OK, hands up - ever since I've owned cars I've been one of the "turtle wax in a bucket and sponge" car cleaners. They always turn out looking good, no swirling that I'm aware of but seeing as my VRS is the nicest (and most expensive) car I've owned it's about time I looked after her properly.

I need a checklist of quality car cleaning products needed for a basic exterior wash - no concours level stuff just a nice quick, safe and car friendly shine.

Owning a black magic car may mean buying the big family size bottles though

ahh but did you check for swirls under halogen lighting

a good start would be to ditch the sponge!!! Get yourself two clear buckets, one for the shampoo, and the other for clean water to rinse then next product you want a lambswool washmitt.. then onto drying and a waffle weave drying towel is a must... no shammy leathers here

as for products i personally use:

Poorboys super slick and suds car shampoo

Sonus der wunder drying towel's(pk of two)

meguires lambswool wash mitt

meguires microfibre washmitt for tougher areas like wheels

and just recently meguires Last Touch mixed 1:1 to aid in drying...

i wont get to heavily into all the other stages, like claying, polishing, and last step products (wax or sealant)

at least you will be heading in the right direction straight away, with the two bucket method of washing

have a read of the stickies at the top of this forum for pointers on how to wash... you'll be suprised of the difference am sure

good luck with it all

I know i should have by now (6 months of owning this car), but i have not yet done any real polishing or claying (dont have a machine polisher yet), but this is a pic of purely rinsing, then two bucket method washing with wash mitt, and then using last touch whilst drying the car off.. nothing more at all...

Shiny! Cheers for that - read through the stickies so assumed all I would really need is another bucker and couple of wash mitts.

Don't forget a grit guard or two if you are using the 2BM.

Don't forget a grit guard or two if you are using the 2BM.

out of curiousity do these need to be used...

its just i use really deep clear buckets, and never really dip the washmitt all that far into the water, i presume the guards are to stop you going to the bottom of the bucket, and thus picking up the grit???

The guards are really for removing the grit from the mitt, so yes worth buying.

Well I went out and got some things today - 2 buckets, some triplewax, microfibre mitt (couldn't find lambswool), waffle weave meguires drying cloth and some other odds and ends.

Well shampoo with two buckets and mitt seemed fine. Car had basically dried by the time I was drying (it was in shade though) with the terry cloth. It all loked brilliant until the sun is shining on it :eek:

****! I've put loads of bloody light scratches all over the bodywork, which show up badly in sun light - this is why I've always been afraid of drying off cars.

What did I do wrong? Should the car still be very wet when drying off??

Anything I can do to save this ****-up - complete polish?? I'm terrified to do something like that now :rotz:

Best to dry the car whilst it wet/semi wet. Drag the waffle over the paint with a little pressure or pat down. Polish should remove the fine scratches.

What did I do wrong? Should the car still be very wet when drying off??

Anything I can do to save this ****-up - complete polish?? I'm terrified to do something like that now :rotz:

If you have fine scratches and swirls on the paintwork then you can attempt to remove these by hand with a polishes and pads, invest in a machine to remove these or get someone to remove them for you..........

Sounds like you just need to stick with it and get a few more choice products that will make your washing a lot quicker and easier, returning better results........

Well I went out and got some things today - 2 buckets, some triplewax, microfibre mitt (couldn't find lambswool), waffle weave meguires drying cloth and some other odds and ends.

Well shampoo with two buckets and mitt seemed fine. Car had basically dried by the time I was drying (it was in shade though) with the terry cloth. It all loked brilliant until the sun is shining on it :eek:

****! I've put loads of bloody light scratches all over the bodywork, which show up badly in sun light - this is why I've always been afraid of drying off cars.

What did I do wrong? Should the car still be very wet when drying off??

Anything I can do to save this ****-up - complete polish?? I'm terrified to do something like that now :rotz:

first thing to do is stop worrying. The chances are that unless the previous owner was a ocd suffering detailing nut case like baker21 or me then the 'swirls' were allready there.

As baker said you have 3 options but all of them involve money.

First is removal by hand whereby you will be looking at polishing by hand with somthing like autoglym super resin polish which will remove very few of the mraks but fill most of them hiding them. this is the cheapest option but you will find by the time you have been round the car a couple of times you will either have arms like popeye or still be buzzing from the 7 cases of red bull needed to keep going.

Secondly is invest in a basic machine polisher kit such as the megs kit from Clean Your Car - car care products UK , then get hold of a scrap bonnet to practice on and then go for removeing the scratches yourself followed by a decent cleaning technique in the future will ensure it not happening again.

Third and final solution is to pay a pro to do it for you. this is the simplest easiest way of doing it but is far from cheap. realistically i would budget an absolute minimum of £500 for this process.

Or you could just keep buying a new car everytime it needs cleaning!!!!!:rofl:

first thing to do is stop worrying. The chances are that unless the previous owner was a ocd suffering detailing nut case like baker21 or me then the 'swirls' were allready there.

I have never been called that before but I am cool with it.............:P