This may have been answered before, but I couldn't find anything obvious from a forum search...
I'm gonna be selling my car in the next month and wondered what top tips people have for making your car as clean and tidy as possible - in other words how to get that 'showroom shine'?
Also what cleaning products you use to achieve this would be useful.
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Spend £30-50 on a proper valet. I had one done on my car whilst it was left at an airport car park and it came back gleaming.
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What do these normally include?
Do they get rid of scratches etc, as this is the kind of thing that I'm looking to get sorted?
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No they dont get rid of scratches, but then neither can you till its been properly cleaned. a valet is a good ploy, then attend to all the things they cant fix (like scratches)
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Let the extent of your attention to scratches be some polishing compound ( I think UKers call it T-cut). Don't attempt any kind of touch-up paint or partial respray. New paint spells one thing to potential buyers "Accident Repair".
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Valet is OK, but you can do a better job yourself in an hour or so.
Give the car a good wash - use 'Traffic Film Remover' diluted 4:1 with warm water (use gloves). Then a quick wash with a decent car shampoo. Leather off and give it a gentle going over with Farecla G3 compound, followed by some decent wax. Will really gleam after that. Vacuum out the interior, use a clean paitbrush to get dust out of nooks and crannies on the dash. Give it a spray with 'Nice Pong' inside.
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And don't forget to get the engine steam cleaned in order to raise buyer suspicion!
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Well said Marc - nothing like over-preparing a car to the point where someone thinks you're a trader in disguise. Over-prepare a car - and over-describe a car in an ad - and some punters get suspicious.
Make it spick and span by all means, but unless it's a dog the four most important things are history, tax, MoT...and price.
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I've traded enough cars over enough years to know that shiny cars sell! Some will be suspicious, but 90% of potential buyers go on a shiny appearance.
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90% of potential buyers go on a shiny appearance.
First impressions count!
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"Valet is OK, but you can do a better job yourself in an hour or so.
Give the car a good wash - use 'Traffic Film Remover' diluted 4:1 with warm water (use gloves). Then a quick wash with a decent car shampoo. Leather off and give it a gentle going over with Farecla G3 compound, followed by some decent wax. Will really gleam after that. Vacuum out the interior, use a clean paitbrush to get dust out of nooks and crannies on the dash. Give it a spray with 'Nice Pong' inside"
An hour or so? Jeez there is about 4 hours work there.
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>90% of potential buyers go on a shiny appearance.
Yup, I'm a magpie as well.
If a private seller can't be bothered to spend a few quid presenting the vehicle in it's best light then it raises suspicion that he might have neglected other things.
There are a few things I would add:
Get all your service bills and receipts together to show history.
Give the wheels and tyres a good scrub to get rid of mud and brake dust then spray the tyres with the Autoglym tyre stuff. Wipe it off before it goes shiny.
If the paintwork hasn't got to the stage where it needs rubbing compound, do as Aprilia said but substitute detailing clay and lubricant for the Farecla. It will remove contaminents and leave the paint as smooth as glass without touching the clearcoat.
After you've polished the car, use an old toothbrush to get rid of dried polish left around windscreen rubbers, badges and shut lines.
Lastly, be totally honest with potential buyers.
None of the above will increase the car's value but it will definitely make it more saleable than an identical car around the corner covered in muck.
Kevin...
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Farecla G3 is good stuff, but if you're not careful using it you can end up with swirl marks everywhere, especially on dark metallic colours - use with caution.
PP
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Thanks for all your advice guys, I take it all these products are readily available at places like Halfords?
Also about 6 months ago someone decided to scrape my rear bumper. The scratch was probably only about an inch or so across and I foolishly decided to try and fix this with some touch up paint after rubbing down the area with some fine paper. There's no damage to the bumper, but it just looked a mess after the scrape.
It looks ok now, but you can see it has been done as it's not a smooth finish. I've been toying with the idea of starting over again and rubbing it down again, but am unsure what the best option is here. Do I leave it and be honest, do I use touch up paint or do I spray? Could I T-cut it out?
I can't afford the £100 the body shop wanted to charge me and to be honest think that it is a bit of a rip off seeing how small the damage is.
By the way, the car's a Panther Black Ford Focus.
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With your bumper, I would T cut it (I sometimes use a chrome cleaner like Autosol (sp?) as more abrasive). Then I would use a black coloured polisg on the entire bumper: use it thickly enough and most minor imperfections will be hidden without leaving obvious polish marks. (or use a soft black wax crayon..)
Then if anyone comments, be truthful...
madf
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it's worth getting down on your knees to clean the sills, valances and wheel arches - they're clean on a brand-new car.
Soak an old towel in hot water and wipe the carpets and headlining quite hard - surprising how much dirt that removes.
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So I have just spent last weekend doing all that to my car and put the advert in the paper today. Then tonight it wouldn't start no matter what I did. 25 years I have had it and it always started straight off first time. Now it won't. I think it must know I am trying to get rid of it.
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Perhaps after 25 years it doesn't want to go to an enthusiastic, put your foot down new owner...:-)
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What\'s for you won\'t pass you by
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While I had the car in the drive way with the condensor out being replaced the guy from round the corner came round. He had seen the for sale sign in the back window and was interested. I told him to have a look at it but I couldn't show it running because I was fixing it. He was really keen and when I got it going again he bought it. I didn't even have to drop the price much. It shows that the polish and clean up is well worth while. I even told him what all the faults were with it and it just seemed to make him more interested. The wife and I were rather sad to see it go after having it for 25 years but it has gone to a good home. The new owner has two other 1960's Holdens and a 1970 Ford Falcon GTHO so he obviously loves his cars.
Now I have to line up a replacement. Having one car only in the family is going to be most inconvenient.
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