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Hi guys,

I need to extend my cleaning/detailing range and wouldnt mind some recommendations.

My usual clean involves:

- Rinse with sponge
- Autoglym shampoo with sponge
- Rinse again with sponge
- Dry with meguiars drying towel
- Apply Autoglym super resin polish with polishing cloth & remove
- Autosol then super resin polish on exhaust
- Sponge on Tire shine
- Hoover interior
- Wipe down interior with water, dry and Sponge on Autoglym interior shine
- Autoglym fast glass on windows

Now I've never really been taught the wrongs and rights i've just picked stuff up over time, i recently read on here that a 'sponge' is a big nono which I always wondered about so i've bought a meguiars wash mitt. I've also bought the meguiars clay kit and tried out the wax. I've just bought some Autoglym leather cleaner as well...

So my questions are:

- Am I doing anything wrong? or any better products I should use (including the ones I just bought)
- Are there any steps I should include?
- I would like to go about buying some good wax, more for good protection than anything else as the car isnt garaged, what do you recommend? what about the Autoglym HD wax or the bodyshop Autoglym Liquid wax?
- What soft top fabric cleaner/protector do you recommend? I was going to get the autoglym stuff but there appears to be some bad reviews on it
- I'd like to keep the engine clean and shiny what do people use to do this?

Sorry for the essay I'd just like to clear everything up before going to town on the car.

Hiya mate, firstly I'd relagate your mitt to use on your wheels, and get a nice wollen mitt for your paintwork. Something like this:
http://www.elitecarcare.co.uk/eurow-100 ... 46151900ba

An absolute must on top of that, is using two buckets (if you don't already). one with your clean shampoo in, one with warm water. You use the water bucket to rinse your mitt everytime it comes off the car before going in your clean shampoo bucket. Stops dirt getting back onm the paintwork.

These are great for that:
http://www.elitecarcare.co.uk/grit-guar ... et-set.php

You'll need a better towl too once you get into it. Those Megs towels are thin and tiny, this one is the dogs..
http://www.elitecarcare.co.uk/chemical- ... 5-x36-.php
I'd recommend using two of these, one for patting one for smeres, but depends on how anal you want to be with it haha.

My washing routine with this stuff would be. you'd obviously skip the first three steps if you don't have a pressure washer and snow lance.

jet down with pressure washer
foam with snow lance
jet down with pressure washer
Using the two bucket method wash the roof, bonnet, all windows, front bumper then change water.
then upper door panels, tailgate, rear bumpers, then lower door panels.

Basically working your way down, cleanest to dirtyest. If it's really dirty I'll change the water twice.

Rinse down with pressure washer again,
then pat dry with towel,
quick detailer and microfibre cloth on it to get rid of excess watermarks and bring out a shine.

I clay and wax about 4 times a year. which would be:

wash
clay
wash
polish
maybe glaze
then wax

And polish/glaze attemptingly once a month (give or take how much time I have).

Any queries just shout mate.

Could talk about cleaning all day

Here's a list which you may find useful (or not!), it's most of what I use for what job.:

Wollen mitt for washing
Variety of shampoos, at the moment I'm on Megs Shampoo Plus (not bad)
Snow lance and foam for prepping wash
Microfibre towels for drying
Microfibre mitt and brush for wheels
Megs All purpose cleaner for interior cleaning, engine bay tidying, mild wheel wash, and wheel arch cleaning
Billberry wheel cleaner for intense wheel cleaning
Poorboy's wheel sealant for wheel sealing
Autoglym Aqua Wax for last minute wheel shine
Collinite 476s for wax
Klasse All In One for polish/sealant
Poorboy's Black Hole for Glaze
Chemical Guy's trim gel for plastic trims, tyre walls and rubber window seals
Autogym Vinyl and Rubber care for interior dressing and engine bay rubber
Autoglym Engine and Machine Cleaner for engine degreasing and doorshuts
Foam Applicator pads to apply wax and sealant
Microfibre cloths to buff off wax and sealant, and everything else
Poorboy's Spray Gloss for a Quick Detailer
Megs Clay bar for Claying
Autoglym Glass Polish for cleaning windows
And various detailing brushes for door joints and hidden seals

I would heavily recommend all of the above for each job, apart from the clay. It's not a bad product, but I know there is better out there (I've just never gotten round to buying any!)

there's also tonnes of better waxes too, but for the price, Collinite rules

EDIT: if you want to buy anything car cleaning product related, chances are either of these two will have it:

www.elitecarcare.co.uk
www.cleanyourcar.co.uk

cheers for the lengthly reply tim I'll take a closer look at the weekend, just pricing up about £90's worth of stuff I need Inc drying towel, 2x mitts, decent wax and a few other products mentioned above, also looking in to getting a snow lance and pressure washer, Getting excited about giving her a full detail when she's back, it's nice to have a car again in a good enough state to want to get anal about cleaning

Man I've missed it! Last one was my gti!!

I don't think I can add to anything Tim has said

Really good post mate, Just getting into myself with show season coming up!

Yeh man, detailing is probably my favorite part of car modifying. I find most meets I'm inspecting peoples paintwork haha.

Snow lances are the best, Probably my favourite part of washing haha. My pressure washer broke in 3 places today though, so am on the search for another fast!

Means I'll have to buy a different attachment for my lance though

Haris: Noticed your post on Pips thread, will have to see it in it's full glory this summer before it goes!

Tim_GTi wrote:Haris: Noticed your post on Pips thread, will have to see it in it's full glory this summer before it goes!

Cheers dude, yup. I've already bought my next car aswell!