First time detailing my car properly


FormulaRon

Member
Joined
Dec 31, 2009
Messages
496
As the title states, this is my first attempt to detail my car properly. Been driving this car since I've passed my test (1.5 years now) and I've always brought my car to hand car washes but I was never satisfied because they don't dry the car properly leaving water streaks running from my mirrors :(. The weather wasn't too bad today and I needed a break from revising all weekend, so I popped down to my local Halfords and picked up some detailing products.

Here's the list of things I bought:
  • Meguiar's Brilliant Solutions New Car Kit
  • Meguiar's Quik Clay Starter Kit
  • Autoglym Custom Wheel Clean Kit
  • Autoglym Fast Glass


Started off with the wheels, rinsed the wheel and sprayed Autoglym's Custom Wheel Clean Kit on it. It's a great product and if your wheels aren't heavily dirty, the wheels will be clean without agitation. But mine's were filthy and the kit comes with two brushes so I put them into use:

However, some of the contaminants were still on the wheel, I think I need to use something like Auto Finesse's Iron Out or something similar:


After that, rinsed the whole car down and started washing it in straight lines, no circular motion as I was told it will cause swirl marks. Meguiar's New Car Kit comes with a wash mitt which was very nice.
(Forgot to take a picture during the washing process, here's a picture after rinsing the car after the soap bath)


After the bath, I used a large drying towel that came with the kit by Meguiar's. I rinsed the towel to make it damp and squirted some quick detailier (from the clay kit) and dried the whole car misting the detailer on the towel every now and then. I got this idea from Larry from AMMONYC, it helps lubricate the car whilst drying it to prevent scratch marks. Check him out on YouTube, some of his videos are amazing!

Then it was time for the fun and also tiring part. Claying and waxing!

Clayed the whole car first using the quick detailer as a lubricant. This step knackered my wrist and my back :( But it was a good experience for me.
Finally after claying my car, I then proceed with waxing the whole car. Most people do circular motions but I did straight lines, again to prevent scratches. Got this idea as well from Larry, he said circular scratches are a lot harder to repair than straight line scratches.


Is it me or do waxes smell very good? :p

After 3.5 hours washing, claying and waxing the car, I finished off with cleaning all the glasses inside and out with Autoglym's Fast Glass and used tyre gel from Meguiar's kit to make the tyres shiny.

The final result:





Any comments and criticisms are welcome! I still have many many things to learn!

Thanks for reading! :nice:

(Btw not sure if this belongs here or in the detailing section, was trying to show both how I detailed the car and my car itself. Mods can move it if they want)
 
looks good mate! :nice: something satisfying about cleaning the car yourself, making sure it's done properly only for it to get dirty again a few days later
 
Nice mate :)

I usually clay my car over two days as I get bored easily, so il do one side and the bonnet one day and the other side and the rear the next, still 2-3 hours per side each day though.
 
Nice mate :)

I usually clay my car over two days as I get bored easily, so il do one side and the bonnet one day and the other side and the rear the next, still 2-3 hours per side each day though.

Cheers!
Was thinking of doing each panel everyday but I thought might as well do the whole car while I'm at it. 2-3 hours per side? I clayed the whole car in an hour! But it was sort of a rush job as there's less light for me to work on the car. If I did it properly it might've taken me longer than that.
 
Very nice! I tried to clay my car once, managed to do half the bonnet at thought, F##K that, You can stay dirty!

Always envious of people who do get their cars gleaming though!
 
Very nice! I tried to clay my car once, managed to do half the bonnet at thought, F##K that, You can stay dirty!

Always envious of people who do get their cars gleaming though!

Cheers mate! Haha I did the bonnet then I was like its gunna take a loonng time!
 
Cheers!
Was thinking of doing each panel everyday but I thought might as well do the whole car while I'm at it. 2-3 hours per side? I clayed the whole car in an hour! But it was sort of a rush job as there's less light for me to work on the car. If I did it properly it might've taken me longer than that.

Yeh alot of people say they do it in an hour or short amount of time. Ive only clayed 4 cars before, 3 are white and one was silver, so maybe because I could see the imperfections much more easily I focused on every single one until it was gone? Not sure, Im no expert lol.
 
I took about 3 hours to do a car before, but if you rush it you can do it in a hour/ hour and half, It all depends on how the paint is and how much effort you can be bothered to put in haha
 
Yeah fair enough lads. The more effort you put in the better the results of course :nice:
 
i am using fukken wax from last 8 months and the results are up to expectation, i just want a same kind of compound and polish too by which i can get extra shine !!!! please find the below attachment .......!!! and suggest me some kind polish and compound !!
 

Attachments

  • photo(2)-1024x768.jpg
    photo(2)-1024x768.jpg
    136.5 KB · Views: 235
just keep in mind going too mental with the clay can cause holograms on the paint similar thing to swirls but more loud a cloudy finish, easier seen on darker cars, looks a good job though mate check out cleanyourcar.co.uk its where i get all my stuff for cleaning the car sell everything from machine polishers to tyre dressings, better stock and manufacturers than halfrauds :)
 
just keep in mind going too mental with the clay can cause holograms on the paint similar thing to swirls but more loud a cloudy finish, easier seen on darker cars, looks a good job though mate check out cleanyourcar.co.uk its where i get all my stuff for cleaning the car sell everything from machine polishers to tyre dressings, better stock and manufacturers than halfrauds :)

Thanks for the advice pal. The Jazz is gone now, replaced her for a BMW: http://ek9.org/index.php?threads/rons-bmw-116i.66623/

When summer comes, will definitely look into that website and detail the new car again!
 
i am using fukken wax from last 8 months and the results are up to expectation, i just want a same kind of compound and polish too by which i can get extra shine !!!! please find the below attachment .......!!! and suggest me some kind polish and compound !!

Blackhole is brill for dark colour cars if you aren't doing a full paint correction :) for winter I top with collinite 476 but dodo supernatural and vics concours are other favs of mine for the summer :)
 
Back
Top