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Cleaning your 996 - your process, hints and tips

It's a beautiful day here in Bristol and intended to do a load of cleaning work on the car today; been up to Halfrauds this morning and bought some bits and pieces. I asked the guy in the store – do you sell grit guards, to which the guy says 'No – we don't sell them; we get asked for them all the time but we don't range them. People have been asking us for them for years..." I was somewhat amazed at this.

Went to two other local car factor shops and got the same reply.

So today its going to get the zesty form spray and a two bucked jobby but will have to be careful. Just ordered two new buckets and grit guards of eBay....

Osh
 
Osh said:
Morning CM

Couple of quick questions if I may...?? Please bear in mind I'm a detailing virgin here – so be gentle with me..!! These are in no particular order....

So I've got a large scratch on the front off-side of my bumper and front wing that was caused by my neighbours wife reversing into my P&J. It's going in to Brin Jones in 2 weeks' time to be completely done and back to its excellent self. Would you say avoid doing a clay-bar detail until after this is done...??

Blackfire – do the applicator pads come with the sealant or do you have to buy them separately; if you do which would you recommend..?

Blackfire Black Ice – do they do one for silver cars...??

How do you clean the applicator pads and the rest of the cleaning kit afterwards

What APC do you recommend...?

Poor Boys Black Hole – do they do one for silver cars...??

What plastic dressing products do you use...??

What do you use to polish the tailpipes...??

What glass cleaner do you use...??

Das6Pro – I've read somewhere that you should never polish a car using circular motions – always up/down-side-to-side. Why would you use a circular polisher...??

Please post up the details about applying C5 to the wheels; never head of C5 - what is it, what does it do and how do you apply it...??
Can you do a similar write up for interiors...??

Found all this really interesting and looking to apply this to my own P&J

Ta m8

Osh

Hi Osh. Sorry for the late response, I've been out in the garden since about 08:30. Totally knackered now!

Anyway, to answer your questions..

Claying is an awesome way to remove overspray... I'd say, why not Wait until it's been to the paint shop. Just clay the areas that haven't had new paint.

Osh, buy the blackfire wet diamond kit from polished bliss. They supply some very good applicators and some super deluxe polishing and buffing clothes in the kit. I usually buy a pack of foam applicators from eBay every now and then. I also have some of the microfibre ones as well. They're cheap so get a load. I use them for all sorts of jobs.

If you buy the blackfire kit, you'll get the gloss enhancing polish, the sealant and the polymer spray. You won't need a glaze like black hole or anything else as the gep has fillers in it.

They don't do a silver specific polish (I'm not sure anyone does to be honest) you could try something like bouncers 'check the fleck' but to be honest, I'd suggest you start by trying out the wet fire kit. A couple of coats of AFPP and you may think that's good enough. If not a coat or two of blackfire midnight sun will do the trick nicely! Silver can be tricky to get really shines, but most in the know would suggest sealant will bling silver and white better than wax.

I use autoglym plastic and trim dressing. There's loads of different products and they're all pretty decent. Next time I might try something different, but it's ok. Same with the glass cleaner. I find the autoglym glass cleaner pretty good as well. I might try some glass polish this weekend if I can get hold of some. It's particularly good at deep cleaning glass.

I might do a write up on cleaning interiors, glass, plastics and the engine this weekend if the weather holds up.

Apc - I think I use the autobrite product. 5 litres for about £18 or something off eBay. To be honest any will do in my opinion.

Metal polish - I use tcut original.its old school but works so well.ive got a pot of meguires metal,polish on the shelf, but never bothered to try it.

The reason that people say don't do circular motions is that in theory it can cause significant scratches if there was any grit or dirt on the paint or cloth. If you're using a rotary or DA, then it's assumed that you know the importance of clean paint and what do with the polish (to truly work polish needs to break down, which it does after being worked with a da or rotary polisher).

I've done a whole thread on C5. Just post on the thread if you have any question.

I think I've covered everything, but please feel free to ask whatever you want. There's lots on here that are experienced and enjoy detailing / cleaning their cars.

Good luck. Show us your work please!

Matt
 
Osh said:
It's a beautiful day here in Bristol and intended to do a load of cleaning work on the car today; been up to Halfrauds this morning and bought some bits and pieces. I asked the guy in the store – do you sell grit guards, to which the guy says 'No – we don't sell them; we get asked for them all the time but we don't range them. People have been asking us for them for years..." I was somewhat amazed at this.

Went to two other local car factor shops and got the same reply.

So today its going to get the zesty form spray and a two bucked jobby but will have to be careful. Just ordered two new buckets and grit guards of eBay....

Osh

And so the obsession begins.. :wink:

:D
 
Can you believe I am still waiting for a bunch of things to arrive? Blackfire, Grit Guards, Wash Mits etc etc! Weather looking good for the weekend though so should be getting stuck in by Saturday. Will report progress!
Rick
 
segart said:
Can you believe I am still waiting for a bunch of things to arrive? Blackfire, Grit Guards, Wash Mits etc etc! Weather looking good for the weekend though so should be getting stuck in by Saturday. Will report progress!
Rick

The downside of living on a south sea island I guess.

Fingers cross it all arrives in the next couple of days.
 
Robertb said:
Superb write up. I love the idea of the clay mitt, will check those out.

The only tip I would add is- be careful if you leave the rear wiper sticking up like that. If you catch it with a cloth, or a blast from a jetwash, and it falls with the wiper spun round then it will put a nasty deep scratch in the paint on the pillar above the rear wing. I did this once, really annoying. I always wipe under it and place it back down now.

I did this too when I first bought my car. I've touched it up as much as a can, but I don't think it'll be perfect without paint :sad: How did you fix yours?

Thanks,

Paul

P.S. Great article CarreraMonkey :thumb:
 
I did the same. It left a nasty 4 inch gouge in my paintwork right where you can see it. I had it painted and buffed out when I had a small repair (vandal - another story) done recently. I now handle the rear wiper like a primed grenade.

It sounds like it is worth its own thread.
Rick
 
Wow! That never even crossed my mind about the wiper but that's excellent advice gents cheers
 
To the OP - thanks for the guide and photos! I enjoy doing this stuff - not the dull hand waxing and buffing time but a good quality outcome is oh so rewarding :) I've been learning on my own, on youtube, etc, and I've not gone into the paint correction area.

Perhaps the single most effective investment and treatment I've done was Gtechniq G1/G2 on the glasses. That thing is magic, I thoroughly recommend to anyone!

Re washing/waxing, my method is similar, which is good to see - maybe there's a good suggestion in there or something really wrong. Either way comments are welcome!

- Even before rinsing once I soak some of the tougher areas with a citrus pre wash thing (valet pro). This digs in deeper than the snow foam in areas like near the exhausts, behind the front wheels, the sills and both sides of the rear wheels - saves a whole lot of scrubbing;
- I also go through the wheels with a good degreaser whilst trying to stay away from aggressive cleaners if possible (acidic or alkaline). On the other hand iron-x is really expensive to be used on its own so I've not nailed down the formula for this yet;
- I use bilt hamber snow foam neat, since I've worked out that's the correct proportion with the karcher k2 I was using;
- I wash with autofinesse lather and a lambswool mitt;
- Then I go over with zaino Z8 as a final spray sealantt;

If it's time to clay+wax I do the following too (without the last step above);
- I've since learnt to clay with a mitt rather than the clay bar. Soooo much easier and quicker, it's amazing!!
- If it's time to clay+wax I go through with AF oblitarate on the spots that need it. LAst time I tried, iron X didn't extract much iron residue from the paint;
- Then I rinse and dry again, before going over with AG SRP to fill up the holes (since there's a few fine scratches);
- Two coats of FKP1000;
- One final round of Z8 and that's it for now!

Now to find that thread about the C5.

Cheers,
Pedro.
 
Thanks to this thread bought my first clay mit rather than the old bar, whilst a small bit of clay is still useful for hard to reach areas the mit is the future!! I clayed my whole car in a fraction of the time just using a strong shampoo solution as lubricant, top job!!!
 

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