63amgnyc

hey guys, just a quick question if anyone wants to chime in.

i always took my car to a great hand wash place i knew that was local and nearby, but unfortunately that place closed now and turned into a full on body shop so they wont be doing washes anymore. i plan on just handwashing the car myself, thats the best way anyways, no one will take as much care of your car as you will.

i was just wondering if anyone knows any great products to use for this process, any reccomendations would be very helpful.

thank you all!

Thrilla

If you're new to this, I recommend Griot's Garage, www.griotsgarage.com. They have starter kits, and their stuff is easy to use with good results. They have instructional videos on how to use their products as well.

Pickles

You can go BESERK on car care products....I DON'T....I keep it simple.
I suppose there are a few variables....is the car an everydayer, is it garaged, how "clean" do you want it to be?
Anyway, as I've said, I keep it simple, & my car is garaged.
I just use a quality car wash, mixed with water in a bucket, & I wash from the top down, I do the wheels last, & I DON'T use a wheel cleaner....I clean the brake calipers & inner rims with the same car wash mixture, & get to the inner rims with a Daytona Wheel brush. I get all the detergent etc off the car/wheels with a Karcher, then chamois off lightly with a synthetic chamois.
I polish the car once a year, on its birthday, with no particular polish....just what I happen to have.
I sold our GTO Coupe last year.... 6 yrs old, it had 75000ks on it, & the paint & wheels etc were like new....
This method has worked for me for years!
Our GTO was yellow, & our C63 is Palladium.......if your car is black?......well then, a little more work may be required?
Cheers, Pickles.

chrisridebike8

If you are going to detail the car completely, then use blue Dawn. It's very gentle and removes all the grease and grime you pick up off the road. I was the wheels and exhaust tips FIRST with a separate bucket. I hate washing the car and then having water spots form as I wash the wheels. I spray simple green on the wheels, tires and exhaust tips before I even turn on the hose, let it sit while I mix up some blue dawn in a bucket and then scrub the tires with a brush and use a mitt (separate from the mitt you use on the paint) to clean the wheels. do each wheel and then use the mitt on the exhaust tips to get as much of the black junk off.

Then make a seperate bucket of blue dawn solution and wash top down as mentioned above. Any time I rinse the paint, I use a hose with NO nozzle. For polishes, I use Griots 2, 3, and 4 machine polishes. I usually start with 3 on one panel and see how that works. If needed, I will use 2 (more aggressive) and work my way to 3 and 4. For wax, I normally use Meguires NXT. It's easy to use and lasts a good while. I haven't had a chance to use this on the C yet, but I think I will use something else since the meguires quick detailer I used seemed to cloud the paint a little bit.

63amgnyc

guys, thank you so much for your feedback. ill definitley look into these products to see what works best. Pickles, the car is not a daily driver and is garaged, it gets driven maybe once every week or two. i took her out the other day and i thought to myself BOY does she need a cleaning.

thanks again everyone, much appreciated! ! !

Dogtag114

I sponge wash the body with turtle wash/wax combo.
Natural shammy dry.
Then wash wheels with daytona wheel brush thru and inside wheel. Old t-shirt rotation for outer wheel nooks crannies and shirt pull thru for calipers.
Simple.

CoolBDPhenom03

It's all about the microfiber.

mrhdream

So on my car, I hand wash using Meguiars wax and wash soap. Really love the shine! I use their Liquid Wax and with darker cars looks amazing. I use two buckets for a "rinse" technique. I leave dirty wheels for last using a separate sponge but the same soap. Car looks new.

When I get lazy I do a touch less, mainly for the undercarriage which is easy to overlook.

I have Hella microfiber cloths to pat dry, as I cannot stand swirls or scratches.

You should check the meguiars forums, heck of a lot of info there.

G'luck
H

Tp_man

I use Zaino on my cars. It makes the paint look extremely wet after a couple of layers of polish. It is applied in extremely thin layers and it takes awhile to learn how to work with it, but the results are worth it. I also use 100% edgeless cotton towels to wash, dry, and polish.
http://www.zainostore.com/

MIG

Swissvax

Clark Kent

I use Zaino Z2, Z6, & Z8. After a few thins coats of this it looks like someone poured on a layer of wet glass.

http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w.../45degrees.jpg
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w...ps8cd91718.jpg

AMG3.2

Klasse Sealant Glaze for a LSP (last step product). It's a synthetic water based sealant that works wonders. I've been using it for years.

For car washes, I use a PH neutral wash from Griots Garage. Off the shelf products will strip off the wax since they are too harsh; somewhat like dish soap.
It also provides tons of lubricity for the paint so you can safely remove debris without scratching the clear coat.

I've heard good things about Zaino, but I've never used it.

Microfiber is your friend when detailing. Use a high quality microfober such as a Meguiars Supreme Shine or Cobra MF. There are lots of towels that claim they are microfiber but in turn will ruin your paint.

Also, believe it or not. I use a grout sponge to wash the car from Lowes. They are somehow amazing at cleaning and releasing dirt when rinsing. If you don't believe me type in "Lowes Grout Sponge Detailing" or something of that nature and a lot of threads from detailing forums will come up. They are also only $1.00 so you can dispose of them any time you want and replace it with a fresh sponge. I've used everything from Griots Garage Merino Sheepskin Mitts, to wash mitts, to sponges and this is my favorite medium thus far.

pcho

hi 63amgny,

I wach my car whenever it is dirty. Minimum once a week and I polish it at least once a month.

I use Zaino too. It is a fantastic product and the polish gives it a wet look especially with dark colours. Unlike wax (with wax each coat you apply, it melts the coat below it, so you always have one coat and it does not last as long), you can apply numerous coat of polish and the more coats you have the wetter it looks. It is also very much easier to polish and you also do not get white reminance in hard to get places when it dries (this happens with wax)

I use Zaino 7 car wash, and I polish with either Zaino 2 or Zaino 5(this get rids of swirl marks) and Zaino 8 to give the final seal. Sometimes I use Zaino CS to seal a 9 months seal after I finish polishing.

I also regularly use the Zaino clay bar to smooth out the body work as particles do build up on the car surfaces.

By the way I also polish the wheel and I use Zaino CS to seal the polish as well.

Go to the Zainobros web page and you can read it all. I been using Zaino products for over 10 years

Perry

ShaneN.

This is pretty excessive but worth a watch, some stuff you won't know, some you will - all worth knowing.

Chargin55

I use Bowdens Own products. They have some excellent tips for car care on their web site.

Heres the link: http://www.bowdensown.com.au/Car_Washing_Article