So after having the car maybe 2 months now and not really having any gear at all.  I've finally got round to cleaning my car properly.

I am still short on a lot of gear that I really must have, as SWMBO thinks it's a waste spending money on car care products, I totally disagree with this however..

 

Products used was last month's waxy box (50 cal) a cheap turtle wax shampoo and turtle wax alloy cleaner, a g3 clay mitt, Karcher K2 with Karcher snow lance and various cloths and applicators.

 

Started with a quick rinse with the karcher to get rid of some loose dirt.

Next was the alloy cleaner, sprayed a bunch of this stuff on the wheels and left for a little while.  It didn't do too bad a job to be honest.. had to go over the wheel's with some wet wipes, but nothing too strenuous.

 

Then it was 50 cal's snow foam, on the bottle it said to dilute no more than 2 litres per 100ml.

So I used about 800ml of water for about 50ml of the snow foam as I needed to wash the wife's car too.

The results weren't the best, it looked like I had poured milk over the cars.. it didn't cling well and the cleaning wasn't too great either.  But I put that down to dilution ratio, I have seen others results with the 50 cal before and it was a lot better than this.  I wasn't too bothered as I needed to shampoo the cars anyway.

All I have at the moment is a cheap bottle of turtle wax shampoo that's about a decade old, so that's what I used.  Rinsed the cars off and took my car for a quick spin afterwards to help dry it, and used a couple random towels to dry the rest.

Then I got to work with the 50 cal polish.  Easy on, easy off.  Had no problems using this stuff at all, and it didn't do a bad job hiding half of the swirls on the car, still a few visible but a hell of a lot better than it was.

After that I got the 50 cal wax out, this stuff smells divine, although I have no idea why they put any smell to it at all as once you start rubbing it in the smell is gone!  Anyways, I think I applied this waaayyy too liberally, as it was an absolute nightmare to buff off, rookie detailing mistake? 

So once I finally buffed it to satisfaction I got to work on the windows with the 50 cal glass cleaner.  Worked really well, streak free and easy to clean.  Applied some rain-x afterwards and buffed off, but don't think I will be needing it for a while judging by the weather.  Finally I got the tyre dressing and tried to get the tyres looking nice and wet but I dunno whether I was using it wrong or what, but it had no effect what so ever.  So in the end I used it to make the not so black exterior trim black again, and I must say it worked pretty well for that!

 

I thought I would write up a mini review for the last waxybox and show off my first detail.  I'm pleased with the results I have to say, over than me under diluting the snow foam and the tyre dressing not working as tyre dressing, the rest of the box was smashing, although personally... I have nothing to compare it to!!

I had done the interior last weekend and got to use the berry air freshener and interior dress then, forgot to take pics, but the inside of the car is still looking clean now!

 

Anyway... Pics below, hope you enjoy:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nice work mate

The car looks great

Very nice, that colour has really grown on me.

Thanks guys.

Ohh yeah, I only went to test drive this car originally as pictures of it done it no justice at all.  Ended up buying it after the test drive!

My mate takes the p*ss out of me, calls me an old man for having such a colour... i'm not bothered tho haha

Car looks awesome! Great results.

Thanks for a detailed write up too.

Great job car looks great ( cleaned mine today first time in a month ).:-0

Thanks guys.

And on the plus side I think SWMBO is finally starting to see the light!

Well done Lee, looking good.

I might suggest not driving the car to dry it though, you will easily pick up dust in this weather that you will then rub into the paint with the drying towel.

I have the 50 cal tyre dressing somewhere I will compare my results, but good thinking on using it on the trim, good instinct for a first timer! I often interchange the two to see what results I get. I love the waxyboxes for this very reason though, some products are just duds and you can find out before shelling out for the full bottle.

Don't be hard on yourself with the Pentawax either, everyone needs to learn how a new wax applies in various conditions, the recent heat will have an impact, but equally some waxes you have to work a panel at a time buffing as you go, they are all difference. It does smell rather good though doesn't it

Most importantly the car looks brilliant, thanks for sharing the write up.

Thanks for the advice dude.   Still learning, obviously.  And thought waxybox was best way to go for experimenting.  Couldn't possibly justify buying the full size products to find out they're useless!

 

I love reading other people's success with products... so thought it was only fair i share myself, I'm quite pleased with the results as I said... but really looking forward to getting more stuffs and actually becoming good at this. 

Another thing I'm looking forward to is this new venture you're taking on, wax appeal.  These things massively appeal to me at the moment as we're on a pretty tight budget, and this won't break the bank.

 

As for the wax... i knew it was gonna be a pain, so I was prepared,  mostly.  I didn't exactly follow instructions..  as they advised to stick it in the fridge!