Disclaimer - I am not a pro, I am self-taught with 15 years experience. I can give my views on products, but if you buy them and don't like them, I'm not to blame. Also, none of the products are, to my knowledge, edible.
A couple of OOFers have asked for a beginner's guide to detailing. I can't stress enough, I have only learned by doing. There are courses you can attend, but for the average person wanting to look after their own cars, they're expensive. Instead, I'm putting together a brief guide to detailing. I've used our Tigra as the main example, which is a 14 year old car. I spent a few hours bringing it back to a decent finish, but by no means concours. For absolute technical detailing, strap on your beard and head over to
www.detailingworld.co.uk - a great bunch of people with an insane appetite for, er, detail.
There are thousands of different products you could buy for every conceivable purpose. Like most hobbies, you could spend a great deal of money - IMHO it's generally diminishing returns. I'll make reference to various ones I've used and how I've found them. I'll just go through the process, mentioning them as and when.
The carFor this I've used our Tigra. It's our biffabout car, previously been damaged and repaired by a blind man on a galloping horse. But, it's a nice metallic black. It had sat under some trees for about 4 months before I started this, so it was coated in bits of tree, bird doings, and general filth. The wheels are painted to a fairly terrible standard, so I haven't done anything with them other than blast them with water and foam. Please, take a moment to think how suave you would look in a motor like this. Steve McQueen "drove" a Puma in the late 90s, but he made the wrong choice of two-seat shenanigans.
BEGINNING EDITED by
Pe Te, on Flickr
IMG_20200503_115208501 by
Pe Te, on Flickr
PreparationBecause the car is covered in all sorts, I want to strip it back to basically bare paint. There are various ways to do this. I like to do as much as possible without touching the paint, because the more times you touch a dirty car, the more chance of making more scratches.
Because it's an old car, and because I know I'm going to polish and wax it immediately, I use All Purpose Cleaner. You can buy big bottles from various detailing companies. I use it for most things - interior deep cleans, wheels, door shuts - but in this case I'm mixing it roughly 1:8. Into a bottle with a foaming head with some hot water and sprayed over the car. Not ideal to do it in sunlight, try not to let it dry. ***Use APC at your own risk. If you use it too strongly it could cause damage to the paint***
IMG_20200503_115530853 by
Pe Te, on Flickr
IMG_20200503_120236297 by
Pe Te, on Flickr
Then let this start to soak. The idea is it will dissolve the tree sap and droppings, as well as any remaining waxes on the paint from previously.
Snow foamYou need a pressure washer to use snow foam. I use a Karcher K2, it works for me, but others are more highly recommended. In addition, you'll need a foam lance. All much of a muchness, about £25-30 for a brass one. They need cleaning out every year or so to work at their best, we've had ours for about five years now. I've replaced the bottle after a slight brute force incident.
IMG_20200503_120408854 by
Pe Te, on Flickr
I like AutoFinesse Avalanche or KKD Blizzard - both are good, won't strip waxes off, and available for about £20 for 5 litres. 5l normally lasts us about six months but we have a lot of cars. Mix this up, about 1:10 is usually right. Have a fiddle with the foam gun to get a reasonable amount of foam, you want it to cling to the paint. The idea being that it softens dirt and starts loosening it.
IMG_20200503_120708143 by
Pe Te, on Flickr
This is after a couple of minutes "dwelling" as the pros say.
Let it sit but don't let it dry on the paint. Especially try to avoid doing it in sunlight - again, there is potential to damage the paint. After 3-5 minutes, go round with the jetwash and rinse it off. Pay particular attention to panel gaps and around the windows, etc, get as much water around as possible to blast out as much dirt as you can. Never aim it at 90 degrees to the paint , always come at it from a shallow angle, so the water lifts the dirt away rather than driving it into the paint. Get the car nice and wet.
TO BE CONTINUED
