Car cleaning and care
 

I usually detail my own cars, but I have never had a car as nice as the one I will soon own. So i was wandering what types of wax, wheel shine, tire shine, soap, washers and anything else you use to clean your FD's with. This might be a stupid question so don't make fun of me, but the last thing i want to do is mess up the paint on my new car. Also what types of leather cleaner and interior cleaners do you use. Thanks

Dri-wash
 

I use this Dri-wash stuff from:
http://www.dri-wash.com/

That stuff works totally awesome. My car has not seen water in almost 2.5 years (occasional storm withstanding). This stuff does wheels, windows, even gets off tar. It leaves a killer finish too. Check out the page for more info.

I was hesitant to use it at first, but after having 2 family members use it on the 98+ BMW M3s I thought it couldnt be too bad :) Totally love it now and will never use anything else.

Bryan

That stuff sounds pretty cool, i might have to try it. Don't have the money for that right now though. I need to get some "reliability" first.

The best thing you can do is NOT go crazy buying "special stuff" or doing anything out of the ordinary.

Most used cars can use a little brightening. This is what I have to do to my project cars usually.

Pop hood, spray some Castrol super clean on the engine. Let it sit for just a very short period of time and hose. Hit the really dirty parts again, rinse repeat.

Start out with a good wash. Use lots of water, 5 gal bucket to let the grit settle to the bottom when you dip your wash RAG. Don't buy one of those cheesy wash mitts, they hold grit in them, use a standard dish towel. I usually just use Dawn dishsoap. You can use carwash stuff and that is a little easier on the wax job.

Ok so wash the car really throughly, get all the corners and edges, rinse often. Dry it off, use a bath towel to dry it. I don't like Chamois (sp?). You probably will have to use two bath towels to get it completely dry. Take the second bath towel, and wipe down the interior, get in all the little grooves. Don't scrub the clear plastic gauge covers, they scratch very easily.

Clean off the gearshift knob, steering wheel, and e-brake handle with the wet towel also. Grime builds up on these parts and a good wet towel and some (not a lot) of elbow grease gets it off without screwing up the leather.

Take the other wet towel and wipe down the door jambs and insides painted part of the doors. Same goes with the hatch area.

I use a rotary buffer, then a obrital buffer, then hand wax with cheapy Turtle wax. With the buffers I use 3M's Finesse (II or III I don't remember which). Don't try to wipe off the polishing compound (don't use Dupont Rubbing compound either). Wash the car again. Dry then wax it. Don't buff it again, you should really only need to do that every few years, buffing takes off paint...

You don't really need to spend much time with the buffers, probably only 30 min with the rotary and a little more with the orbital.

The paint will look beautiful.

On all the project cars I've had the worst thing is when an owner "loved the car too much". Too much Armor All collect dust. Wipe it on with a cloth, don't spray on tires/dash/interior. DON'T use it often, once every few months is enough. I've seen cars with so much AA on them it is pretty much a black slimey mess.

The cars that turn out the nicest are ones where the owner just drove it, maybe didn't keep it waxed all the time. But they also didn't take a brillo pad to get tree pitch off it either (use paint thinner).

Check out these pics:

http://www.webshots.com/search/searc...Redir=1&page=0

That TII has original paint, buffed out by above method.

Jeff

Wow, thanks for the reply. I appriciate you taking the time to type all of that. Ill have to print this page out. :) heh. I know, im a loser.

I think the best stuff you can buy off the shelf are Mequair's. I think it's Gold Class or The Proffessional Class or something like that. The stuff in the tan bottles. I heard the stuff in the marroon bottles are great too.
I have the tan bottle wax and polish. They work great. I also like the smell. Almost smell like candy. :D The gold class car wash is awsome.
A lot of people go crazy over Zaino. I haven't tried it yet, but I read lots of great reviews. www.zainobros.com

I've used Mequair's before. It works well but not as good as i wanted, some of there products work really well.

Dri Wash
 

I use this stuff too, it came heavily recommended to me by my body shop and some Viper owners...it works great, but be sure to do a polish (or cleaner if you need it) about once a year. The dri-wash won't make paint look cleaner, it just does an awesome job of protecting a good finish. Also you can use it to spot clean dirt and water marks and such.

I've always used Meguiar's full product line, because that is what my Dad used. I have people ask me all the time if my car has original paint (93 Vintage Red), and they can't believe that it is nearly 10 year old paint. I think you will be fine with any product from Meguiar's or Mothers, but you can always spend more $$ on Zaino, Zymol, Griot's, etc...:D http://www.imagestation.com/picture/...0.jpg.orig.jpg

meguiars is ok. Some people like Zaino...I'm not one of them.

I like Klasse all-in-one, One Grand Blitz Wax, and Pinnacle Souveran. All VERY good products, all available here: http://www.properautocare.com

and all are suggested by the insanely thourough detailers at the Autopia Car-Care forum (seems to be down right now)

Another Meguiar's user... I like it alot, better than the others I've tried.

Bottom line, there's a lot of good ones out there, pick one and try it. All of the above mentioned brands are great, and wil do what you want. Just be sure to polish the paint before waxing. If your finish feels rough when you pet it, it's probably time for a polish. It'll get rid of contaminants and such, wax will just seal the contaminants in, under the wax layer. Just wax usually doesn't do much to spice up a worn finish.

I did use the Meguiars 3 stage wax for a while but that took too long to apply. Probably a week or so before these pics I used Zymol. I have heard great stuff about Zaino as well.

70k on the paint.
https://www.rx7club.com/forum/attach...&postid=957263
https://www.rx7club.com/forum/attach...&postid=957256

zymol is good wax but i've always used the full line of Griot's Garage products. I've never gone wrong with that stuff and i detail cars on and off when i need to make some cash.

Here's a tip for you on waxing....Apply a light coat of wax, then let it sit for about 5 minutes, then put another coat on top of the first coat, let it sit for 5 minutes, then take it off. The paint looks amazing afterwards.
Peace,
Zach

I use liquid glass polish and I love it. Its great. With liquid glass u dont' need to use wax. Just wash the car, clay bar if u feel like it (I only do once ina while), then apply the polish, the more u add the more glossy it gets, and you can't put to much on.

Thanks for all of the info guys.

Re: Car cleaning and care
 

Glad to see you are interested in getting a great finish. For me, I have found that layering a sythetic wax under a carnuba wax works best. I use Klasse wax and then put Pinnacle Souveran over it.

Always use a polish before you wax.

Washing, I use P21s car wash which is good but its expensive. A sheepskin washmit would be good to get.

www.properautocare.com is a great site. They have many high end products for your car.

Also, many people like Zainos bros, but I have yet to try this.

Try searching, this topic has been brought up before and people have gotten answers

A properautocare fan?

Ahh, I need to stop spending money there! Ahhhhhhhh
All their kits... Ya know, the way they describe stuff makes it sound like you NEEEED the wheel brush, tire brush,
tire cleaner and gloss, trim cleaner, 400 terry pads, and I buy it all blah blah blah... SOOO ADDICTING!

CLICK HERE: https://www.rx7club.com/forum/showth...threadid=69286

My ears!! :( Poor car

Cheapy turtle wax? :(:(:(

From past experience I have to say that the stuff that you get at Griot's Garage is probably the best products I have dealt with in general. My family has been into Muscle Cars and Hot Rods since before I was born and we've been through Zymol, Meguiars (sp.), and pretty much everything else we could find. Once we found these products we stopped using everything else.

You can check it out at:
http://www.griotsgarage.com/index.jsp

If I wasn't using this stuff then I would probably recommend Zymol for the most part. I hope that helps.

- Cody

I've looked into griots garage before, it's expensive stuff. but i will probally end up getting some of there stuff.

good advice overall, but there are a few things that I would recommend/not reccomend.

DO NOT use dishwashing detergent to wash you car unless you WANT to remove all the wax, which can be good sometimes, but for your weekly (or whatever) wash, don't use it. real carwash soap isn't expensive and it will save you alot of time.

While a dish towel might work reasonably well, it will still trap dirt but hold it on the surface. the big wash mitts, although due to the reasons stated by turbojeff, are not ideal, they hold the dirt away from the paint (that is the idea anyway)

I recommend using a chamios over towels beacause chamios' have a smooth surface that won't scratch your paint. SOMETIMES, towels, especially old ones that are likely to be used for cleaning the car, get kinda hard and can put small scratches in your paint. these are similar to what happens if you clean your clear plastic gauge faces with a towel. I think this depends a lot on the towel, because some get this way and some don't. just use your good judgement and make sure it is really soft.

I would not recommend using a rotary buffer unless you have been properly instructed on using one. I have seen many plastic trim pieces ruined by these. Orbital buffers on the otherhand aren't really good for heavy buffing, but are pretty much fool proof and are great for speeding up the waxing process. rotary buffers are good at taking off paint, orbital buffers are relatively safe. just don't use any leveling compound. :)

BTW, just so you guys don't think that i am blowing smoke out of my ass, I worked in a detail shop for 3 years. I guess that dosen't mean that I know anything, but hopefully you will believe me. :D
Good luck. :)

Professionals don't use Meguiar's. They use products like 3M's stuff.

I've used Meguiar's paint cleaner before. Worked well but for the ~$5-6 price for just 6 oz it is a complete ripoff. The ~32 oz bottle of 3M's Finesse It for $20, lasts forever. Go to a bodyshop, ask what they use and where they buy supplies and you'll find the good stuff. You'll also find someone that knows what stuff works and what doesn't.

The crazy steps and expensive products aren't needed. It is just marketing.

Laugh at my post (some people) and guys that KNOW what a clean car is will laugh at you.

Cleaning a car isn't high tech, it is just basic knowledge and trial and error. The neighbors wondered why I was out color sanding a faded '89 Toyota truck. Well it was a learning experience. I screwed up in a few places on a $750 truck, not a $15K sports car:).

I'm workin' on FD #12, probably my 30th car overall. Trust me, almost everyone else is a rookie, I've been tinkering around with polishing, buffing, waxing for 19yrs, not as a professional (don't claim to be one) but as a pretty good amatuer.

Jeff
Use Turtle Wax

http://www.eagleone.com/products/pro...asp?catid=5006

Works great for getting brake dust off of the wheels! Just spray on and hose off, it's amazing.

You musta been typing that up while I was typing mine post up:).

I agree with almost everything you said. My post wasn't meant to be the end all of car detailing.

Yeah, rotary buffers can do some serious damage when used by someone without common sense. Becareful.

On the towel vs. Chamois. I always use a clean towel, see I thought the wife should buy some new bath towels one weekend and I got all the old ones for the shop. My shop towels look better than 50% of peoples bath towels. Use them only once, wash and dry in laundry before you dry the car again. If you do that you won't have "hard" towels. If you don't you should probably use a chamois.

Overall I pretty much agree with you.

Jeff