How I 'clean' my car! Picture Heavy! - Full detail

[abhardwaj1990]

Hi guys, dedicated the weekend on getting my daily as shiny as possible! Thought I'd make a thread to share what I did/used.
Here goes:

Stage One - Washing
Here's how she started:

(Was filthy! Don't let the pictures fool you!)

Car was then foamed:

Out came the 2 buckets. Both filled with warm water.
In one was standard car shampoo 'clean water bucket', the other just water with a grit guard fitted 'dirty water bucket'.

Out came the lamb wool mitt, cleaning a small section at a time, then cleaning the mitt in the 'dirty water' bucket. Repeat process till the whole car is cleaned. I also cleaned the insides of the doors/door shuts, boot etc.

Car was then rinsed.
Out came the clay:

Wiped over the whole car, making sure it was well lubricated with the quick detailer. The next picture shows a before and after the clay, the wing has been clayed, and you can tell the paintwork is smoother because of the water beading, the door has not yet been clayed:

This is the clay bar after just half the car was done!

After claying I applied tyre cleaner on the rubber rings. Let that do its work.

Continued on next post.

 

[abhardwaj1990]

Then went on to clean the car again.

Rinsed, then dryed with a large microfibre drying towel.

Looking half decent already!


Stage Two - Correction
This stage was for the polishing and paint correction. There were a few swirls on the car here and there, and a few areas where paint had faded. For this I used the Kestrel DAS-6 with the Meguiars Polishing pad and Meguiars 80-83 cut polishes.

83 was used for the more faded/damaged areas, 80 for the rest of the car to get rid of any swirls/marks
Didn't get many before and after shots as silver is hard to take pictures of! Here's a few anyway:
Before

After

Before

After

The bonnet after a wirl of 80:

I also gave the wheels a quick polish with a polishing spot pad, no pictures though.

 

[abhardwaj1990]

Then the head lights. They were riddled with stone chips and oxidation.

First step was to mask around them with detailing tape to ensure paintwork wasn't scratched. Then wet sanded with 1500, and then 2000 grit sandpaper.

And then polished with 83 cut Meguiars with the Meguiars cutting pad. Result:

Not entirely happy as they're not crystal clear. Will be repeating the process, but using a bigger range of sandpaper, starting lower (about 800), ending higher (3000). Then Polishing with Meguiars PlastX.
Stage Three - Protection
Now for the finishing touches.

Wax, used Autoglym HD wax, love the stuff, and the smell :wub:

Applied with foam applicator, making sure it was slightly damp at all times to the wax spread better.
Wax On:

Wax Off:

Allowed to cure for about 20 mins before wiping away with a dry Microfibre cloth.

Then let the car rest the night

Next morning, I gave the car one more coat of HD wax, just to make sure it was protected

 

[abhardwaj1990]

Then got out the poor boys:

Coated the wheels once, didn't need to go with much more as I gave them 3 coats when they were painted a little over a month ago!

Once cured out came the tyre shine:

Before:

After:

Then time for 'Back to black'.

Covered all the plastic trims of the car. Then buffed off with a clean microfibre cloth

Then cleaned all the windows and mirrors with this:

Exterior done!

 

[abhardwaj1990]

Stage Four - Interior
For the interior I first washed the seats with a wet and dry vacuum. When dryed I proceeded with a normal dyson to clean it out. For the steering wheel, door cards/ dash etc I used 3M Leather and vinyl cleaner. Worked a treat!
Before:

After:

Result

 

[abhardwaj1990]

Some more wh0ring

It's a shame it's silver, doesn't shine enough! lol

Hope this guide is of help to people! Thanks for reading!

Arun

 

[bildo]

Looks great mate, as stated though silver is a very unrewarding colour to work on sadly.

I also rate PlastX highly, I used the same polishing technique as you on similar looking headlights to no avail but I found that PlastX made quite a substantial difference.

I need to get mine done soon, it's just finding a full weekend with no need for the car that's the trouble!

 

[jonjay]

Cracking writeup and great effort!

Some tips bud

1) Wash Wheels first and clean tyres also.
2) Clean arches
3) Then snowfoam and wash the car.

You may have done this anyway

 

[GlanzaV]

Cracking writeup and great effort!

Some tips bud

1) Wash Wheels first and clean tyres also.
2) Clean arches
3) Then snowfoam and wash the car.

You may have done this anyway

I usually have a separate brush for cleaning the arches then, call me anal, I back to black the inner arches.

 

[jonjay]

I usually have a separate brush for cleaning the arches then, call me anal, I back to black the inner arches.

Yes thats best practise.

I have seperate brush for every single task and do not recommend mixing them as you never know what dirt you may transfer.

1 alloy wheel brush
1 arches brush
1 tyre brush
1 detail brush for the nooks you can get and delicate areas.

 

[abhardwaj1990]

Looks great mate, as stated though silver is a very unrewarding colour to work on sadly.

I also rate PlastX highly, I used the same polishing technique as you on similar looking headlights to no avail but I found that PlastX made quite a substantial difference.

I need to get mine done soon, it's just finding a full weekend with no need for the car that's the trouble!

Cheers pal. Need to invest in PlastX, took a trip to halfords and they had no clue what plastic polish was! Kept pointing me out to back to black trim polish lol

Cracking writeup and great effort!

Some tips bud

1) Wash Wheels first and clean tyres also.
2) Clean arches
3) Then snowfoam and wash the car.

You may have done this anyway

Cheers. Cleaning the arches and wheels is always first, have a separate mitt for it as well, but forgot to write about it
Do need to invest in a proper snow foam lance, this is just the cheapo one that came with the washer!

I usually have a separate brush for cleaning the arches then, call me anal, I back to black the inner arches.

Why Have I not thought of the back to black arches!

 

[n_d_fox]

Looking splendid mate... nice writeup too

 

[gtikezz]

great write up mate, ime still trying to find the right stuff etc to use so guides like this are great

 

[n_d_fox]

great write up mate, ime still trying to find the right stuff etc to use so guides like this are great

DetailingWorld is your friend...

 

[abhardwaj1990]

Looking splendid mate... nice writeup too

great write up mate, ime still trying to find the right stuff etc to use so guides like this are great

Cheers Kezz. Give me a shout whenever and I'll try to help

DetailingWorld is your friend...

 

[gtikezz]

DetailingWorld is your friend...

is that a websight ?

Cheers Kezz. Give me a shout whenever and I'll try to help

cheers mate if only you were closer i could pop over and see how its all done

 

[abhardwaj1990]

You're not too far Kezz!

 

[GlanzaV]

Why Have I not thought of the back to black arches!

Prob cos you can't get your hand in there I could have a party in my arches haha!

 

[abhardwaj1990]

Prob cos you can't get your hand in there I could have a party in my arches haha!

It's not even low enough yet

 

[n_d_fox]

You're not too far Kezz!

There are quite a few of us in the area