My mate cleaned my car for me. How random!

[Prawn]

right chaps, for some bizzare reason, a mate of mine wanted to clean my car on his day off, so I let him!

here's the post he made on another forum:


Right, I picked the car up like this...Quite a state ?

LOTS of light scratches all over it, and this horrid sap had coated the car.

The interior of Nicks car is lovely, everything is to hand and all of his "extras" look just like factory items.

Still needed a damn good clean though !

Snow Foam time ! I use snow foam in a very diluted form, simply because it goes everywhere and I need to wash the driveway down after I clean cars.

Then I got out the buckets (I always use the two bucket technik', keeps the water clean!), and washed it with a towel wrapped sponge. (Think of it as a sponge with a fur carpet over it)

I rinsed it with the Karcher and then washed it again, then I repeated that but rinsed it with filtered water ready for claying.

Starting to look good eh' ? Well then I clayed it, but I have no photos of that because my camera batteries died. My sister bought me some batteries over so I'll carry on from the filtered rinse after the claying...

I used my Aquablade to remove any excess water and then sprayed it down with Auto Glym Aquawax and toweled it off,

Then I got on it with the polish, I started off with Auto Glym Ultra Deep Shine. Which is specially formulated for dark/deep metallic paints, the way I polish is in small circular motions doing one panel at a time. I let the polish dry (normally takes 90ish seconds) and then buff it off with a microfiber towel.

Which leaves a *fairly* good finish, but there are still little imperfections and a slight dullness that the camera flash doesn't show

Worked my way around the car with that, and was pretty pleased with the result.

It started raining then, so I cried a little...

Then I moved onto the wheels, now you might call this sad but what I did was lie on the floor and tuck my arm in behind the wheel to clean the inside of it with a fine brush. Because I hate it when people clean the face of the wheel and don't bother with the insides, it looks **** people so don't do it !!

Notice the little black dots on the face of the wheels in this photo ? All the wheels had that same marking...

Nicks in love with his wheels, so I really went to town with them and polished the faces with Super Resin polish. There were lots of little black dots from brake dust build up, and things like that. Not any more....

Tyre gel unit, get into position !

It had stopped raining so out came the Aquablade and I carried on with the soft stuff...

I polished the car again with Auto Glym Super Resin, a really good polish which give beautiful reflection. I like it a LOT !

Then I ran around and did all of the trim, because I was about to apply a wax finish any over smear from the trim wax would be buffed off with the wax. (Smart thinking eh' ?)

Daum it was grey and faded...

It started raining again then (***) so I got the brushes and muc off out and did the engine bay...

The rain had gone and the sky looked bluer than in the morning so I toweled it off for the last time and got my Zymol out to seal it.

I got my little plastic spodger out and used it to remove all the grime that gets built up in the Audi badge/bump strips on the doors etc etc

Then I re applied some tyre gel, and polished the windows inside and out.

I tidied up and went inside for a quick cup of tea and to listen to the start of classic afternoon on the radio...

 

[Prawn]

Simple guide to paint/scratch removal.

Lets face it, cars get scratched ? And older paint is drier than "fresh" paint, meaning it's harder to scratch but is also harder to rectify. New paints are quite soft so you can manipulate them pretty well.

Typical scratch on a car -

The best way to get rid of a scratch like that is to polish it, and to polish it hard !

Not any polish will do though, you need something which isn't a "wax" aswell. Something that is designed to clean the paint, Auto Glym Super Resin is perfect for this, because it builds up a layer of polish and "fills" the scratch which removes some of the hard work. The idea is that you can soften the paint by polishing it which will then "push" into the scratch....Or failing that you can kinda' wear down the lacquer, which will completely remove the scratch is its only light...

The best thing to do is to buy yourself a £2.99 applicator pad, the sponge will allow the polish to be applied evenly whilst being slightly abrasive which will remove any dirt from the scratch, push pretty hard (about as hard as you would push to wash a plate) and keep at it for about 5 mins. Remember to always polish in a small circular motion...

You won't really notice anything until you polish it for the second time, however if you do that twice it *should* look something like this -

-

Right !

Photos from the afternoon session...

I went crazy on the wheels, and got on them with some of my paint renovator to get every last little black spot sorted...

See the little buggers ?

Not no mores !!!

Polished the exhaust tips, quick and easy

Polished the boot shut -

Polished the door shuts -

Then I got the real wax out, I've got Zymol Carbon wax which I had to get imported from America. I've only used it once or twice, but seeing as prawn isn't to up on his car cleaning it seemed worthwhile !

The way to apply this stuff is with your hands (lol...) but I didn't bother and just use an applicator pad. As with all/most waxes, you apply them to the whole car and let them set then buff it off.

Which left me looking at this !

I thought that was it but then I realized I had forgotten something I thought was uber neat...

Before...

After....

That's certainly about 10x the effort I've ever put into it!

 

[Prawn]

note: the front bumper is super rough! as is the rest of the car really. but after 188 000 miles I think we can forgive it

 

[Ash B]

Prawn must say got yourself a very good looking car. And great write up and photos enjoyed having a read through it! Very clean and spotless now!

 

[notme]

Any time Prawny Boy, it was a good day and by the sounds of it I've got a bit of buisness out of it so it can't be bad

(I had to sign up to this site again, couldn't find my email address or remember my user name ! haha)

 

[banoffee]

nice. if your mate finds himself bored again, do send him round

 

[Prawn]

Cheers chaps! Massive thanks to Jardo too, the cleaner in question.

I desperately need some paintwork doing now, the laquer chips on the front bumper are growning steadily, and there are a few marks that need more than a bit of paint correction.

Still love it though, almost 190k on the clock and it's still sweet as anything.

I took it to the ring a few weeks ago, where it was awesome. managed a 9:37 on just my 4th lap too, which made me happy

 

[Dani_B19]

Very tidy car youve got prawn. Looks well after the detail sesh.

 

[A3Tom]

Looks much better for a bit of ac clean Prawn

Oh, I want you wheels

T

 

[Shades]

Then I moved onto the wheels, now you might call this sad but what I did was lie on the floor and tuck my arm in behind the wheel to clean the inside of it with a fine brush. Because I hate it when people clean the face of the wheel and don't bother with the insides, it looks **** people so don't do it !!

Not sad, not sad at all. It's why I prefer thin 5 spokers (Not that my car has them right now)... You can get your hand right in to clean them without having to go to extreme measures.

What is sad is polishing the back of the spokes... not that I've ever done that of course!

 

[HP]

Very nice looking a3!! I also want those wheels!

 

[emery1990]

I wants my car looking like that ! Would do it myself but got small dents and nasty fibre glass scratch so getting it done professionally.

quick question. I doubt the pro cleaner/scratch remover will use clay. so when clay detail it, will i need to just wax it again, or polish aswell?

 

[notme]

I wants my car looking like that ! Would do it myself but got small dents and nasty fibre glass scratch so getting it done professionally.

quick question. I doubt the pro cleaner/scratch remover will use clay. so when clay detail it, will i need to just wax it again, or polish aswell?

Personally I would clay it and then polish it with something like Super Resin to bring a real shine back to it, where the clay "drags" the brake dusts/bits of **** out it can also mar/lightly scratch (so light it might look dull...) the paint work.

A quick snap of a detail I did today....

 

[emery1990]

Oh right, yer thats sounds best thing to do, will just ask the man if he will clay it for me, hope he knows what it is!

 

[Jimmeh]

Then I moved onto the wheels, now you might call this sad but what I did was lie on the floor and tuck my arm in behind the wheel to clean the inside of it with a fine brush. Because I hate it when people clean the face of the wheel and don't bother with the insides, it looks **** people so don't do it !!

A bit strange.. Are you talking about the inner rim, or, actually 'behind' the spokes as such? If the latter, then, removing the wheel is easier! Otherwise, I'd certainly look at buying yourself one of these! (just be warned, you'll get a dirt-freckled face!)

 

[notme]

I was referring to "behind" the spokes, I've got one of those E-Z type brushes, in fact it's what I used to do the inner rim.

I don't know if it would actually happen because I've never not done it but I'd imagine that having sprayed a cleaner on the inside of the wheels and then scrubbed/polished them then the back of the spokes would have water/cleaner/crud on them which would get thrown all over the rim the first time it gets driven ?

Your right though, normally it would have been a wheels off job but I was doing it on my drive way with intermittent rain and nothing but rags and brushes.

 

[Dansmith]

A bit strange.. Are you talking about the inner rim, or, actually 'behind' the spokes as such? If the latter, then, removing the wheel is easier! Otherwise, I'd certainly look at buying yourself one of these! (just be warned, you'll get a dirt-freckled face!)

Anyone else think it looks remarkably like a bog brush?? bloodu expensive one at that!:icon_thumright:

 

[Mr.G]

A bit strange.. Are you talking about the inner rim, or, actually 'behind' the spokes as such? If the latter, then, removing the wheel is easier! Otherwise, I'd certainly look at buying yourself one of these! (just be warned, you'll get a dirt-freckled face!)

Best thing i've ever bought. So easy to clean the wheels with this lovely toilet brush! Highly recommend it.

I agree with Jimmeh, take the wheels off, i even machine polished mine lol!

G

 

[a3fq]

He's probably got a man crush on you...

 

[Mr.G]

He's probably got a man crush on you...

Who's that meant for?

 

[N8]

Looks much better!