Help me find some products...

[marc_mcquilling]

Hi Guys,

I am just wondering if anyone can reccomend (sp?) me some half decent car cleaning products...

I have had a look on the stickies, but I'm not looking to spend that much really.

I own a Phantom Black A3 and the method i usually use is:

Pressure wash car.
Wash with microfibre sponge and any available car shampoo.
Dry with chamois.
Then finish with demon shine 'spray on shine'.

Then every couple of months or so i apply a layer of Meguairs Carnubra (sp?) wax.

Any pointers? I'm not looking for a flawless finish but something that you would look at and think ''Thats a nice clean car''.

Also, I'm looking for a decent polish to use just before the summer, im not looking to spend the earth and i will be polishing by hand.. any suggestions?

Thanks, Marc.

 

[ChrisFurlong]

I've always used Meguiars for my detailing, and I can't recommend them enough.

Rinse car with a hose, don't use a pressure washer.
I use Meguiars Gold Class Shampoo and Conditioner with the 2-bucket method, using a Meguiars Microfibre Mitt.
Dry using 2 Meguiars Drying Magnet towels.
For a really smooth finish, always clay bar the car before polishing, I use Meguiars clay bar and quick detailing spray.
Then as far as polish goes, I used a DA polisher, with M105 and M205 compounds. But I'm not sure how easy they are to break down by hand. Might be worth investing in a DA polisher.
Then slap loads of Meguiars No 7 Carnubra wax on, plenty of coats, and that should really make it shine. Having a Phantom Black car though, you might want to look at a wax that is made for dark coloured cars, like Dodo Juice's Orange Crush.

 

[Padtwo]

I would start with a drying towel instead of a chamois. Then get some clay in, I find products put on after clay seem to go further as the paint is nice and smooth, probably all in my head though lol! Then if you are on a budget maybe a glaze, something that is filler heavy to mask swirls, black hole, autoglym srp, then top with either a sealant or a wax. The dodo panel pots go quite a long way, they're only small but you don't need much and for a fiver or so you get to try different things.

For the polish I'd try menzerna 203s, will be hard work by hand though!

What sort of budget were you looking at?

 

[DaveyB]

I agree with most of the above, just invested in a drying towel myself and not only can I recommend this but also the Meguiars clay kits. They are easy to use and produce the results fairly effortlessly.

If it was me I would skip the polishing stage altogether. By hand you have got little to no chance, the paint is just rock hard. Try sealing in some Black Hole glaze between a layer or two of decent paint sealant and a quality carnuba wax. I can recommend Poorboys for a kick off.

 

[Syvo]

karcher off the whole car first then wash with megs soft wash gel then rinse off with karcher and dry with auto glym chamy.

use megs clay bar over the whole car do 1 pannel at a time once this is complete wash off the car and chamy again then apply megs stage 2 polish would recomend auto glym ive ran out so thats why im using the megs.

then apply 2 coats of collinite 915 wax once this is done i start on the wheels with poor boys wheel sealent and use the collinite wax on the wheels the open the bonnet and start under there with megs engine cleaner and finish that off with a wax coat to the underside of the bonnet and inside of the wings and inside of the doors and boot.

usually takes about 5-6 hours to complete including a good clean inside the car.

my car is a liquid yellow the same as the megans so with yours it may take a little longer as i have had a black car in the past and was a bit of pain to get great results by hand but its worth it in the end, alot of people use da polishers i call it cheating but fair enough you do get great results but all depends how far you wanna go detaling world is a great website for any thing you require for detailing and also polished bliss.

 

[Cabbyfan]

Been looking into this myself, I have a couple of bad-ish scratches (not made my me !), looking at Dodo Juice Purple Haze as a wax of choice, my A4 is Phantom Black...... any comments ?

Also, maybe a silly question but I assume Dodo Juice wax can be applied to bumpers and door trim on the outside.....

Cheers guys.

 

[Padtwo]

@Cabbyfan, yes the wax can be used on the bumpers and door trim. I guess as long as it's smooth plastic and not textured like some of the older non-colour coded bumpers it's ok as it will buff off again. As for the wax I have a sample pot of purple haze and it's very nice to apply and buff off, but it might be worth trying the harder wax blue velvet for dark coloured cars for better longevity(purple haze is the softer version). It wont do much for scratches unfortunately, even though it is a dark coloured wax the layer on the car is extremely thin (as thin as you can get it really!) and so it will appear transparent. If you go for a sample pot it might be worth getting a finger applicator too, it's quite tricky to get a full size applicator in there once it goes down a bit.

 

[Cabbyfan]

Cheers Padtwo, Im prob going to go with a purple haze sample pot and see how it does. Last owner obviously put somethimng on the boot lid as there is a long scratch on it but can only see it form certain angles so its not to bad.

Bumpers etc are all coded and smooth, apart from the rear offside corner where some git must have brushed it slightly, not bad but it has nicked the plastic in places grrrrrrrrrrr. I specifically checked the 4 corners when I bought it in Dec, and I washed it 2 weeks ago so its happened in the last 2 weeks. Really with people were more careful !

My bigger issue is the nearside, lots of narrow lanes and hard bushes ! Need to protect against scratching....maybe a hard wax would be better ?

 

[John @ PB]

I recommend you have a read of our guides: Car Care Advice | Detailing Advice | Polished Bliss That'll give you some adive as to how to approach things.

Whilst some of the products we stock may appear to be more expensive, in my view it's a case of 'buy right or buy twice': we test every single product we sell and use many of them on a daily basis so we know that they all work and we know exactly how they work.

The key guide is the safe washing and drying one: Safe Washing And Drying | Car Care Advice | Polished Bliss If you can get that cracked, it'll make life so much easier for you.

It is, in all honesty, a complete waste of time trying to polish/correct an Audi by hand. The factory paint is so hard it's as good as impossible. A glaze would be far better: Black Hole has already been mentioned and it's excellent: Poorboy's Black Hole Glaze | Poorboy's Car Care & Detailing Products I like R222 Gloss Enhancing Paintwork Cleanser even more: R222 Gloss Enhancing Paintwork Cleanser | R222 Car Care & Detailing Products

After glazing, you need to wax or seal the car.

For metallics, sealants are generally preferable: they tend to have greater durability at the same price point and will set off the metallic flake more than a wax. For metallic black I recommend Blackfire All Finish Paint Protection: Blackfire All Finish Paint Protection | Blackfire Car Care & Detailing Products

One coat gives around 4 months durability and the bottle should give 20-25 applications so whilst the initial outlay is more than some, long term is works out really quite cost effective. One one car, at 4 months durability and 20 applications (though you'll get more than that), you've nearly seven years of protection in that bottle: that's £4 per year.

Cheers Padtwo, Im prob going to go with a purple haze sample pot and see how it does. Last owner obviously put somethimng on the boot lid as there is a long scratch on it but can only see it form certain angles so its not to bad.

Bumpers etc are all coded and smooth, apart from the rear offside corner where some git must have brushed it slightly, not bad but it has nicked the plastic in places grrrrrrrrrrr. I specifically checked the 4 corners when I bought it in Dec, and I washed it 2 weeks ago so its happened in the last 2 weeks. Really with people were more careful !

My bigger issue is the nearside, lots of narrow lanes and hard bushes ! Need to protect against scratching....maybe a hard wax would be better ?

No wax is going to offer protection from scratching, regardless of whether it's hard or soft. There are one or two sealants on the market which claim to offer scratch resistance by increasing the hardness of the paint surface but Audi paint is rock solid anyway so I don't know if you'll see any gain. Best bet is to avoid the bushes!

 

[Cabbyfan]

Sadly I live in Cumbria and lots of country lanes ! Wax is more to make keeping it protected from general wear and tear and also making it easier to wash etc......

Just wish I could remove the brown stain from the grey leather seat on the passenger side... I tried Gliptone twice, better nut not perfect yet.

 

[John @ PB]

Just wish I could remove the brown stain from the grey leather seat on the passenger side... I tried Gliptone twice, better nut not perfect yet.

Swissvax Forte is your friend: Swissvax Leather Cleaner Forte | Swissvax Car Care & Detailing Products

Amazing cleaning power on leather - I've seen it remove suncream that's been baked onto the seat for months.