Just spent £250 on Dodo Juice Products

[rtd]

I have to say I am mighty impressed with the level of commitment and effort that you guys put in.
Question - for someone who is time poor but likes to clean the car himself what products and processes would you recommend?
Could anyone also advise on how best to clean the underside once the current weather has cleared - jet wash?
Thanks in advance

having used a variety of different products on my own car and customers -what i would suggest for yourself is the following;

general weekly wash process

1. snow foam - applied via snow foam lance attached to a pressure washer. i find the bilt hamber snow foam to be very good.

apply snow foam allow it to dwell for about 3/5mins and then rinse off either with hose or pressure washer. never rinse the car before the snow foam as it wont work correctly.

2. duragloss/poorboys super slick and suds or chemical guys shampoos very good. wash car using the 2 bucket method. you will need to invest in 2 buckets which have a grit guard. and 2 good quality lambswool wash mitts.

3. a mild diluted all purpose cleaner is sufficent to clean alloys with. meguiars, autosmart or even tescos daisy which is good. get a couple of wheel brushes. 1 to get inside the rims and clean the vikan wheel cleaning brush kit is an excellent brush and another to clean the outer spokes swvissvax do a good wheel brush.

4. some uber plus drying towels 2 should be sufficent.

5. a good quick detailing spray to add some bling and supplement the sealant or wax which is already on the car.

to clean underside of car - i have a lance which is designed especially to clean the underside of a car. i use a kranzle pressure washer and the underbody lance is listed on their website.

all of the above is based on the assumption that you have already detailed the car prior and the paintwork and wheels have been protected.

[rtd]

If someone can advise me please, after washing n drying, I've used autoglym super resin polish followed by their sealant extra gloss protection. I want to do a basic detail session soon by using a clay bar after washing. Halfords do 2 types, meguires and their own brand. Are these ok for a 1st time user? My cars paintwork looks fairly ok apart from some swirl marks on bonnett. Then I intend to use AG SRP. I've read about Collinite de elegance (915) is a really good wax for Sprint blue so was intending on using that. Is this a replacement to AG egp or can I use the egp to seal the Collinite wax in?

the collinite is strong enough on its own therefore adding the ag on top wont really do much.

i use bilt hamber clays because you can use water as the lubricant and also they are very good clays - ease of use etc. however, the meguiars clays are good as well. you just need to ascertain what strength of clay you require. e.g. bilt hamber do a soft and hard clay. if the car has previously been clayed then you would only need a soft clay assuming that the car has not acquired a shed load of bonded contaminants since your last clay - this is very rare. if yes then the harder variety. always keep remoulding the clay to reveal a fresh face, keep some warm water at hand dip it in there makes easier to mould. also never re-use a clay if it falls on to the floor.

first wash car, then clay, then wash again, dry car, then polish, then add wax or sealant.

hope this helps.

[rtd]

Hmm so if sealant needs to be topped up after every wash whats the point?? I thought sealant was to avoid the need to polish it so often by sealing in all your hard work? You might aswell just polish it everymonth with SRP or similar? Im open to opinions as i thought high def AG was a form of sealant doh!! I have some days planned in for detailing over winter and interested in improving my methods or products if possible?

by topping up the sealant you are basically giving it some extra strength plus also you add some bling having washed and dried the car.

as long as you do the initial prep work right there is no need to polish the car between details.

e.g. i recently did a protection detail on a car and used the following.

washed car then clayed (bilt hamber) , polished (poorboys black hole) - this is more of a glazing agent with mild swirl removing properties - then protected (zymol glasur).

wheels were taken off car, cleaned inside and out using tardis (to remove tar spots) then washed using a mild apc, solution (all purpose cleaner, meguiars, autosmart etc. do them). then cleaned and polished with werkstat AIO, then sealed with finish kare 1000p.

windows cleaned and protected with duragloss - which also acts as a rain repellent.

all rubber seals protected with aerospace 303

then every 2 weeks once the car has been washed and dried you just top up the wax and add some bling with a qd (quick detailer). for a zymol wax like glasur i would suggest you use zymol field glaze. which is a liquid form of carnubra wax. this helps bolster the original application of wax and adds some bling between washes.

the products which you use are all dependent on your budget and enthusiasm plus ultimatley what works best for you. however, for a wax i dont think you can beat glasur for german cars. very durable and effective wax.

hope this was useful and made some sense - i'm off to sleep knackered.

[P_G]

If someone can advise me please, after washing n drying, I've used autoglym super resin polish followed by their sealant extra gloss protection. I want to do a basic detail session soon by using a clay bar after washing. Halfords do 2 types, meguires and their own brand. Are these ok for a 1st time user? My cars paintwork looks fairly ok apart from some swirl marks on bonnett. Then I intend to use AG SRP. I've read about Collinite de elegance (915) is a really good wax for Sprint blue so was intending on using that. Is this a replacement to AG egp or can I use the egp to seal the Collinite wax in?

If you really wanted to use SRP, EGP and Collinite use them in that order. Collinite always is last coat as it is a durable wax. If you want a longer lasting wax than 915 but less Carnuba content and therefore bling, use Collinite 476

[P_G]

Interesting comment by rtd on snow foam; there appears to be two camps on the effectiveness of snow foam. I have used Bilt Hamber in varying concentrations but used on a regular basis i.e. every week, especially in winter with high levels of dirt, I found the snow foam strips wax and means reapplication is needed more frequently.

As a basic, if you have a Karcher pressure washer they have their own foam gun. Not as good as a Gilmour Foammaster but does the job. I use a mixture of Duragloss shampoo and water in the foam tank and then apply to a dry / dirty car and find this works as well. May be not quite as effective as snow foam but no degredation of LSP.

[ArthurPE]

I have the Karcher set-up, very convenient for a winter 'whores bath'
rinse off, apply foam, let set, rinse again
pull in garage