Off the shelf recommended cleaning products

[dsemuk]

Hi

I need to give my car a really good clean, or it will be the dirtiest Furby at Bruntingthorpe on Saturday

I need your recommendations for "off the shelf" cleaning products... ie available at Halfords or local car spares place cleaning products.

I'm particulary interested in wax, although wheel cleaner, shampoo / polish will also be needed. That should sort out the car externally. Unless anyone can think of anything else.

Thanks


Dave

[Leeboy]

If your prepared to put some elbow grease in, don't bother with shampoo, just wash and brush the car down with a hose then shammy the exterior, then get some quality wax that is slightly abrasive! I.e. something like T-Cut but not a cutting paste. Autoglym super resin polish is my wax of choice, work it in hard and it will remove tar-spots, general ingrained pollution and leave your paintwork well shiny. Takes about 5 hours to do my car's paint work properly . As for the glass, autoglym do a glass polish, use it inside and out.

As for fabrics and carpet, the Simonz Teflon cleaning kit works wonders, overwise a damp cloth over the plastic bits unless you want them shiny. For exterior black plastic, Autoglym Bumper Care gel wipes on and looks good, also good for black painted things like wiper arms! Finally tyres - Wonder Shine (from the makers of Wonder Wheels alloy wheel cleaner).

Is that sufficient?

Lee

[gibbo01]

Auto Glym or Meguiars are the two best commercially available.
My personal favourite is meguiars.

or if you want to do the full hit
1. Megs deep crystal paint cleaner (HIGHLY RECCOMENDED) regardless of the rest.
2. Megs cleaner wax OR Auto glym Super resin (2 coats)
3. Megs Gold class wax OR Auto Glym Extra Gloss (the more coats the beter)

There are Arguably better products ie Swissol, Zymol, Zaino.
But not as readily available

Or as a one hit wonder MER is hard to beat. (halfords)

Mike

http://www.meguiars.co.uk/
http://www.autoglym.co.uk/frame2.html
http://www.swizol.com/E/HomeEnglish.htm
http://www.zymol.com/phihome.htm
http://www.zainostore.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc

[des_pd_ tdi]

Originally Posted by Leeboy

If your prepared to put some elbow grease in, don't bother with shampoo, just wash and brush the car down with a hose then shammy the exterior, then get some quality wax that is slightly abrasive! I.e. something like T-Cut but not a cutting paste. Autoglym super resin polish is my wax of choice, work it in hard and it will remove tar-spots, general ingrained pollution and leave your paintwork well shiny. Takes about 5 hours to do my car's paint work properly . As for the glass, autoglym do a glass polish, use it inside and out.

Lee

I would highly advise that you use some shampoo and a soft sponge or mitt., then hose and wipe down.

You could cause some serious problems by the virtue that you're just wiping dust and grit not removed by a quick hose job (excuse the pun).

Aways rinse, wash, rinse, leather etc...........

BTW Halfrods sell the baseline Zymol products which are V good.

[mobtob]

I use cheapo Zymol shampoo from Halfords, Meguiars lambswool wash mit and drying towel. All great stuff.

Use 2 buckets of water - 1 for the soapy water and the other to rinse

Zymol polish from Halfords is very good if you dont want to go down the proper cleanse/wax route

Meguiars stuff is also very good, you can get it from Carnoissuer

[Leeboy]

Originally Posted by des_pd_ tdi

I would highly advise that you use some shampoo and a soft sponge or mitt., then hose and wipe down.

You could cause some serious problems by the virtue that you're just wiping dust and grit not removed by a quick hose job (excuse the pun).

Aways rinse, wash, rinse, leather etc...........

BTW Halfrods sell the baseline Zymol products which are V good.

But then again, I have yellow paint work and scratches caused by grit and dust just do not show up, unlike the unfortunate people with black motors....

[flyingscot]

Originally Posted by dsemuk

I'm particulary interested in wax, although wheel cleaner, shampoo / polish will also be needed. That should sort out the car externally. Unless anyone can think of anything else.

Thanks


Dave

Actually, Halfords car wash is the best around, as it is dirt cheap (bad pun) and does a damn good job. Mer's stuff is also good with the added advantage that the polish can be poured into the water for cleaning the car and applied then as well and can be re-applied to a wet car too and it removes tar spots at the same time (it's slightly abrasive). Comes from Makro/Costco in massive containers too. As for off the shelf wheel cleaners there's only one winner for me and thats the Comma Alloy wheel cleaner. Not the nicest stuff, but it cleans really well.

[dsemuk]

Thanks to everyone for your recommendations....

I'm off, to Halfords, with a shopping list