DIY Car Washing and Polishing

[Flanderz]

Hi Guys
I noticed that in the requested articles there was one on how do I polish my car properly? Well I just happened to work as a car detailer for a bit so here is a little guide on the best ways to get maximus waximus onto ur car

P.S I Only recomend meguairs when washing ur car, have had nothing but good experiances with most of their products, also have alot of time on ur hands can take a whole day of work when done right

Step 1: Wash
First of rinse your car well with a high pressure hose, high pressure hoses are the best to wash with as they remove alot of grit and grime that can scratch while polishing. Then add a good portion of car wash (Meguairs Gold Class) into a clean bucket (if it has dirt in it wash it out as this scratches ur car). Fill with warm to hot water, and rinse off a lambswool or synthetic sponge to use. Wash your car thoughly in sections hosing off when one has been completed. This step should take 30-45mins. If your sponge gets dirt or grime on it wash it off immediatly as this will cause scrathches (if you drop it, give it a good wash, don't just dunk it back into your bucket). Once done, use the normal hose to give a final rinse, let the water trickle down from the roof making sure everything is rinsed well. Rinsing with the normal hose is better than high pressure as any dirt is carried away with the water stream, high pressure can actually put dirt back onto your car forcefully. (also a good idead to have a tap filter fitted, u will be surprised how much gets trapped in one $10 from bunnings)

Step 2: Chamie
First off drive your car into the garage and get out a good quality chamie. Old & used ones will scratch. Wash the chamie in warm water with the smallest amout of car wash u used for the car, then make sure it is rinsed really well. The best thing to do is to hold the chamie by its 2 corners, let it sit on the body (it should stick to it from the water) then drag along until it gets soaked with water, then squeeze out, doing it this way reduces scratch marks as there is no pressure from your hand on the body. Repeat untill the car is completley dry. If your really predantic like me, you can even use a blower to get rid of any excess water, cause remember, polish and water don't mix very well.

Step 3: Paint Cleaner
Most car care products will have a type of product called paint cleaner, this is the best way to get rid of any old wax and surface contaminets. First off check your car to see if it needs a polish. Rub your hand over the paintwork, It should be silky smooth, If it is you do not need to polish and wax and can just drive your car to the next cruize. But if you feel little bumps and a rough fininsh then you need to geive it a shot of paint cleaner. These little bumps are surface inperfections that are caused by industrial fallout, road grime, rain (yes it does damage your paint) and other little bits and pieces. Make sure you have a hand applicator (little meguairs sponge thingy) and plently of 100% cotton terry towles. Apply a small ammount to the hand applicator and remember to work in sections at a time, best to start at the roof and work your way down eg bonnet then boot, then sides. A smalll amount should be about a 20c coins worth. NEVER apply product to your car by squezzing it onto the paint. Using a circular hand motion, apply to the paint making sure you cover every area, and take care not to get the paint cleaner on rubbers and plastics (it is hard to do, that why I say go slow). Once you have finished a section, let the product dry to a haze. Grab a terry towel and have it folded into 4 sections, that way it give you 8 buffs with each towel. Buff using a rigourous circular motion, remember that the towel should be unfolded into a new section when you get a build up of product on the towel. Make sure you get all the product off, then get another clean one and give it a once over with the clean towel. (one towel for buffing the product off and one for buffing after the product is off). Check your work, the paint should feel alot smoother now, continue until the car is done and make sure all product is buffed off.

Step 4: Scratch repair (extra step)
After using the paint cleaner, you might notice some swirl marks on your paintwork if the paint cleaner did not get all of them out, everybody will as almost everything causes scratches (ppl leaning up agains ur car, the brush wand at carlovers etc). To get MOST of these out use meguairs sctach X. Find the areas that have the most scratches and use this product in these sections (u do not need to do the whole car but you can if it is really bad). Scratch X will soften the clear coat on ur paintwork a little and alow you to buff out those scratches. Use a clean applicator and terry towel and work on these sections using the polishing method described in section 3. (NEVER use the same applicator or terry towel when using different products, always use different ones and mark them as to witch product was on witch applicator & terry towel. Mixing two products then rubbing it against ur paintwork is not the best idea. eg if u used paint cleaner on one applicator it is not ok to use scratch X on the same applicator pad, get a new one.)

Step 5: Clay bar (extra step)
A clay bar looks like a bar of soap and what it does is get rid of any baked on stuff that you might not be able to see (eg paper turns yellow in the sun, your clear coat does the same thing but its hard to see, a clay bar rubs these imperfections out). The bar is a little bit sticky and can be moulded into any shape, but you shouldn't need to. You need the surface to be slippery in order to rub against your paint. I u buy meguairs you will get a bottle of quick deatiler with the clay bar. First off wet a section you will be working on with the quick detailer (use a bit) then start rubbing the clay bar against the paint work. It should slide very smoothly along the paint, When it stops doing this, move onto another section (try to avoid rubbing onto a area that has no quick detailer sprayed onto it as the bar will leave a mark on the paint). Keep going until you are satisfied, the paint should be very silky smooth after a hit off the bar. If you have marks on the paint from the bar hitting areas that had not quick detailer on them (and you will trust me). Get a clean terry towel and buff these out. They take a bit to get out, just squirt some mor quick detailer on it to help (& it smells fantastic too).

Step 6: Polish
By now the paint on your car should be looking alot better and should feel like glass when toutching it. The next step is to polish your car. Use a polish that suits ur car. (eg Deep wet look polish for darker colours, normal polish for lighter colours), it doesn't make much difference in my experiance but it is up to you. A polish will make the paintwork have a deeper richer colour and will nourish the paint & clear coat with oils that will help it last against any enviromental nasties. Start from the top and work your way down to the bottom of the car. When buffing the haze from a polish make sure that you do an initial buff, then follow up with a clean towel and give it a really good buff (the more you buff the better it will look). Also I like to give the windows a little bit of a polish as well as this can take out some minor things on them. (gets overspray off very easily). Make sure you get all the product off tho and you might want to fininsh them off with some window cleaner to make sure it is all off (NEVER polish the inside of a window if it is tinted, this will take off the tint, also use a very small amount of polish on windows too.)

Step 7: Wax
OK by now your arms will be aching like hell, but your car will be loving you very much. Your paint will be looking like a million bucks BUT in order to now protect it and to make any water bead right off it you need to wax it. Wax will leave a film of protection on ur paintwork and will keep all that hard work from before from being spoilt by the great outdoors. BUT Wax will also make dirt stick to your car alot easier (double edged sword). Use a good quality wax (Gold class is the bomb). I wax everything on my car, rubbers, lights plastics and windows, it will actually nourish any rubbers & plastics. Unfortunatly the wax is the hardest to apply and buff off because it is a thicker liquid. Start from the top and work your way to the bottom working in sections. The wax like the polish needs a really good intial buff and then an even better follow up buff with a clean towel. Once the car is done get some more clean towels and buff it again until you can put a towel on the bonnet, give it a little push and it should slide right off the end. Pay attention to plastics and rubbers as if they arn't buffed off properly they will leave a white haze, windows need the same attention as well as the wax will leave a residue when using ur wipers if not done properly.

Still more to come guys but I hope this helps.

[supersamEK]

cmon more more!!! very helpful

[MoDCoN]

Oh wow this is great! Just what i've been looking for! Cleaned/polished dad's car yesterday... Nice an' shiny!

Sticky this???

[steve]

very professional advice!

Do you recommend the use of a buffer at any stage of the detailing process?

[h22a accord]

nice work, excerllent info for those wanting to know or that didnt know already have you got any pics of your car to show us the results?

[[stealth]]

wow comprehensive writeup... pics would be great tho!

[fadz]

i was told truck wash is very good...if anyones heard of it, its used for most semi trailers/trucks etc , and duz a greater job then most the others.....

[wkdteg]

haha nice write up matt... ur doin my car once its back on the road LoL
keep up the good work

[Redteg]

Hi Guys
P.S I Only recomend meguairs when washing ur car, have had nothing but good experiances with most of their products, also have alot of time on ur hands can take a whole day of work when done right

I agree! Most (not all) of Meguairs products seem liek good value for money to me.

Although, I'm not a detailer and have never been in the business, but I like to wash, clay, wash again, and then use the paint cleaners and polishes etc. I have found that this gets rid of gunk easier and quicker. But there are many ways of achieving the same thing.

Also, only have ever used synthetic chamois and even then i just let them sit on the paint, no moving about. I've heard that the natural ones like to draw oils up out of the finish. But who knows...

[aaronng]

I find natural chamois a little too "grabby". I use a microfibre chamois. If your mf does draw out oil from your paint, just use Meg's Deep Crystal Polish (step 2). That will replenish the oils and since it is a fully chemical polish, no scratches or wearing down of you paint (unless you are crazy enough to use a wool applicator).

My process is:
1) Wash - NXT car wash (Very good car wash. $20 for 1.9 litres too)
2) Dry - Meg's superglide microfibre chamois (doesn't hold as much water, but doesn't grab and remove wax)

If I am detailing:
3) Clay - Clay Magic blue clay + quick detailer or concentrated car shampoo in a spray bottle
4) Spot repair - ScratchX (make sure you use it correctly. Proper method on Meg's online forum). Follow up with Meg's deep crystal polish on the spot to replenish oils.

Now it splits into 2 lines, depending on what I want:
For protection:
4) Paint cleaning - Klasse AIO. Leaves a layer of polythene protection.
5) Waxing 1 - Meg's NXT Tech Wax
6) Waxing 2 - P21s Carnauba wax for the deep look

For looks:
4) Paint cleaning - Klasse AIO or Meg's Deep crystal Paint Cleaner (step 1)
5) Polish - Meg's Deep crystal polish (step 2)
6) Waxing 1 - Meg's NXT Tech Wax
7) Waxing 2 - P21s Carnauba wax

Putting Deep crystal polish before NXT results in darker areas in the paint if you don't buff it out properly and evenly with many clean microfibre cloths. That's why I rarely use this method anymore.

I just got my Bosch PEX 400AE dual action orbital and will use Poorboys SSR2.5 and SSR1 for my swirl removal. If you have a machine, Poorboys is cheap. It's only $16 for 473mL at waxit.com.au and that is much better value than $20 for a small tube of ScratchX at BigW.

[newmski]

if ur just doing and "in between" major wash - wash then i would skip out the high pressure hose as it will remove the wax.
excellent write up lol and WEAR SUNSCREEN if ur in the sun

[A'PEXi]

basically, i followed a few of the steps outlined in the first post which corrected my technique, and i must say the result is simply amazing.... i did not use a clay bar due to the fact that i didnt have one; and also did not use scratch x as there weren't any visible scratches.... megiuars car wash, chamios, sponge, paint cleaner, polish, colour boost wax (triple action) was used. here's a close up pic (the right is my bonnet, and the left is my fender)...



i only finished the process tonight, so excuse the dodgy pic :P