** GUIDE: Basic Car Cleaning **

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** GUIDE: Basic Car Cleaning **

Postby Gaz7 on Thu Apr 22, 2004 1:19 am

As it was mentioned in the other thread, here's a guide for what I consider basic car cleaning. This is how I clean my Focus day in day out. It won't include stuff I do less frequently or how I prepare my FRST for shows - as that's too much to type out ;) Some stuff will be a pain the first time you do it, but once the first layer of dirt is off, if you keep on top of it, it's much easier. Perhaps a mod could move this to guides once a few people have seen it? Here goes:

1) Rinse the car with clean water, one section at a time, starting with the roof, moving downwards. I like low pressure so I use a watering can, but a hose not on too strong is ok. Once one section is rinsed.........

2) Soap the area. Use a decent sponge, clean with no grit, and a good quality wash shampoo. Do not use household detergents i.e. washing up liquid as this is mainly alkaline, which strips the polish from your paint, dulling the finish. Use plenty of water, wash in a circular motion.

3) Rinse this area off. Use plenty of water, until all shampoo is removed.

4) Use a real leather to dry the car. Keep the leather clean to avoid streaking the finish. Rinse the leather after each panel in clean warm water.

5) Continue this working downwards until the car is complete. The last thing to do should be the wheels.

6) Clean the wheels. Rinse first, then sponge with a different sponge to your bodywork sponge. If the dirt is stained on, use wonder wheels or Autoglym wheel cleaner to remove, then later polish the wheel with body polish. If you have wide spokes, reach through and clean the inner wheel. If not, jack the car up, turn the wheels and clean the inner wheel this way.

7) Clean the wheel arches. If this is for the first time, this will be an effort but worth it. Once they're clean sponge and rinse rear arches, and sponge the front plastic arch liners. They can then be blacked up with a plastic protectant. It may be easier to remove your wheels.

8 ) You may want to take the car for a short drive now, to blow the water out of the drip lines etc. However, if you have cleaned your inner wheels, water will drip from the pads leaving black staining on the wheels when you get back. So you may prefer to just leather the wheels/arches dry, again with a different leather to your bodywork leather, and keep drying water from the drip lines.

9) Black the dry tyres. Quick and easy, and makes the car standout and look showroom, as hardly anyone bothers with this. I use Autoglym tyre dressing.

10) Black any grey plastic on the exterior - take your pick from bumper care, or vinyl and rubber care. Bumper care may water mark if it rains on it soon after application.

11) Polish your exhaust with Autosol or Autoglym metal polish, inside and out, sponge backbox clean.

12) Open doors, bonnet and boot, and clean the shuts. Clean any dirt of the engine while the bonnet is open. Again, if you haven't done this for a while, you'll need to dedicate time to just the engine bay alone.

13) Ensure the glass is leathered clean inside and out - your leather will need to be clean to avoid streaking. I use a separate one just for glass. Clean the inside of the windscreen. Use glass polish where required.

14) Leather the dashboard clean, removing all dust. Do this to gear lever surround, centre console etc as well. If your interior is really dirty, remove the seats and hoover clean. Use vinyl and rubber care on mild plastics dirt, or Autoglym interior shampoo on tough plastics dirt and fabrics.

15) When necessary (every 3 weeks or so on the Focus) Polish the car. Apply polish to the entire car at once, not panel by panel, buffing in a circular motion. Doing the whole car at once allows longer for the polish to set and act, which is better. Again, I use Autoglym. I imported some £80 Zymol from the USA, but I wasn't impressed - wasn't as good as Super Resin! Don't press too hard on soft colours to avoid swirl marks. Use strictly 100% cotton cloths only, no synthetics. Allow all the polish to set, and buff off, again with circular motions. Your car will not look its best once polished, but it will the time after - due to polish dust being on the paint, and the finish settling down. If you don't want to wait until next time for it to be really nice, just rinse the car with clean water and leather dry.

And then..... Admire :)

I've definitely missed stuff off as I’ve written this after a long shift at work, so I’ll add it over time. The above is what I do every time, without fail, on my Focus, every two to three days. It sounds a lot, but it's easy when you do it regularly, as the car is never that dirty, and you get in a rhythm of doing it.

If you want to know any specifics, just ask.

HTH

Gareth :)
Last edited by Gaz7 on Thu Apr 22, 2004 1:34 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Postby ianFRST on Thu Apr 22, 2004 1:23 am

nice guide.

i usually get 2 number 3 :rolleyes: :lol:
No longer a FRST owner, or even a Fiesta owner :(
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Postby FezzyMK3.5 on Thu Apr 22, 2004 1:35 am

i dread to think what you do to the FRST before shows ! :lol:

cheers for the guide tho ! :)
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Postby Gaz7 on Thu Apr 22, 2004 1:39 am

Days worth ;) :lol:

Glad you liked it! :)

Gareth :)
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Postby wywywywy on Thu Apr 22, 2004 7:51 am

vaacum interior :D
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Postby DaveZetec on Thu Apr 22, 2004 8:53 am

Most of that is basically what I do when I was a car - and I agree that super resin polish is good stuff

Only difference is i'll do it onec a month at most :lol: which at the rate I th throught cars is twice a car!

I'm almost ashamed how mucky this pug is, i've not once washed it :S
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Postby CarismaDave on Thu Apr 22, 2004 9:04 am

lol sounds familiar :lol: I spend one day on Outside and one day on inside and engine :D I'd have to say though I use Zymol polish and, although it makes you feel like you are constantly on holiday somewhere exotic (the smell!), I personally think it gives a better shine and as it's natural it doesn't cut the paint like Autoglym etc.

Oh, another tip to anyone...always clean the windows (polishing) last as if you clean them and then put too much car polish on the paintwork you can get flakes of the polish on your nicely cleaned windows!

Also Autoglym interior cleaner is what I and other Carisma cars use on the interiors :)

Good guide though...exactly what I get up too.
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Postby Superal on Thu Apr 22, 2004 9:28 am

fancy offering a cleaning service gaz? :lol:
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Postby Max M4X WW on Thu Apr 22, 2004 9:29 am

How should i clean where my doors meet the hinges? theres loads of greace and s**t in there and its a pain to get to!
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Postby givethedogabone on Thu Apr 22, 2004 9:40 am

My car cleaning concsists of . . . .

JET WASH!!! :lol:

i feel ashamed now tho lol.

GTDAB
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Postby TomRS1800 on Thu Apr 22, 2004 11:13 am

How should i clean where my doors meet the hinges? theres loads of greace and poo in there and its a pain to get to



Err go to a local car consumables shop and purchase some stuff called gunk its does wonders on removing grease/crap etc out of them but keep all the hinges etc in the door shut fully oiled or they turn rusty and make a horrible screechy noise to shut!
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Postby Rich si on Thu Apr 22, 2004 11:23 am

My routine goes like this.

Drive to garage opposite my work.
Hand over £10 to the bosnians and ask for wash and hoover or point at the sign if you get the non english speaking one.

Hang round for 5 mins having a ciggie then drive it away when its done.
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Postby Gaz7 on Thu Apr 22, 2004 11:26 am

Superal wrote:fancy offering a cleaning service gaz? :lol:


Not for anything other than a quite huge amount of money :lol:

Gareth :)
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Postby James RST on Thu Apr 22, 2004 11:27 am

do you guys not wax your cars?
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Postby Gaz7 on Thu Apr 22, 2004 11:34 am

Polishing / waxing are often seen by many as the same thing depending on what product is used :)

Gareth :)
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Postby Max M4X WW on Thu Apr 22, 2004 12:44 pm

Yea gaz whats wax? I dont wanna keep polishing my car or the paint will come off! You said about protecting it with wax? i take it this doesnt cut the paint?

Ill have a bash at the door hinge bits, they look manky.
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Postby Superal on Thu Apr 22, 2004 12:49 pm

wax is ok but polish gives you a much better shine...
Last edited by Superal on Thu Apr 22, 2004 2:17 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Postby James RST on Thu Apr 22, 2004 12:51 pm

Max M4X WW wrote:Yea gaz whats wax? I dont wanna keep polishing my car or the paint will come off! You said about protecting it with wax? i take it this doesnt cut the paint?

Ill have a bash at the door hinge bits, they look manky.


it would take you about 20 year of polishing to get the paint to actually come off but your right in what you say. every time you polish your car you take a bit of paint off. Best method i find is to clean the car, give it a good polish/buff with a proper mop and G3/hand glaze, then wax it. but clean/dry off and wax once a day for a whole week. This builds up a protective layer on your paint making the car easier to clean and gives a brilliant shine.
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Postby Project on Thu Apr 22, 2004 1:55 pm

Sounds like it should be in the guides section to me ;)

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Postby Gaz7 on Thu Apr 22, 2004 2:05 pm

Yes, indeed it would take many years of constant polishing to actually polish your paint off - so unless you intend to polish really hard every day for at least 20 years i wouldn't worry about it ;)

More people polish than wax. Polish naturally contains a waxing agent, so for the vast majority of people, waxing is irrelevant - regular polishing will be fine. This is what actually shines the paint, and also protects it too. If you want further protection, or you're getting ready for a show, you could choose to add a layer of Autoglym Extra Gloss Protection. This contains no polish, and adds a clear shiny layer of wax to your paint. The paintwork must be polished first.

Gareth :)
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Postby Max M4X WW on Thu Apr 22, 2004 3:28 pm

Ok, Thanks :)
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Postby SPo0n on Thu Apr 22, 2004 3:45 pm

just done mine today, i did that secret engine thing and it worked a treat gaz :D

loooooads of water marks all over my car though and i can't be arsed to polish it. oh well :) at least the windows are clean and all the muck is off it.
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Postby Capri on Thu Apr 22, 2004 7:47 pm

Gaz, couple of questions:

What's your view on aciding wheels? Obviously this shouldn't be done frequently, but the guys in the valet bay at work treated the Capri's alloys to an acid and then coated them in Supaguard once, came out a treat, just wondered if it actually harms the alloy in any way?

Also, I hate real leather shammy's because they never seem to absorb much water to me. At work they've got these things called Flunkeys which are man-made fibre substitutes, and they're fantastic for clearing the water off. Also have tried using one of those hydra-blades and that seemed to work well. What do you reckon?
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Postby EvilDes on Thu Apr 22, 2004 11:08 pm

Good guide there Gaz! Cheers!

I wash my car quite regularly, twice a week maybe, and do it well, but doing all that will have it spotless!

Just a question about the engine bay - mine is rather dirty at the minute, I was thinking of getting it steam cleaned but have heard some bad stories about it. So, as part of the cleaning guide, on a 1.6 Zetec, whats the best way to clean it (ie what parts are best to remove and clean, whats the best stuff to use on certain parts etc)?

Any help would be great!
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Postby Max M4X WW on Thu Apr 22, 2004 11:26 pm

The above info for a 1.3 HCS CFi engine would be nice as well!

Not that my engineis very dirty!!
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Postby ~Tony~ on Thu Apr 22, 2004 11:29 pm

looking good daz

have sent ya a pm mate
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Postby Gaz7 on Fri Apr 23, 2004 12:34 am

SPo0n wrote:just done mine today, i did that secret engine thing and it worked a treat gaz :D

loooooads of water marks all over my car though and i can't be arsed to polish it. oh well :) at least the windows are clean and all the muck is off it.


Good good :) Glad you liked the engine thing, did it come up like the zetec-s in my gallery?

Capri - aciding wheels from time to time is okay. Wonder wheels works so well as it's basically battery acid with some other stuff added in. The main thing is not letting it dry as that can ruin the wheel - always keep the wheel wet and polish it after and it'll be fine :)

I've tried a hydra blade and for the most they seem great. I know lots of other people use them, and i some times use them if cleaning, say, my sisters car as a favour as she's inept :lol: They quicken things up loads, but i don't use them on my own cars because of one flaw - get one bit of grit under the blade and don't notice and you'll sweep it over you car and ruin the paint....

I've tried a few synthetic leathers but i always go back to real ones as i like the finish they leave. Different price/quality leathers abosorb water better/worse than each other. I agree some synthetics can absorb more per wring out though.

EvilDes and Max - lots of different ways of doing engine bays, but the same applies to all engines. As a general rule, cover electrics and if you have them, distributors, with plastic before starting. I personally find cling film is an easy way to do this; and then you can pressure wash. Never hold the washer close to electrics. Then use lots of elbow grease - Autosol or Autoglym metal polish on metals (zetec - rocker cover) and black up plastics and rubber. Use a brush for hard to reach areas. There are some other ways too though, but they're tricks of the trade ;)

Gareth :)
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Postby SPo0n on Fri Apr 23, 2004 3:01 pm

yep came up almost as clean as that one :D

seems to be some strange marks all over the body of my car though, i didn't bother drying it with a leather i just drove it instead. won't be doing that again :lol:
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Postby Max M4X WW on Fri Apr 23, 2004 3:05 pm

What did you do to your engine?
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Postby Jon_mk4 on Fri Apr 23, 2004 3:27 pm

Good guide up there ^^^^^^^ :D

Gaz7 wrote:I've tried a hydra blade .... but i don't use them on my own cars because of one flaw - get one bit of grit under the blade and don't notice and you'll sweep it over you car and ruin the paint....


Wipe the blade clean with a chamois after every pass over your car and there's no more danger of scratching the surface than there is by drying the whole car with a regular chamois leather. Doesn't half help speed things up.

Another tip after polishing - especially if you're using a high-wax content polish - is to spray a fine mist of cool water over the car and to dry it again, this time with a chamois leather. The cold water sets the wax which protects the newly waxed surface and brings out the shine, even on a first coat.

Last but not least, a quick link. I use Zymol products and am always impressed with them, despite the cost. This, however, might just be the most expensive polish in the world?! http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2474329116&category=28641
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Postby chumkila on Fri Apr 23, 2004 5:20 pm

Anyone fancy coming round mine and cleaning it? :D
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Postby Gaz7 on Fri Apr 23, 2004 6:27 pm

Lol, that polish is quite pricey!!! :lol: I spent roughly $160 on a Zymol polish though, plus shipping, and was very underwhelmed. Hard work to use, and did not leave a good finish. Just my experience though.

Another reason i don't use a hydra blade on my car is that a leather will absorb any toxins present on the paint, whereas the blade will just move them about :)

The idea of the cool water after the polish is a good one, it was what i was referring to further up when i said rinse the car after a polish to see the best result :)

Chum - should be nice weather over the weekend - time for you to do it yourself :p :D

Gareth :)
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Postby Max M4X WW on Fri Apr 23, 2004 8:00 pm

Gaz7 wrote:Chum - should be nice weather over the weekend - time for you to do it yourself :p :D


Thats what im hoping to do tomorrow, Just done the inside of my windows as thats boring - Ready to do the outside tomorrow! :D
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Postby Gaz7 on Sun Apr 25, 2004 2:34 am

SPo0n wrote:yep came up almost as clean as that one :D

seems to be some strange marks all over the body of my car though, i didn't bother drying it with a leather i just drove it instead. won't be doing that again :lol:


Nice one :) Next stage - polish off the funny marks you got on your paint from not leathering at the time :lol:

Gareth :)
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Postby SPo0n on Sun Apr 25, 2004 9:51 am

i could have but i only had 30mins yesterday before work, as i was out all day. so i just gave it a quick wash and dried it properly. looks much better! :D

i will polish it properly the day before FITP
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