Giving my car a propper wash wax etc

A3_Turbo

Swaying towards IHI....
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Ive got an A3 (98-99) so its getting on a bit,

Whenever I’ve washed my car I’ve simply hosed it down soapy water wash the grime then when its dry stick some turtle wax on it.

When I see the results you guys come up with I want to try something different,

Could some-one give me a step my step process of what they do and what products should I go out and get.

And this de-swirling sorry to sound stupid but what exactly is it and can I do it myself?

Thanks for your help in advance

Jason
 
Have a look in the detailing forum on here, some good stuff there
 
Jason,

I'll start with deswirling, or removing scratches. If your car is swirled then the car won't look as glossy as a paint which has had the swirls removed.

Below are some photos of polishing my A4 which show you the difference in gloss..

50/50 shot of swirled and unswirled paint

NSCSSepFrontWing50503.jpg


Finished panel

NSCSSepFrontWing2After.jpg


Bumper shot, showing how gloss can be bought back to paint

NSCSSepFrontBumper5050.jpg



Deswirling in a nutshell will help the finish enormously. Unfortunately for Audi owners the paint tends to be very hard indeed.

On my Audi I used a Metabo rotary polisher which does take a certain amount of practise and skill to master a finish with it.

Some people including myself also own a Porter Cable (PC) random orbital polisher. This is a darn site safer than a rotary and can be picked up with a few pointers by a beginner.

The PC has less bite than a rotary and it'll take you alot longer to achieve the finish you want with this tool.

In summary I would recommend getting your car polished by a pro, you won't therefore need to outlay money for all the tools and polishes.

If you are very interested in learning how to polish cars then let me know in reply to this and I should be able to give you some links to some good guides on getting started.


Before deswirling you may want to think about giving the paint a jolly good clean with readily available products.

Firstly you will probably find a benefit from claying your car with the Meguiars clay kit (can be found in Halfords). Claying will remove bonded contaminents such as tar and industrial fallout that can dull the look of your finish.

After this a paint cleanser will further refine the finish and remove further contaiminents. A product such as Autoglym Super Resin Polish is a good idea as this will also fill in your swirl marks, making some disappear and others less visible.

You can then put a wax over the top of this to seal the finish in and you should notice an improvement.
 
basically what i do is as follows:

.rinse the car with hose(to remove any lose grime)

.get 2 buckets-1 with soapy water,the other with just normal water, this is so u can rinse the washmitt in the normal water to get any bits of dirt out of the mitt as the dirt particles can cause these 'swirls'

.rinse car again

.dry using a waffle weave drying towel(sonus de wunder towels are probs the best)

.once dry and if needed ill clay the car

.again rinse car down to get rid of lube used to clay the car

.then dry again

.then i apply autoglym Super resin polish

.then autoglym extra gloss protection

.then a quality durable wax like collinite 476

I always get a great finish using this method but it does take around 6 hours or so
 
I've collated my thoughts on all apsects of car care into a series of guides - here's a link...

http://www.polishedbliss.co.uk/acatalog/guides.html

These should help you clarify the four main steps in your mind; wash, clean, polish and protect. Washing removes loose vsurface contamination, cleaning (claying) removes bonded surface contamination, polishing removes paint in order to remove defects and enhance gloss, whilst protection does exactly what it says on the tin. A good place to start is a decent wash kit and a set of products to cleanse and protect; polishing is a step further that requires much more learning and practice, so might be best to improve your skills and kit bag gradually. :)
 

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