Seems there is a raft of information buried away on other threads on this but I just wanted to try and get a bit of steer to get me up and running with various bits and pieces.  I'm following a few local places that offer full packages that range from interior exterior valeting, engine bay cleaning up to full on £500+ packages covering full machine polishing, detailing, ceramic coating heat drying full kit and caboodle jobbies...it's an absolute minefield.  I'd be more than happy to pay £400-£500 for someone to do this for me as a sort of one off and then maintain things myself, alternatively I'd much rather spend that money (and possibly more) on getting some kit myself and doing it myself.  My superb is a 2018 sportline in black...iirc its the magic pearl black (or something like that).  It looks amazing when clean and shiney but there's a ton of swirling on it off the previous owner no doubt and numerous trips to handwash places that don't do things properly.  I've had the car for a year and I've always washed it myself, the swirling has been there since I purchased it and i'd like to be able to sort it out if I can myself really.

 

Any advice or links to products/sites that can help me out would be greatly appreciated.  What are people using who do these things themselves in terms of the following :-

 

1. Wheels - Iron fall out remover and general washing/cleaning products

2. Car - snow foam/pre wash + shampoo.  A snow foam pre wash followed by a 2 bucket handwash seems to be the most common approach which i'm more than capable of.

3. Swirl removal - i take it some old skool t-cut is not really the way to go nowadays.  Am i best taking this somewhere to have done as a one off and then maintaining it with good washing/waxing practices beyond that?

3. Ceramic coating/waxing

4. Interior cleaners for dash etc.

5. Peripherals - wash mitts, buckets (with grit guards), drying towels, wheel brushes etc.

6. Most importantly....what the hell do people use to get all the crap out that gets trapped on the floor inbetween the edges of the drivers/passenger seats and the inner side of the sill area :-D

 

I have a karcher pressure washer with a snow foam lance attachment so I'm sorted on that front and that has come in super handy thus far.  I'm happy to purchase a reasonable entry level electric polisher with the require kit etc but then I start reading about places that calculate paint depths all over the car etc and it just makes me wonder whether this is a bigger job than it sounds or whether they are just taking the mickey a bit and trying to shoe horn a bit more money out of people for something that 99% of people won't care about or ever have to worry about etc.

 

Seems like a bucket of water with car shampoo in it followed by rubbing the motor over with a tin of turtle wax has somewhat evolved over the years.  

 

You'll find a bunch of detail (see what I did there) in the Briskoda detailing forum.

 

Unless you're going to store it unused in a hermetically sealed garage then personally I'd skip all the faff and just go with snowfoam + two bucket method using a woolskin mitt for the body and a separate one for the wheels. It's only going to get dirty again  I also use a clay mitt (quicker than a clay bar) plus polish/wax twice a year with Autoglym/Meguiars. Aside from that I use Showroom Shine to top up the wax after washing. I use Autoglym something or other for a once a year interior dust/clean and Simoniz leather treatment for the seats (also once a year).

 

It's too big a car to clean and wax every weekend 

 

My car is swirled and stone chipped to buggery with whiteworm in the alloys and that's after only 27k miles and me carefully cleaning it.

@cronemeister You forgot one point in your list.

Decontaminating with a clay bar is a mandatory step between your steps 2 and 3. Otherwise, you can add even more swirls with your electric polisher.  

 

Regarding the electric polisher, it is highly recommended to chose an 'orbital' one instead of a polisher with fixed axis. The latter one is for well experienced detailers, otherwise, there's a risk to 'burn' the varnish layer. 

Firstly, have a look at the detailing section of the forum -  there’s a lot of good advice there. There’s also detailing world website which is amazing but quite daunting initially. 
 

Your list of kit is comprehensive. I’d agree with Bap33 in as much as you need some form of “mechanical” decontamination (clay bar/mitt) as well as some chemical decon products. 
 

I’d think about your routine as being split in 2: you have your regular maintenance work and also a full “deep clean and polish”.  For me, the deep clean and polish is done once annually as a) it takes up a lot of time which my wife is reluctant to give me and b) good techniques should make it redundant. My car is a daily driver so it’s not perfect and being OK with small imperfections is key to remaining sane IMHO. 
 

I have a dual action polisher (Carbon Collective Hex15) which is great along with a DAS6 Pro (which can be used with both 3 and 5” pads so is best for beginners or as a standalone machine). I use green Chemical Guys hex logic pads as they work well on Skoda paint. With these, I use Sonax 04-06 single stage polish which isn’t the cheapest but is very good to work with as it will remove swirls but also finish to a great gloss. Others will have their own preferences. The actual act of polishing is relatively straight forward and “safe” as long as you are sensible. Have a look on YouTube for Junkman2000 as he did a seminal video on polishing. There are thousands of other guides out there (Forensic Details is another good channel). 
 

Once you have polished your car and made it look fantastic, you’ll want to protect it. I use Gyeon CanCoat which is a “light” ceramic coating which is easy to apply and should last 6 months or so. I top it with Garage Therapy Sigma (their range is fantastic) which should last for 3 months and is amazingly glossy. 
 

Then it’s a case of the classic 2 bucket method every so often to keep it looking ship shape!

On 05/06/2021 at 14:38, bigman1976 said:

Firstly, have a look at the detailing section of the forum -  there’s a lot of good advice there. There’s also detailing world website which is amazing but quite daunting initially. 
 

Your list of kit is comprehensive. I’d agree with Bap33 in as much as you need some form of “mechanical” decontamination (clay bar/mitt) as well as some chemical decon products. 
 

I’d think about your routine as being split in 2: you have your regular maintenance work and also a full “deep clean and polish”.  For me, the deep clean and polish is done once annually as a) it takes up a lot of time which my wife is reluctant to give me and b) good techniques should make it redundant. My car is a daily driver so it’s not perfect and being OK with small imperfections is key to remaining sane IMHO. 
 

I have a dual action polisher (Carbon Collective Hex15) which is great along with a DAS6 Pro (which can be used with both 3 and 5” pads so is best for beginners or as a standalone machine). I use green Chemical Guys hex logic pads as they work well on Skoda paint. With these, I use Sonax 04-06 single stage polish which isn’t the cheapest but is very good to work with as it will remove swirls but also finish to a great gloss. Others will have their own preferences. The actual act of polishing is relatively straight forward and “safe” as long as you are sensible. Have a look on YouTube for Junkman2000 as he did a seminal video on polishing. There are thousands of other guides out there (Forensic Details is another good channel). 
 

Once you have polished your car and made it look fantastic, you’ll want to protect it. I use Gyeon CanCoat which is a “light” ceramic coating which is easy to apply and should last 6 months or so. I top it with Garage Therapy Sigma (their range is fantastic) which should last for 3 months and is amazingly glossy. 
 

Then it’s a case of the classic 2 bucket method every so often to keep it looking ship shape!

 

2 hours that bloody video was...great to watch though.  That Mean-O Camino sounds amazing.  I've spent about £250 since making this post on the following :-

 

Pre Wash snow foam

TFR (probably not needed but might come in handy)

Shampoo

Tyre Cleaner

Iron Fall out remover (Dragons blood)

3 buckets (from Duel)

Tyre brush

Microfibre cloths/washmitts

Spray bottles

 

Gonna pull the trigger on ordering this I think and then I just need to sort out some clay bars and detailing spray - https://www.cleanyourcar.co.uk/das-6-pro-plus-meguiars-hex-logic-kit

 

I'll look into that Gyeon CanCoat stuff for once I'm done.   All up I will have spent around £500 which i'll never need to spend again and should allow me to spend some time doing my car myself.  My daughter has a 2003 VW Polo which is in really good nick and I've told her I might use her car as a guinea pig (it's red so should be good to test on).

 

Looking at my car I don't think I'm gonna need to do the first stage using the Meguiars 105 Cutting compound with the orange pad, it's mainly scuffs, swirls and very light surface scratches which I think with a good wash, clay bar and then a couple of passes with the 205 on the white pad will bring it up rather nicely.

 

Thanks for all of your help and tips....the internet is awash with info and the detailing threads already on here are useful as well so thanks for the info.  I'll try and get some before/after shots and post on here when I eventually get around to doing it.

 

That’s a good list of kit you have. Can’t wait to see how you get on!

 

That DAS6 Pro kit is what I started with - it’s a great polisher to get started with. 

Edited 8 June, 20214 yr by bigman1976

11 hours ago, bigman1976 said:

That’s a good list of kit you have. Can’t wait to see how you get on!

 

That DAS6 Pro kit is what I started with - it’s a great polisher to get started with. 

Good to know, I've been thinking of taking the plunge for a while on this polisher. Any recommendations of what pads/compounds to go for? I know they do bundle packs for this polish on CYC.

4 hours ago, Hdsn555 said:

Good to know, I've been thinking of taking the plunge for a while on this polisher. Any recommendations of what pads/compounds to go for? I know they do bundle packs for this polish on CYC.

I've just purchased the Das Pro 6 hex logic pack from CyC - it comes with an orange and a white pad which should do me.  A lot of people use a green pad which i think is less abrasive than the orange, i might get one of them separately but I'm gonna start out with the white pad initially I think as I think that will suffice for removing 90% of the swirls/surface scratches from my motor.  So here is a full breakdown of what I've bought in the past week...some of it is yet to arrive but should be here by the end of the week.

 

From HSDonline

 

1 x 5L Pro-Kleen Dragons Blood Extreme Iron Contamination Remover

4 x 5L Pro-Kleen PH Neutral Pre Wash Snow Foam, Cherry Fragrance

1 x 5L Ultima Plus XP Traffic Film Remover

2 x 5L Pro-Kleen Professional Vehicle Wash and Wax Car Shampoo

1 x Pro-Kleen Microfibre Cloth and Wash Mitt Kits - 5 cloths, 2 gloves

 

From Duel Autocare Ltd

 

4x Professional Dilution Spray Bottle and Chemical Resistant Trigger 947 ml

1 x Microfibre Wash Mitt

1 x Flex Polymer Spray Sealant

1 x Satin - Interior Dressing & Cleaner - 1 Litre

1 x Cleanse - Tyre Cleaner - 1 Litre

1 x Duel Detailing buckets Complete Set - With Grit Guards (3 buckets in total, one for wheels, one for wash and one for rinse)

1 x Tyre Cleaning Brush

1 x Interior Pet Hair Remover

 

From CyC

 

DasPro 6 Hex Logic kit - machine polisher with 1 x white pad and 1 x orange pad

 

From Amazon/Ebay

 

1 x Karcher K Series Short Swivel Trigger Gun - with quick release nozzles and Foam Lance

1 x Dodo Juice Born Slippy detail spray

1 x G3 Pro Deep clean clay mitt

4 x Rokkes Clay bar 

 

Quite excited to get going now.  The DASPRO might not get here by the weekend but I can give it a right good going over with most of the stuff I already have at the weekend....weather permitting of course.  Gonna try the DasPro on my daughters car first which she will be delighted with of course 

 

 

8 hours ago, Hdsn555 said:

Good to know, I've been thinking of taking the plunge for a while on this polisher. Any recommendations of what pads/compounds to go for? I know they do bundle packs for this polish on CYC.

I got package with Chemical Guys Hex Logic pads and Meguiars 105 and 205 pads. I honestly think that p, no matter which pads and compounds you’re using, it’s about having a go. Some will constantly changing the kit they use aiming for perfection but for me, getting any kit and working on your technique is key. 
 

If you call Clean your ride or wherever you are looking to buy from, you can get advice from them.