Car Care Advice

Exterior

It was a perfect car washing day, nice and warm with scattered clouds, we decided to do it at my mum-in-law’s as she has a lovely garden and nice surroundings.

She has a Volkswagen Golf that is about 10 years old and it has had a few owners and was in quite a state! It was just perfect for trying out my car washing skills.

I was given a list of what to do by professional car valeter, Gary Wray of Clean Image, and was going to see how much of the list I wanted to follow and how much I changed to suit myself. His instructions showed how a professional would clean a car as the first stage of the valeting process, but there procedure might not be suitable for the average Joe (or Jolie) cleaning their car at home.

First of all, the list told me to do the insides of the windows with a damp microfibre cloth and a window cleaner, as my car was a bit on the dirty side I couldn’t really see (ha ha!) that I was making a difference so I decided that I would do the windows when I did the interior instead.
Wheel Cleaning

I started with a wheel cleaner gave the wheels a good soaking, leaving them for a few minutes. I then agitated the dirt by using my brush. Wheel cleaners are formulated to be Acidic or Caustic which eats away at the brake dust without damaging the wheel itself. For this reason it is important not to use these products when the wheels are hot. It is important not to dilute the product by using water at this stage, so use the product neat. The brush was seriously black by the time I was done! You don’t need to buy a specific brush a cheap dishwashing brush out of your local supermarket will do the trick, although the proper wheel brushes you can get from the motor accessory shop are very good and are better on certain shapes of wheel.

I also rinsed the wheel cleaner off at this point, with just water and the now rinsed dishwashing brush. Again working my way around the car starting with the front wheels as they get dirtiest.

And then you do the wheels again! So that you don’t have to do the wheels standing on your head, you move the car forward or backward until the wheel has turned through 90 degrees. You will now see all the bits you missed. My wheels were fairly flat and easy to do, but I had still missed bits. On some wheels you might want to roll the wheels in thirds.

My wheel cleaner had a brightener in it and the wheels came up really well. Both Gary and my husband keep telling me that the wheels are really the most important part as they get the dirtiest, but also because they really set the car off. If you have a silver car, you can actually make it look clean by just cleaning the wheels.

Washing with Shampoo

Then I mixed up the car shampoo, actually reading the instructions on the bottle instead of diluting “to taste”. It is important not to make the car shampoo too strong as this will be a nightmare to get off the car again, leaving streaks, and creating extra work. If the car shampoo is too diluted though, it wont be efficient enough and won’t get the car clean – and in the case of a Wash & Wax, the wax won’t be strong enough. I used a soft cotton car wash mitt [why] and Asda own brand Wash & Wax. I started from the top and worked my way down using copious amounts of water, taking extra care round the skirting not to scratch the paint work. Because that is where the dirt gathers and dirt scratches paint. Don’t use the bottom quarter of the bucket, as the “dregs” gather there! Just throw it away and get a fresh bucket of soapy water.

Then I rinsed the car with another two buckets of clean water. As it was getting warmer the water was making really nice water marks on the car and really that is not something you want. It is important not to let the car dry naturally as this will leave streaks. If the phone rings and you do have to go in and let the car dry, it isn’t the end of the world but it’s just easier to do it this way.

Wet the car again. I used another two buckets of soapy water (diluted according to instructions) As well as the wash mitt, this time I also used a soft bristled brush [why] to work at the nooks and crannies and the plastic bits now that I had gotten the worst of the dirt off in the last wash.
A body brush, or ‘traffic brush’ is great for cleaning the panel lines and around the lights and grill. However, only buy a purpose made brush and only use it on the lower half of the car. These special brushes are designed not to scratch but they are still quite harsh so avoid using them on the main painted panels.
I do have to admit that I didn’t follow this advice and used a dustpan brush instead of a purpose made brush as you can see in the photo. This was bought by my husband who knew that this particular brush would be soft enough for the job.

I also washed the “L’s” (the inside door frames) taking care not to get the electrics wet using the brush to get the worst off then using the wash mitt. You also don’t want to wash all the grease off the hinges as this will make the doors squeak and rust.

Rinsing

My mum-in-law and I read though the instructions Gary had given me and we decided to throw a bucket of clean water at the car, as per Gary’s instructions, apparently this is an excellent way of getting all the soap off a car. What you do is stand maybe 5 feet away from the car with a bucket of clean warm water and throw the whole thing (not the bucket obviously!) aiming at the rear view mirror! Nice!
Please note, if you are not doing the throwing, step well back as it will get wet.
As it was my mum-in-laws car, I let her do the throwing! Although when she went in to get a fresh bucket of water I did throw a bucket myself. It does really get the car soaking wet and remove most of the soap without the need for a hosepipe (There is a hosepipe ban here).

A few buckets later we got a large microfibre cloth each [why] and started drying it off, starting with the roof and working down. Depending on how hot it is you will have to work quite fast as it will leave watermarks if it dries on it’s own.

Polishing & Waxing

My husband was able to help me with the next stage. Polish is used to get the surface really clean, because it removes a minute layer of paint and leaves the car ready for wax. Unfortunately the polish we got was more of a wax even though it said ‘polish’ on the bottle [why], but we got going. With a polish you rub it on your car quite liberally with an application sponge [why], taking care not to get any on your plastic trims as chances are it will stain the plastic, not nice! Wax protects your car from dirt, rain and dust and keeps it in good condition; therefore you should use wax once every 6-8 weeks for maximum protection. For the wax to work you leave it to dry for best effect.

When the wax was drying we tried a tyre dressing, which is designed to make the tyres look nice and black, we used a spray dressing and yup, it worked! It may stain your drive way though so if you don’t want that nice and black you should use newspaper or some sort of protection under your tyres before you start.

After you have let the wax dry it should come off nicely with a slightly damp microfibre cloth. At this point you can stop for the day and continue another day, but I soldiered on and also did the interior

Good Luck!

Next ›› How to clean your car’s interior ››

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