Washing your Car?

[Flik]

Right guys,

I've got a Emerald Green 14a here, bought it at the weekend.

Now,

Decided to wash it today, looking a bit dirty. So,

I've run over it with cold water, and I've used a bucket of AutoGlym Shampoo/Conditioner with hot/warm water

Now I straight away after attending to an area, wash it off, but after a few minutes it comes up streaky.

Do I need a chamois (sp?) leather? Or anything else

The autoglym bottle mentions a flexi blade? Should I be using one?

I need to get rid of this streaky mess :(

P.S The missus used to take my old tdi through the car wash hence I didn't need to wash it much (was only a runabout) I said no way to carwash on the 200 :cool:

Any help please? I'm going to pop down the road to a car shop see what they've got.

[Egon]

Whoa...hope OCD is around...:D
Sounds like the shampoo may be a bit on the strong side.
Flexiblades are ok if you like small scratches....:nod:
Carwashes are the spawn of satan and are for reps in vectra/mondeos only! :D

Chammy leather is ok, after you've rinsed it all off, but i have taken to using a waffle weave cloth of late and they rock! Decent chammy should sting you about £8 ish for an Autoglym synthetic one...i like mine and keep it for a back up.
Then give it one up with some Autoglym Super Resin Polish (red label stuff), work it into the paint, buff it off and it'll look smashingly fab...:D

Then catch the car cleaning bug and spend the rest of your life worrying about marring and beading...:D

(have a butchers in the interior/exterior section, which is where i get the feeling this is going to end up...:D)
HTH...

[jim22]

get yourself a waffle weave drying towel from somewhere like www.cleanyourcar.co.uk,and a decent sheepskin or microfibre washmitt:) ,I purchased a non autoglym flexi blade once and it left scratches on my paint......but I should imagine the proper AG one is better:nod: , and secondly did you wash the car in the sun? this causes the water to dry too quickly on the paintwork leaving the streaks.......

do you have access to an outside tap and hose? I recently purchased a "super sprayer" bottle(£8-ish) from the above site which attaches to the hose,which allows you to mix and apply the shampoo without having to attack it with the mitt straightaway which minimises the risk of swirls and speeds up the process a bit!:thumbs:

sorry if that was a bit long winded:rolleyes: :wack:

[Alex_S14a]

Thats probably just the water drying off on the car quickly because of the hot weather. Keep the car wet then dry it off with a chamois or something similar after its all washed and rinsed down again.

[Egon]

If you wander onto www.cleanyourcar.co.uk have a look at the forum bit as they have some very good guides in there..:D
Less clicky than detailing world too...:nod:

[Si]

Before going any further, i'd say that, as above, the problem is that the car is too hot - I tend to avoid washing my (black!) car in this weather for that very reason - cool evenings are best :)
Then dry with chamois and wax/polish etc as required :)

[Flik]

Guys,

Thanks for the advice, I went and got myself a chamois and re-did it over, and its fine now :)

I've got a bottle of super resin polish that I'll put on tomorrow (had enough of it today)

[BigD]

poof, finish the job now as its getting cooler :rolleyes: , how are the swirls looking ?

[Egon]

poof, finish the job now as its getting cooler :rolleyes:

:whip: :D

Just remember to work that srp in...it does a good job if you slap it on and polish it, it does a GREAT job if you work it baby, yeah...:D

[Flik]

poof, finish the job now as its getting cooler :rolleyes: , how are the swirls looking ?

:whip: :whip:

Cars looking lovely now, has revealed one or two scratches on the bodywork but nonetheless brill :thumbs:

Least my cars the same colour all round :p

[BigD]

so will mine next week :thumbs: . any ways chop chop and finish the car :thumbs:

[Egon]

uh,oh....you'll be looking for a porter cable polisher next...:D
Srp should help fill in the scratches a bit, if theyre light...

[Flik]

uh,oh....you'll be looking for a porter cable polisher next...:D
Srp should help fill in the scratches a bit, if theyre light...

I really am not 'that' fussy. A normal wash and polish will do :thumbs:

[jim22]

I really am not 'that' fussy. A normal wash and polish will do :thumbs:

ha you've started polishing it now mate......you've got the bug!:p you'll have a porter cable within a couple of months:D

[Egon]

http://www.cleanyourcar.co.uk/forum/images/smiles/buffer.gif
http://www.cleanyourcar.co.uk/forum/images/smiles/buffer.gif
http://www.cleanyourcar.co.uk/forum/images/smiles/buffer.gif



:D

[Flik]

ha you've started polishing it now mate......you've got the bug!:p you'll have a porter cable within a couple of months:D

For what they cost, I doubt it :smash:

Its a duty for anyone to polish a car, surely. Why leave it dirty? :cool:

[BigD]

pmsl :thumbs: , i like polishing :nod: but not that much.

[Flik]

pmsl :thumbs: , i like polishing my rocket :nod: but not that much.

I noticed... I was going to respond to the message written on your boot - 'i wish my girlfriend was as dirty as this car'

with

'she is'

but thought better of it, and didn't tell you :thumbs:

[DaveP]

AutoGlym SRP is really good stuff - It allows you to really give your car a good hard polish without any fear of it being too abrasive. It certainly helped me to remove one or two of the lighter swirls in my lacquer.

I would recommend using an applicator pad (little yellow thing) to put the stuff on, and a nice clean cotton cloth to buff it off. Once you have spent time polishing your car it would probably be advised to follow up with a good layer of wax to seal the freshly-polished body against impurities. AutoGlym Extra Gloss Protection Wax is excellent, and should be applied in a similar way to the polish.

By doing this, it will probably mean that you only need give your car a proper wash once every 4 weeks!

[Egon]

Then get some QD and just wipe off light dusting...:nod:
Maketh the car look good too...

[Evilchap]

AutoGlym Extra Gloss Protection Wax is :cool:

[Egon]

AutoGlym Extra Gloss Protection Wax is :cool:

Aye, not wrong there...always makes me chuckle when its ben raining and you drive off to see a tidal wave of water coming up the bonnet at you!!

[jim22]

AutoGlym Extra Gloss Protection Wax is :cool:

I've had about 2 litres of the stuff for about a year now and have never used it!:wack:

might be an idea to dig it out at the weekend:thumbs:

[amnesia]

http://www.autopia-carcare.com/how-to.html

:thumbs:

[jim22]

^^^^^^^good link;) :thumbs:

[Mr OCD]

:wave: :wave: :wave:

AG EGP is NOT a wax ;)