ok fellow forum goers this will be a guide to how to take car of your car as a detailer would take care of his own. the products that i have mentioned are what i use, that are not the one and only product that does the job similar products will do the smae job, but just make sure you do your homework on them.



1: The wash

first things first never ever wash your car with a sponge, broom, or drive through car wash. these are the enemy of paint.

- you want to start with your engine bay. spray lightly with water to remove excess grime then apply a degreaser and wash off. this works the best with a high pressure wash.

- now the paint.
- get all the heavy muck off with a pre wash washdown
- you want to get a chamois in warm water with some Megiuars Soft Wash Gel (personally think this is best wash available to public, expensive though.
- now clean with the chamois in the same style as a sponge (NO SPONGES ON PAINT)
- now hose the car down using a high pressure washer or hose.
- wash your wheels lightly with a sponge. do not scrub hard.
- scub under wheel archs with a kenco handle broom or similar.

by now the cars exterior should have a nice coat of wax and a shine.


2: The After Wash

once the car is washed you can ran your hand across the paint and feel that it is not smooth, this is called fallout it is crapp that falls out of the sky, such as brake dust, train dust, sap, etc. this can be removed by claying the car. this is using a process with a 3M perfect III or the better one (SOFTER) the eraser bar for your car by clay magic. apply water in a spray bottle keeping the surface damp then rub lighty DO NOT press hard as it may scracth. another point you drop a clay bar you throuh it out.

This stage you will need 4 chamois, the euka-fill ones are the best (the big big ones.) 1 for the paint, 1 for the wheels, 1 for the door jams and 1 for under the hood.

This is simple chamois down, different chamois for different areas.



[B]3: Polish [/B]

there are many ways in which to polish a car and many polishes. the way i do my own car is with a Megiuars applicater pad.

- once you have chamois down the car time to apply the polish.
- you cant go past the Megiuars polishes that are unreal compared to that of turtle wax, kitten etc,
- you can follow there step by step method but i just use the carnuba based polish. this is real thick and yellow and smells awesome. it is also a cleaner polish so it cleans your paint as you work.
- apply the polish in an even circular motion trying not to miss pacthes.
- allow to sit for a 10 - 15 minutes so it can set.
- now comes the hard bit getting the stuff off, but once its done its soooo worth it. using an Aquatouch microfibre polishing cloth (this are awesome because they never scratch) or similar microfibre cloths, if you cant get these you get a real soft nappy (RAG) and take the polish off, concentrating on panel by panel.

you should have a nicely clean polished machine now with your paint sparkling.

i forgot to mentioned the area in which you work, under fluroes or under the sun light, different types of light portray different aspects of your paint work so its up to you, but this isnt a major issue because you can see most things.


4: Engine Bay Looking like New

this is very time consuming and for optimum results needs to be done more than once.

- this is the way i do it there are hundreds of different ways though
- thick grime use Multipurpose Cleaner by ArmourAll to get it off.
- chrome or alloy stuff can be polished up nicely with a product called PURPLE STUFF with some of on a rag it will macco.
- plastics and rubber you use an AUTOGLYM product (cant remeber the name but will put it on here tmorrow) it is a plastic cleaner. put it in a spray bottle water it down about 1/4 product to rest water, apply evenly then leave for 5 - 10 then wipe with a rag. this stuff is real expensive, but it lasts and lasts , well worth the money
- another way is to use ArmourAll orignal protectant with a sponge and rub onto the palstics and rubber. this will have to be redone after each wash.


5: Windows

- Polyglaze is the best stuff a few cleans and the rain bouces off it.
- get an Aquatouch microfibre window rag(if not just get two rags) and a scourer pad with the white and yellows sides (this are the soft ones, green will scracth the hell out of windows so be warned.) also need a nappy(RAG)
- outside windows spray, wipe over with white side of the scourer pad softly, wipe with microfibre rag then wipe again to dry with second rag.
- inside. as most people have tint do not use the scourer pad on the inside of tinted windows. just spray and wipe.

6: Wheels[/COLOR]

brake dust is the devil to a nice set of rims

- do not use acid based cleaners and no really harsh cleaning utensils.
- ArmourAll multipurpose cleaner is the best.
- spray and scrub lightly with a tooth brush
- wipe off
- now to repel brake apply (trust me this works, dont knock it till you try it) apply Mr Sheen Waterguard (must be waterguard other MrSheens will hurt you wheels finish) to you rims all over with a rag. now when you wash your wheels the brake dash just falls off. do this each time you wash your rims and it gets easier and easier.


[B]7: Door Jams [/B]

- again multipurpose cleaner by ArmourAll with a tooth brush to clean the hinges and what not.
- you can get a shine in there by polishing or MrSheening it(watergaurd). this also works for paint under the bonnet.


8: Interior Dash/Vinyls

- wipe down with a damp chamois
- apply AmourAll original protectant with another scourer pad, yellow side, evenly to all that it can be applied to.
- do this once a week for 1 - 2 months and you will always have a nice shiny dash from there on.


9; Carpets/Seats

- try to vac once a week/fortnight to avoid bulid up
- stains are best left to the professionals and they will usually steam clean them
- minor stains can be addressed again with ArmourAll multipurpose cleaner with a clean toothbrush. then vac and allow to dry.



thats about it.

also make sure you throughly clean every thing you use after every time you detail your own car.

hope this helps any problems with scratches or swirling of the paint you can give me a call and we will have a look at what we can do, my business is as below


A & M Detailing
52254816
Cnr Cavendish & Smyth St
Geelong

thanks for time, enjoy,

ICER33

Register on the forums for fewer ads.

Fantastic info, cheers for that.

One issue i always am concerned about is cleaning the engine bay. After spraying a degreaser in the engine bay, is it OK just to squirt a high pressure hose around in there? (am i going to stuff up any electrics?)

no you should be right just cover alarms with a plastic back and bov try not to aim at the electrics just brush over them with the high pressure washer.

have you got any tips for rejuvenating interior plastics..
like if you have parts that are starting to get white or lightish tinge to them cos they are in the sun or you might have accidentally cleaned them with something that makes them whitish

if you got any tips lemme know or products that definately work.. i have tried mothers back to black i think its called and it did nothing noticeable

I use PLEXUS, you can pick it up from autobarn etc.. about $15-19 a can. Anything plastic, glass, rubber... it doesn't just make it look clean it actually does clean & rejuvenate. Especially if you have a convertible with a plastic rear window, after time they brown up etc etc ... spray with plexus and it makes it new again.

Fantastic tut. by the way ICER33, be defenitley using this one.

I do have one question though. With the vacuming of the carpets. Is there an easy way to get all the dirt that is really inside the carpet easily, like some product of the market that attaches itself to the dirt to carpet to be lifited out by your vacumn.

/end demtel ad.

Or should it just go to the professionals if it's really bad.

Cheers.

there is a good site with lots of how-to's on cleaning at
http://www.carcareonline.com/howto.aspx

some good info on cleaning interiors etc.. too

Has anyone ever used one of those commercial carpet cleaners you can hire from supermarkets when cleaning their interiors.

Someone mentioned it to me and wanted to see if others have done the same.

just a question in regards to windows , i use Megiuars windows cleaning product but for some reason or another i allways have smeers that are noticeable mostly on sunny days , how can i get an almost perfect finish ?

just a question in regards to windows , i use Megiuars windows cleaning product but for some reason or another i allways have smeers that are noticeable mostly on sunny days , how can i get an almost perfect finish ?

have you tried newspaper i use just a standard window cleaner wipe it with a cloth then go over with newspaper and it seems to come up fine almost all the time. ???

yeah i tried the trusty old sydney morning herald but i found that paper towels work a tad better still getting the smeering thow , btw im drying windows directly after rinse dont know if that make a diffrence ?

From all accounts these things are pretty good on house carpets so i would say they they would work a treat, i work at a supermarket and everyone that returns them say they work wonders. Our ones are $28 for 24 hours though.

Hey ICER33 do you have any hints on getting swirl marks out?

Anyone know the cheapest place to buy this stuff?

Last i looked if you went out to buy all the things mentioned here it'd be like $150 :

Fair enough it lasts you a year but still!