car cleaning product reviews

[Gissin]

ok, so I thought I'd make this thread as I do a lot of work on peoples cars so get through a lot of products and some side by side comparisons might be good.

 

Tomorrow I will be reviewing

Wheels

Bilt Hamber Korrosol

Simoniz - alloy wheel cleaner

Wonder wheels - super wheel cleaner

Poor boys Wheel sealant

Simoniz - tyre black and shine

 

Windows

Tesco window cleaner

Rain x glass cleaner + repellent

 

Body

bilt hamber - auto foam (snow foam)

G3 clay mitt

Bilt hamber soft clay

meguairs - gold class shampoo

Halfords - Car shampoo

Simoniz - car shampoo

 

Interior

Angelwax- Heaven for leather

 

Wax/sealants/polish

Trial run with - simoniz carnauba hard wax - applied with Waffle pads

previous results with G3 super resin wax

 

side by side comparisons on cars and over all results will be split between 2 cars, black and white so should be interesting

 

on order for test 29/07/17

Poor boys light car polish

auto glym - extra gloss protection (sealant)

Bilt hamber auto balm

[Bignij]

I've used a few of those. It will be interesting to see how you rate them, compared to my experience. I won't post anything until you've posted your results.

[Auric Goldfinger]

Can you recommend a product please to obtain a really high gloss/wet look finish as a Top coat. i.e. :-  wash, dry, sealant, then a top coat, to go on Meteor Grey 

 

Thanks 

 

AG

[Gissin]

On ‎14‎/‎07‎/‎2017 at 18:39, Auric Goldfinger said:

Can you recommend a product please to obtain a really high gloss/wet look finish as a Top coat. i.e. :-  wash, dry, sealant, then a top coat, to go on Meteor Grey 

 

Thanks 

 

AG

difficult on greys/silvers but this all comes down to prep work no matter how good the product is if you have fine scratches swirls etc you're never going to get that body shop finish but this is what I would do:

snow foam

iron x

Wash probably megs gold or nxt ( I find both pretty good)

Clay soft, then medium if needed then back to soft again

Zaino Z2 ( machine for best results, if doing so 3m tape areas first)

IPA wipedown

3M Hand Glaze (body shops secret weapon)

Zymol Glasur- thin even coats 2-3

 

[Gissin]

Didn't get as much finished as I wanted to this weekend so this will follow on to next weekend

 

1st Bilt Hamber Korrosol - amazing stuff really, £16 (1000ml) so quite expensive however after using all 3 I always ended up using this stuff to get rid of any final contamination I especially like the fact it sprays on clear and only goes purple when it's working also required little to no agitation and when it was worked in brought the alloys up like new.

 

2nd Wonder wheels - super wheel cleaner - did a good job, didn't quite get them entirely clean and required agitation to do a decent job a simple spray on and spray off with this stuff is not really sufficient to get a good clean with a bit of persuasion it did a good enough job and at £6 (600ml) its a good buy to keep wheels fairly clean on a weekly basis

 

3rd Simoniz - alloy wheel cleaner - the cheapest of the 3 used the spray setting rather than stream as that was more like a jet and seemed very unnecessary but I liked that it stayed foamy when working it in, as this helped you see where you've been, it surprisingly picked up a lot of brake dust but just didn't quite get into the deeper areas of the alloys or in-between the spokes well,  a spray on and rinse of is not going to work wonders but with a bit of going over with a wheel brush it did an ok job although I think it did a better job of cleaning my tyres than the alloy. however when on offer it was £3 (500ml) at Tesco so for a midweek cheap clean its effective as long as you work it in.

 

Edited 17 July, 2017 by Gissin

[Gissin]

Korrosol the fine spray sticks to the alloy as seen below really well which allows for a greater dwell time

 

 

 

as you can see it does a great job of bringing the alloy back nice and clean

 

Edited 17 July, 2017 by Gissin

[Gissin]

Wonder wheels, as seen by the ringed area, spraying on and rinsing off only, did leave some areas not perfectly clean but after working it in with a brush it did get all areas clean. I don't like its claim of colour active when it sprays out purple to start off with .

 

overall not bad when worked in and it did get through to the rear of the rim well and cleaned that up nicely 7/10 not perfect but does a good job for the money and time

 

 

 

[Gissin]

Simoniz - did a fairly ok job  on the front but clearly as seen below not strong enough to penetrate to the rear of the rim and required spraying from the rear and working into the rim to get this off. 5/10 if on offer in Tesco for £3 again possibly, other than that for the £3 more wonder wheels is much better.

[Gissin]

ok so not really a car cleaning review but I thought this product was worth a mention, I've used it to take off all my badges on every car I've had, dead easy, spray it on doesn't run as its a gel, and doesn't damage paint so no need to be careful, leave it for 5 minutes or so, then either pull the badge off or get some floss behind it (what I do) and saw it off, but the best thing about this is the residue that's left behind from the badges then simply wipes off and it also takes any marks left behind with it too, so if you're thinking of removing badges get this stuff  

 

Edited 18 July, 2017 by Gissin

[Bignij]

On 7/17/2017 at 11:44, Gissin said:

Simoniz - did a fairly ok job  on the front but clearly as seen below not strong enough to penetrate to the rear of the rim and required spraying from the rear and working into the rim to get this off. 5/10 if on offer in Tesco for £3 again possibly, other than that for the £3 more wonder wheels is much better.

You're a bit more diplomatic than me. I thought the Simoniz stuff was pants. I also got it on offer from Tesco a couple of years ago. I tried it a couple of times and it's been 'resting' in the garage ever since.

Edited 19 July, 2017 by Bignij

[Gissin]

G3 super resin wax lasted just over 8 weeks for beading to stop, that's not to say all protection has completely left not bad for only 1 layer applied by hand.

[Gissin]

just picked up some new 3m tape and doing a half and half for snow foam + fallout vs pressure wash water rinse only to see how effective non touch cleaners are. following which ill be doing a medium paint detail weather depending as my garage is looking full at the moment.

 

machine polisher is coming out august 5th with a new set of poor boys polish and waxes

 

 

[Gissin]

On ‎21‎/‎07‎/‎2017 at 12:42, Gissin said:

just picked up some new 3m tape and doing a half and half for snow foam + fallout vs pressure wash water rinse only to see how effective non touch cleaners are. following which ill be doing a medium paint detail weather depending as my garage is looking full at the moment.

 

machine polisher is coming out august 5th with a new set of poor boys polish and waxes

 

 

yep thanks to the lovely English summertime this has now been pushed to this coming weekend

[Bignij]

29 minutes ago, Gissin said:

yep thanks to the lovely English summertime this has now been pushed to this coming weekend

Agreed. Mine is now in its third week without a wash. Looking a bit sorry for itself again. 

[labman1001]

I'd tried the wonder wheels on my alloys and even agitating it done literally nothing to remove baked on brake dust .... Not even a faint hint of a colour change either... I've not tried the Simoniz but have used some of their other stuff which is ok....

 

The wheels where finally cleaned using WoWo's wheel cleaner which still left some really stubborn spots and these gif cleaned off earlier this week ith the fallout remover from Chemical Guys ... Didn't get a photo as the rain started chucking it down 

 

[Gissin]

be careful with your cleaners as you have some corrosion showing on your wheels which will start to come off if using something strong - especially if agitating with any kind of foam or hard brush.

 

my recommendation to you would be get some korrosol and a horse hoof brush (for applying oil) and use that to work the spray in very lightly then water rinse off (no pressure)  ideally have your wheels refurbed