on a accumulated spend so for example EVERY order i do gets me 7.5% discount and eventually i'll get to 10% off. When your buying a £200 wax its a good saving.

Every little helps.

 

[Robo_#1]

If your just starting out, don't worry about snow foam straight away, its great and its fun but its not the be all and end all of cleaning some make it out to be.

First off get yourself a decent wash mitt and some decent shampoo (to be honest even Auto Glym shampoo is decent so is Dodo Juice Born to be Mild, there's lots out there at reasonable prices so take your pick), and two buckets preferably with grit gaurds (if not just learn not to dunk your hand to the bottom of the bucket and pick up the sediment). ~£10


Bilberry is a great shout for wheel cleaner, you dilute it heavily so its a decent value buy. 1ltr £9

Get some decent drying towels and some microfibres a pack of 3 ~£10

Get a decent drying towel or two ~£8-£10

Personally I'd look at getting some Iron-X and Tar remover, CarPro have released an all in one called TRIX so you could give that a go first. What this means is you can get rid of a lot of contaminents BEFORE dragging the clay bar across your paint to get rid of the rest ~£13 for TRIX

Meguirs clay is pretty decent, can be bought as a kit for a reasonable price and from Halfrauds so theres your starter clay.


Waxes and sealants are dependant on your paint and your budget. I tend to go for a Glaze and Sealant in the summer for maximum effect, then switch to a hard wax for winter (like Collinite 476, its hard to apply and buff it does last the sh!tty months).

For more info and tips on technique get over to detailing world

 

[Robo_#1]

Also Mentalpen has a good point, your better to start out with a selection of cheaper products and work on your technique, and TBH see if you even have the patience to do the job thoroughly before spending huge sums of money of high end products.

The stuff I've listed above is all entry level stuff and will get you up and running, used right its a nice safe way to start.

 

[Antti O]

1. Prewash with autofoam snowfoam (bilthamber), you can even use it with pump spray bottle
2. For stiffer dirt, surfex hd (bilthamber)
3. Use for example cheap autoglym tar remover
4. Then car pro iron-x to remove all metal deposits
5. Clay rest with sonüs soft autoclay, do not apply much pressure
6. Wipe with isopropanol alchol (IPA) to clean all greases
7. Wax it with good quality carnauba wax (915 collinite)

And remember wash car between every product. Sounds bit of hard work but personally i think you should only do this 1 or 2 times a year. Maintenance wash is easy now, dodo juice born to be mild, 10ml for bucket of water and wash mitt. Prewash is preferred with autofoam.

So in conclusion:

For wash:
Bilt hamber autofoam
Bilt hamber surfex hd
Dodo btbm shampoo

for clean
carpro iron-x
autoglym tar remover
claybars

for wax: fk1000p or 915 collinite.

And you also will need some applicators and towels and patience. But end result will be nice if paintwork is still good and do not have swirl marks.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wyq_ZlxyCyI