ARTICLE: The Car Care guide (Aesthetics)

[Vicki_Rau]

Hi Rudra,
Great write up, you are really thorough.
Dont know about the rest of you, but if I wash my car more than once a week, I collect real flak from the wife.
Heres my two bits worth :-
(1)I find that chamois leather (its a little expensive initially, but is really long lasting) is the best for the bucket wash method. You get excellant c.leather at Stanley, for around 300 bucks apiece.
(2) For windsheilds+glass mix any shampoo in water (should be slippery to touch), fill it in a sprayer (the kind you get in any kirana shop), spray on generously and squeejee it off. Finally, wipe any remaining wet spots with a clean (read no grease/grime) cloth. This will remove that irritating film (which gives you multi-colour effects from on-coming headlights at night) on your glass surfaces.

[JPL]

Hi,
Iam using Sonax wax to polish my car once a month, first I wash it with sonax car shampoo. I find the whole excercise of polishing a bit tiring, though I actually start with great energy but soon start to get bored.

What i want to know is can we use some professional and cost effective equipment to wax polish the car, does anyone use it, cost and availability. I would rather use some professional equipment and do the polishing myself, leaves nothing to doubt.

Anyways we would not be polishing it frequently so I guess this should be better, any ideas on this?

PS: The sonax products are available at a good price at Metro in bangy.

[GTO]

What i want to know is can we use some professional and cost effective equipment to wax polish the car, does anyone use it, cost and availability. I would rather use some professional equipment and do the polishing myself, leaves nothing to doubt.

Great question. Rudra? Is it good to use the electric motors for waxing? Any recommended brands?

[viper]

Originally Posted by GTO

Great question. Rudra? Is it good to use the electric motors for waxing? Any recommended brands?

Hi Guys,

I would not advocate the self use electric motors or buffing machines as they are called by novices. If you apply too much pressure you can end up cutting the paint. Best left to professionals oe people who know what they are doing.

You can however safely use the liquid paste wax via hand.

Viper

[Rudra Sen]

Originally Posted by viper

I would not advocate the self use electric motors or buffing machines as they are called by novices.

I would agree with this point. One needs to have enough experience to do this. A difference in pressure can cause a big damage.

[ajayclicks]

I had my car serviced last week. This is the abstract of converstaion between me and the guy who takes the delivery of the car and notes what all probs u have.

Me: Will u also be cleaning the engine bay
He: Yes. thts a standard when we clean ur car
Me: I want to know if its safe for me to clean the engine bay myself... with a damp cloth
He: O yes. But please do not use a pressure hose.
Me: So a damp cloth is fine
He: U can use a normal hose pipe. Just dont apply pressure


Running water... to clean engine bay..... maybe in older cars... but in MPFIs???

Cheers

[tadukuttan]

Just saw this thread, and thought I will add this slightly old picture I have of car care products...



1) New Car Scent - used after some long haired friends "smoke" in the car.
2) Tire Conditioner - hides sidewall damage after track days from the wife.
3) Car Shampoo - Did not like this one a lot.
4) Lubricant - The best medicine for squeaking fan belts, window runners etc
5&6) Wash and wax - Formula one is really good for black cars.
7) Glass cleaner - Easier on trips, and you don't need water.
8) Upholstery cleaner - very effective one.
9)Dashboard protectant - Keeps the plastics wet/good looking.

[hyper-VTEC]

My 2 month old Swift (Ozone Blue) already has swirl marks (thanks to street parking). Can i use Turtle Wax Swirl Mark and scratch remover? I mean is there a time before i can use this, since its a new car. Car Shringar is selling bottles for Rs. 315/- Is this original?

[theexister]

I recently had swirl marks over my hood & boot of my Fiesta. This inspite of a Turtle Wax coating.
On my recent trip to Bombay I got the Turtle Wax swirls & scratch remover. It removes swirls very well & very fine scratches but there is one deep scratch, thanks to my cat, which hasnt gone.

For pure swirls it is great. I recommend it. Be sure to clean your car well with a good car wash solution before doing this.

[gkrishn]

Did use the 3M's car detailing at sundaram. Initially its little bit tricky to deal with them. There are couple of plans that they will suggest for you. One is meant(!) for the old cars, and other is meant for the new car. I was told by the sundaram guy (not 3M guy) that both are almost same, except that for the new car treatment you 2 more free service, where they will repeat process again. The cost was same?!?! Any way went for the new car "paint protection" service even though my car was almost 3 years old.

Now the execution, first step was the usual pressure wash shampoo cleaning. Then they dried up the surface. 2,3 guys took some spray container and started looking at the nooks, corners for deposits the white thing because of hard water. They didn't manage to remove all, but about 80% of them are gone now.

Now one guy started the process of claying. Refer this, to understand more about claying. This went on for about 20+ mins. Then the polishing job was done followed by waxing, all using 3M products. After this, they worked on all the black plastic parts, applied the tyre polish, cleaned all the glass area and did a vacum. The whole process took about 3 hours.

So basically what 3M does is, claying + what rudra have explained in his post. This cost me 31xxRs, and will be getting this treatment for couple of more time free of cost at the interval of 6 months.

The final o/p: the car come out as new. I gave an "excellent" on their feedback form. There was some deep scratches on my bonnet. Visually these things have been reduced a lot. The swirls have completely disappeared. And the surface gained a lot smoothness by the time they finished claying and polishing itself.

Few problem I found was, as anywhere else, these guys are stretched a little bit. Even though i had fixed appointment earlier, there couple of cars in queue that were getting little impatient. Also they do the interiors of mercs, not sure if they came for paint job or regular service. And there are only 2,3 guys who seems to professionally trained. Rest are kind of learning their jobs there. So you may have to be around to make sure they are care full about the whole process.

[hyper-VTEC]

Originally Posted by tadukuttan

Just saw this thread, and thought I will add this slightly old picture I have of car care products...



1) New Car Scent - used after some long haired friends "smoke" in the car.
2) Tire Conditioner - hides sidewall damage after track days from the wife.
3) Car Shampoo - Did not like this one a lot.
4) Lubricant - The best medicine for squeaking fan belts, window runners etc
5&6) Wash and wax - Formula one is really good for black cars.
7) Glass cleaner - Easier on trips, and you don't need water.
8) Upholstery cleaner - very effective one.
9)Dashboard protectant - Keeps the plastics wet/good looking.

Can i someone please confirm whether i can use item # 9 (Formula 1 Protectant.... Extreme right) on tyres?

[ramki067]

Hi all,
I would like to know whether the Ocean Blue color of the New WagonR will be easy to maintain or not(does it fall in God can only help category?) Rudraji, any suggestions?

Rgrds,
Ramki.

[Rudra Sen]

Any colour is difficult or easy to maintain. Depends greatly on you.

That's a nice colour Ramki. Take care of her. Any specific need..post or pm.

[ramki067]

sure rudraji, will pm you if something required. Thanks.

[mobike008]

Originally Posted by ramki067

Hi all,
I would like to know whether the Ocean Blue color of the New WagonR will be easy to maintain or not(does it fall in God can only help category?) Rudraji, any suggestions?

Rgrds,
Ramki.

Any color other than black is easy to maintain. Only problem with lighter colors like white, beige etc is that even minor scratches are clearly visible.

Ocean blue color is a good color and easy to maintain. go ahead for it.