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-   -   A superb Car cleaning, polishing & detailing guide (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/technical-stuff/102011-superb-car-cleaning-polishing-detailing-guide-556.html)

Had a full wash+quick wax session today after 2 weeks, and with sudden rains the last weekend , the car was covered with caked in dirt.

Steps followed:
Pressure-pre-rinsing
Tire cleaning (Verso APC 5:1 + Mother's tire brush)
Wheel cleaning (Meg's all wheel cleaner + Mother's wheel brush)
2BM wash (currently using the Eagle one easi dri shampoo)
Pressure rinse
Water sheeting
Drying (currently using the DC basics blue giant drying towel)
Wax (Collinite 845)
Tire dressing (Finishkare Top Kote undiluted)
waistline mooulding dressing (Finishkare Top Kote undiluted)
Wheel waxing (Collinite 845)

Used the Finishkare top kote for the first time, shall post the longevity of the same after a couple of weeks.

A few pictures :

Tried the Meguiars Ultimate Compound today. First I tried to identify the panels having swirls and found out that the entire car has swirls. Since I can't apply it on the entire car in a single day, tried only 1 or 2 panels a day. I started on Wednesday and have completed around 80% as of today. Will be completing the rest 20% next week.

I'm highly satisfied with the results. Its very easy to apply and removed the swirls within no time. Still some very minor lines are left which are not at all visible to a normal eye. Its visible only if someone stares closely with a very high intensity light in the background.















Before applying the UC. Notice the swirls around the light.


After applying the UC.

Amazing results!! I have not tried compound. Not many swirls on my car for a normal eye. Or I guess it's not visible as my i20 is white in color.

Hi can anyone tell me how to remove white paint spots from my black car. Was stupidly parked near building being painted. Please help !!

Try a mild or medium aggressive clay. Spot treatment with WD40 can help. Diesel can also work, but WD40 would be the preferred option.

Good work ! Yes these products are quite easy to apply by hand for DIY enthusiasts, those minor lines would probably be deeper scratches and for a daily driver its better not to cut into the clear coat too much to remove them !


It would depend also on what kind of paint has deposited on your car. You can try claying with medium or aggressive clay and see if it goes.

Enamel paints would be a challenge and if does not go by claying or other methods, better seek professional help. Ive seen many cars where these deposits dont come off and sometimes the best practical solution would be to recommend a respray of the affected areas.

You can use the normal paint thinner (very minimal in quantity) apply it on a soft cloth and rub very mildly.

Else, you can try a scratch out paste (I have Foumula 1). Again rub very mildly.

What I use is a small sized bottle that is meant to remove paint dots, paint marks from other vehicles due to a scratching collision, or the paint marks from a motorcyclist who scratched the bumper etc. this does not have a name. But you can find this product with people trying to talk to you about removing scratches at the petrol pumps. It looks like this.


All of these techniques rub very mildly!!

NEVER use paint thinner on paint!! @connect2prashan this is a very very dangerous advice. Please refrain from posting such advice.

Try vinegar - apply a few drops of vinegar on the paint and rub very gently. You can also try WD40 - spray on the paint wait for a couple minutes and rub.

Last resort will be will be using a mild polishing compound (like 3M perfect it one step finishing compound - available online - pls. google).

If all fails pls take your car to professionals.

Yes, The thinner is very dangerous. I tired once with a dilution. 1:10 with water. it worked. (on my two wheeler). But anyway. stay away from thinner. My bad, I should have not recommended it. :eek:

I totally forgot about WD40. It is the best for stain removal, paint dots, to some extent tar dots too and also rusty spots.

After a month of attempting and pretending to decide, ended up buying the Karcher 3.550 from Hot Tracks, Bangalore. I tried it out a few hours ago and it works quite well. I ended up using significantly less water to pre-wash the car before the two bucket wash routine and the following wash to clean. I would estimate that the water saved would be about 60 liters.
As can be seen the water source is a bucket as I don't have a facility to connect it to a tap. The total water used to pre-wash and the final wash was limited to the capacity of the blue bucket next to the washer. The water that can be seen to remain was added in to make sure that the source does not run dry.

This thread is just awesome. A plethora of useful DIY guides.

After reading few of the posts on this thread and based on availability of stuff/budget, this is what I plan to do. I'm looking forward for inputs/suggestions/changes needed here.

We have a car wash guy who does wash from outside everyday and once a week from inside. I've not been too happy with his work lately, specially after reading this forum and getting into details which of course I cannot expect him to do. However, due to frequent rains, the car does get dirty and so I'm not sure who to take care of that if I decide not to keep the car wash guy.

First of all, I plan to get detailing done with one of experts(may go for normal Paint Sealant or C-Quartz one but find latter pretty expensive). Car is non Metallic White color

Post that, I plan the foll (Questions inline).

• Interior
  • Sonax MF Interior Cloth
  • Sonax interior cleaner
  • Formula1 protectant
  • Jopasu mini duster
  • Clean interior with Jopasu mini duster every day (specially the dashboard)
  • Once a week, clean the interior with Sonax interior cleaner using the MF cloth.
  • Post this, use Formula1 protectant. Spray on the MF cloth (can i use the same MF cloth ?) and gently wipe it on dashboard for shine.

• Exterior (Need some guidance here)
  • Jopasu full size duster
  • Ultima Waterless Wash
  • MF cloth (how many? )
  • Clean car every day with Jopasu duster
  • Once a week, clean car with Ultima Waterless Wash and MF cloth.
  • Questions here: Is this good enough? I still have to learn about the DIY wax part but not sure about frequency.
  • Detail the car once 6 months/1 year based on condition (this is if I do not go for C-Quartz)
  • In Bangalore, due to frequent rains, the car does get dirty a whole lot. What method I should follow here during those days?

• Tyre
  • Armorall Extreme Wheel and Tire cleaner
  • Armorall Extreme Tire Shine Gel
  • Sponge
  • Here, should I wash alloy rims with mild shampoo (maybe diluted Sonax shampoo) first with Sponge?
  • I plan to spray the Armorall Extreme Wheel and Tire cleaner on wheel and alloy here. Post this, should I be using MF cloth or a sponge to clean tyre and rims?
  • Post this, apply Armorall tire gel (comes with applicator) on side walls for the shine.

Sanjay replied yesterday, he said stock is supposed to come in this week and he'll keep me posted. Will update you guys in PM.

Have a quick question. After going through most of the posts here I went ahead and bought a DeWalt Rotary polisher yesterday along with a 5" backing plate. I started looking for 5.5" pads yesterday but most of the ones I see say they are for a DA. My question is, what is the difference between a pad for a DA and a rotary? Below is a link to one such pad I came across.
http://www.autodetailingsolutions.net/531g.html

Hello friends,

I need your advice to restore my car shine. These pictures speak for themselves! These white stains are from lime (chuna) on the ceiling of my car parking at home. These marks are almost all over the car body, including rear windshield.







Rear windshield:


I've bought below products and will follow process mentioned below to restore my car shine.

Products bought:

Bilt Hamber AutoClay 200g
BLACKFIRE Wet Diamond Rinseless Wash
Meguiar`s SwirlX
Duragloss 105 + One DG Foam Pad
Meguiar`s Ultimate Compound
Collinite 845
Premium Eurow MF 350 GSM 16x16 inch
Auto Craft Wash Mitt

Process (on car in shade and cool surface):

Step 1: Wash the car with BlackFire Rinseless Wash (10 ml in 3L water)
Step 2: Prepare white vinegar (80%) and water (20%) mixture and spray over these white lime (chuna) stain marks. Leave it for 10 mins, and clean the area with water. Repeat until all these lime stains are removed.
Step 3: Repeat step 1.
Step 4: Claying + using BlackFire Rinseless wash (1:16 water ratio) as lubricant.
Step 5: Repeat step 1.
Step 6: Apply Meg SwirlX.
Step 7: Apply Duragloss 105 using cotton cloth on clean and dry car. Remove with MF after it hazes.
Step 8: Apply Meg's UC.
Step 9: Appy Collinite 845.

Is this process correct?

Also suggest if I would need car polisher machine? DA or Rotary? My budget is 10K but can extend by 2-3K if sub-10K machine is not VFM.

Thanks,
Sid

How can I remove the stubborn spots which is shown in the pic below? Its collected over the time as a result of muck flying from the front wheel. Should WD40 help?