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-   -   A superb Car cleaning, polishing & detailing guide (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/technical-stuff/102011-superb-car-cleaning-polishing-detailing-guide-549.html)

Met Sunnyboi today evening to get some stuff. He demoed a magic potion on my bike. This is how it looks.

Glad you liked it!

Magic potion lotion on my car :D

Loved the beading shots. Do break the suspense. And I'm looking for durability; were you able check how long it lasts?

This is awesome! What is this stuff? Cheers

Had the chance to use 2 of the 4 new items bought from detailedclean.in today.

DC basics blue giant drying towel - Awesome. much better than the Meg's water magnet waffle weave towel I had been using. The size is BIG - 2 ft x 3 ft, and it has long nape on one side and short on another. Now I can really use the 'pat drying' technique to effectively cover a large area. I dried my i10 without even wringing it a single time, and the towel seemed like it can dry another car of the same size without going for a wring.
I really recommend this one.

Also, picked up a new technique to wash the car a couple of months back - God knows why I did not practice it earlier. I pressure rinse the car to dislodge the loose dirt, then use the 2 bucket method w/ wash mitt to shampoo, pressure rinse again to get the shampoo off, and then finally 'flood' the car from top down with a stream of water from the hose (not under pressure). With a good slick LSP in place, 80-85% of the water goes down, and the rest is left in small beads - no match for the DC blue giant.


Valet pro wheel & detail brush - This boar hair brush is great for agitating the areas around the alloy lug nuts, the free holes in the multi pcd wheel and the crevices on the face of the alloy. Used it for the same purpose, coupled with meg's all wheel cleaner, & daytona speed master brush. The plastic handle IMO is the weak point of this brush, and it is too thin to comfortably hold and use. I got ache in my fingers after doing 3 wheels. But this brush is cheap enough that I may buy a second one for backup, or for doing the badges/grilles etc.


NB - not related to any store. Just an end users review of items for the forum members' benefit.

Did a single coat of pure Carnuba Wax from Waxpol on my Etios. It is very, very difficult to apply in comparison to other waxes available in the market. But the results are phenomenal. The photos dont do justice to the beading that a single coat of this wax has given.

The first picture is with Ranjeet who very willingly and spiritedly assisted me.

An excellent and extremely useful thread. I have been following it for some time and really wanted to get into the DIY mode to follow some of the steps on my car. Today, spent a good couple of hours trying to do the car following the steps. Used minimal cleaners, a liquid wax, couple of micro fiber clothes and couple of other clothes. Did not get time to click better pics, please excuse the quality of snaps taken from my phone in indoor lights. Definitely miss the tyre shiners.

If this is your first attempt, I'd say well done. I see you have light color/ white car which will always make you feel that you can do better. The dark colours reward
you better with "wow" factor when you put in hard work. All the same congrats! Cheers

Guys, do I have to wipe down with IPA after applying Ultimate Polish by hand and before applying FK1000P wax? Does the wax bond better if I wipe down?

Applying polish by hand is a pain and not much result with Meg's Ultimate Polish.

Yes for the IPA wipedown.

Polishing by hand is a pain. Doesnt bring much results. When hand polishing use products that have fillers in them - they will fill in the defects, as its very hard to remove defects by hand.

Hello Experts,

I recently bought Ecosport in Mars Red color (my first vehicle in Mumbai where water supply is a problem). I used to wash my Santro with Amway shampoo in Chandigarh but the car was old and water was available through hose pipe (used for gardening) so cleaning was not much problem. However, in Mumbai, my daily car wash man washes 5 cars with same water and same cloth and result is rather a shoddy looking job. This coupled with the facts that it’s a slightly big car with lots of black plastic cladding, difficult to clean alloy wheels and sheer amount of Mumbai dust and pollution makes keeping the car in an acceptable clean condition a challenge. Hence, I have decided that I will pitch in once/twice a month for giving my car the due care. I am requesting the experts to help me with the following:

1. What should be my approach given that I can afford at max 2-3 buckets of water for cleaning once/twice a month.
2. What should be standard operating procedure? I have the following procedure in mind:
a. Wet the car by pouring some water (half a bucket) and leaving it for some time to loosen the dirt particles
b. Applying the shampoo and then rinsing the car with some more water
c. Pouring some more water (one bucket) and then wiping the car with micro fibre cloth
d. Waxing the car

I request the experts to guide me on the above procedure. Though I have washed my Santro umpteen times, I haven’t attempted waxing it so I am novice in waxing/polishing area.

Further, please also suggest options for the following:
1. Which car shampoo to use? I have used Amway in the past for my Santro and results were satisfactory. Considering Mumbai dirt and pollution, what should I be using? Should I be using any clay?
2. What shampoo/solvent to use for cleaning the difficult to clean alloys (due to their design)?
3. Which Wax polish shall I use and what should be the method and frequency of waxing?
4. The black cladding looks very dry and since wax cant be used on the cladding, What solvent to use for giving it a clean look?
5. Any other precautions/useful hints that I should employ for cleaning/pampering my car.

Thanks!

Its something I got from Germany, not available in India! Good thing I got a 5 liter can of it :D

More beading pics! Gotta love Opti Coat!

Do you have a covered parking? If yes, then you are only dealing with dust? If that is the case, Jopasu Duster is the only thing you should be using every (/alternate) day.

If water is a problem, then perhaps getting the car washed outside is the only option you have (maybe once a month?)

You can have rinse-less cleaning with optimum ONR, which is a bit expensive though.

Reveal the name please :)

That beading on alloys is nice. What did you use to get that effect?

I can see that beading shows a waxed surface, and is wonderfully photogenic, but is it actually to be desired?

When the water forms beads, it will dry in those beads, leaving little dots of its mineral content: hard water stains. Is it it not preferable for the water to form sheets?

No answers, just asking the question!

Of course, when you wash, you wipe, so evaporation is not an issue anyway. And yes, maybe it is worth it just for those lovely pics :)