As suggested, pay someone else to do it as they will know how to do it.
£30 should be all you need to have it done on the outside and as someone who does it for a living, unless you know what your doing, its money well spent because it will take you longer to do it yourself and you are likely to get a far superior quality job.
Just because it looks easy, dont assume that you just slap some stuff on and the car is like new again, its all too often I spend too long undoing my customers attempts and getting the same results as me.
Make sure that tar is removed ( white spirit sparyed on will do this just fine ) and if you really want a nice finish, try a Carnuba wax product, which while its hard work to apply, it leaves a brilliant finish.
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Rain stands up on the shine on my car after one 20-minute work-over with 'express polish' from the supermarket, price 4.95 euros, or one 30-minute work-over with somebody or other's 'wax polish', price 2.5 euros at the cheapo shop. Lasts for months, too.
Mind you, the car did have a going over with some of that super duper polish stuff that costs a couple of hundred quid - when it was new ten years ago.
All this 'clay bar' stuff (I don't even know what one is and I've always kept my cars looking nice) and all the other 80 quid a tin things you can get now doesn't impress me much.
I do wash the car quite often - well, very often - with rainwater though.
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The Autoglym route, as recommended above, will work. so will various other 'cleaner waxes', eg Turtle Wax, from Halfords and the like. To get a 'cracking shiny look', though, takes a bit more time and trouble, especially if you want it to last.
See www.detailingworld.co.uk/forum/index.php for how to approach perfection. Don't forget the wheels either. Also, some tyre dressing makes a car look better, IMO.
Edited by Mad Maxy on 20/04/2008 at 14:44
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Wipe it down with diesel. Sell it in the dark.
Bell boy where are you?
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I had a neighbour who used to wash his car with paraffin, it was a matt blue.
I couldn't resist polishing his petrol filler cap one day!
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Thank you Lud! I bought a red Austin Maxi in the dark once and had a fit a couple of days later when I parked it under an orange street lamp.
I've always tried to keep my motors looking smart, no matter how old they might be - ask anyone who knows me.
But some years ago at the Yeovil Festival of Transport I spotted a guy in the 'concours' enclosure painting the tyre treads of his Citroen DS. Not the walls, the treads. The grass around his car was newly-mown - presumably he did that as well.
After seeing that I decided that I would try and avoid extremes for the rest of my life - and a tin of cheap polish and a rainwater wash have sufficed ever since.
I looked in one day on the guy (a trader) who sold me my lovely Rover P6 Three Thousand Five (of fond memory) and he wouldn't believe me when I told him how I kept it looking sparkling.
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I tend to spend a couple of days every few months going over the 530i, with regular washes once or twice a week. As a result it looks absolutely pristine and the water always beads perfectly.
My routine:
a) Wash with Meguiars Gold Class Car wash + Lambswell washmit. Also with a small sponge clean all door shuts/boot shut/inside fuel filler cap
b) Wash wheels using only a sponge and water (Diamond cut polished wheels so no harsh abrasive wheel cleaner)
c) Dry car thoroughly with microfibre towel
d) Clay car with claybar
e) If appropriate, treat any noticeable blemishes with Meguiars ScratchX
f) 2-3 coats of Autoglym Super Resin Polish. Leave first 2 coats for 30 minutes before buffing, final coat for 60 minutes.
g) Coat of Autoglym Extra Gloss Protection
f) 2 Coats of Collinite 476S Autowax.
g) Dress tyres with Autoglym Tyre Shine
In addition to this, I dress the exterior plastics with Meguiars trim detailer and the exterior/interior glass with Autoglym car glass polish.
Takes about a day, maybe 2 if I don't get up until lunchtime. Car looks fantastic once I've finished and it's really rewarding afterwards.
Except..
It's silver, so I'm the only one who notices.
tinyurl.com/43bgo6
tinyurl.com/4hypc5
So there we go.
I see no reason why it wont work on a car of any age or quality - darker colours show the most improvement, but you might need some paint cleaning products on a neglected car.
Edited by MichaelR on 20/04/2008 at 21:49
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Don't forget I still want to buy that.
Need a couple more years though as my finances have taken a beating lately!
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involves the absolute minimum of effort?
Wash car as normal then use Turtle Wax 'Wax-It-Wet'; this is a trigger spray bottle that you spray onto the car while still wet then wipe off with a cloth. You can do the whole car in 10 minutes.
Thats assuming the paint is not in a really bad state?
I don't suppose it protects the paint very well, but AFAIK its the easiest way to get a shine and water-beading finish.
I also (infrequently) use Autoglym but it takes 5 times longer than the above.
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>>It's silver, so I'm the only one who notices.
I do! Marvellous looking car - appears pristine.
My 'beauty' regime is a little more prosaic (due to other pressures) - although I have indulged
previously. I try to maintain the paint & other surfaces (including underneath) while not actually polishing much. Jet clean throughly - especially lower part of car & underneath, remove any adhesions afterwards(gently) , clean alloys with washing-up liquid (or occasional low-strength alloy cleaner), use 'wax' cycle of jet-wash to layer lower part of car - but don't polish. Touch-up any road rash - usually on bonnet & flanks. For some reason I like to carefully polish (Autoglym) the bonnet/front & any chrome/edgings.
My reasoning is that if I can't do a 'proper' job, I won't encourage paint deterioration or polishing scratches by doing an inferior job. So, car looks slightly dull (with unpolished, 'polish') but paint is ok, chips painted & underside is not rusting. Any chrome is cleaned & polished to prevent acne. When I get more time, (surely soon!) I'll be more the 'MichaelR' type.
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Wipe it down with diesel. Sell it in the dark. Bell boy where are you?
i think he's in here somewhere , under an assumed name
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i think he's in here somewhere under an assumed name
Must have disguised his prose style pretty comprehensively as well.
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Roger jones.
I have always been a big fan of Autoglym.
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My Vectra is washed professionally in and out before its MOT. Otherwise the worst bits of guano as a result of parking under a tree are removed from time to time when it rains and I notice. It looks perfectly fine. TWO DAYS A MONTH!!! MichaelR!
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Thing is, MichaelR is a stoodent so polishing the BMW is as near as he ever gets to real work ;-)
Seriously though, the 530 is looking very good indeed.
I have used the Turtle Wax it Wet, and it makes drying the car a doodle - but it has absolutely no durability at all IME.
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I have used the Turtle Wax it Wet and it makes drying the car a doodle - but it has absolutely no durability at all IME.
It won a test in one of the magazines several years ago and they said the water-beading lasted 6 weeks (it beat several 'normal' polishes the first time round), but the next year they reported it did not last as long, so maybe T.W. have cheapened the formula?
I've actually not used it myself for ages, water beading duration is often academic on my car as it often gets dirty again so quickly.
;o)
Edited by Rich 9-3 on 21/04/2008 at 15:34
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Did it? I know Turtle Wax Gloss Guard was highly rated - a similar product to Autoglym EGP, a chemical sealant - but didn´t think WiW was particularly ´rated´.
If you want durability Collinite 476 is the way to go, apparently. The new Autoglym High Definition wax is well thought of too, as is Bilt Hamber AutoBalm. Loads of info at Detailing World.
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Did it?
Ah yes, I've found this and refreshed my memory: snipurl.com/255ky
It did win a number of years ago but according to them it no longer gets the results it once did. I bought some on the strength of it winning that test and I've still got the same bottle!
Edited by Rich 9-3 on 21/04/2008 at 16:24
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Not 2 days a month! Usually 3 times a year - in the Spring, Summer and just before the weather gets rubbish before Winter.
Otherwise it's just a conventional wash/dry 1-2 times a week at a max time of 30 minutes or so. I'm not THAT obsessive!
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My car is lucky if it gets shot through the automatic carwash two or three times a year. It usually looks disgusting and even a passage through the carwash doesn't make much difference.
Of course it wouldn't look like a silver BMW however clean it was.
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>>I'm not THAT obsessive!
I counted 5 or was it 6 coats of polish/wax/sealant !!
J
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Compared with some of the Detailing World waxheads, that´s practically neglect :-)
It´s actually a really good combo that MichaelR uses, and will produce probably the best results you can get by hand. One of the many reasons his beemer looks brand new (no, not jealous at all...). Next step up would be a full machine polish with a DA or Rotary polisher.
My Astra gets an Autoglym SRP/EGP combo every 6 months, and an annual claying. Washes in between (with a lambswool mitt) are superfast as the dirt just sluices off the protected paintwork. It looks really good (well, as good as a mark IV Astra estate can look!)
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