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The Car cleaning section , Please join in

I once owned a car, it was green.

My white van lives under trees. When it becomes unmistakably green then it’s time for a clean. So far this year it’s just got a slight green tint so probably good for another six months. On the other hand my motorbike lives in my shed and is clean enough to eat off.
 
My favourite subject, I do like a shiny car!

Before the plague, I used to wash the car at least once a week and have done that for the past 7 years of ownership. Since March I've only washed it a handful of times, as I'm barely using the car.

Anyway, the general weekly regime is:

Nilfisk pressure washer, in summer it's mainly rinse, two bucket wash and whatever top-up is my current go-to, like Sonax Xtreme quick detailer, or more recently I've been trying the 'squirt and rinse' water-activated products like Meguairs Hybrid Ceramic Wax. Quick glass cleans are done with Sonax Xtreme glass cleaner or some Auto Finesse crystal. Deep cleans are done with Auto Finesse vision glass polish.

Tyres are dressed with Sonax Xtreme tyre gel, or Meguairs Endurance tyre gel. Glass sealant is either Car-lack (great product) or some cheap Power Maxxed Rain Off (cheap, but easy to apply).

For winter I tend to break out the snow foam cannon more often (Autobrite) and the best cleaning snow foam there is, Bilt Hamber Autofoam. I often add another bucket just to clean the wheels too as they are usually filthy! Bilt Hamber auto wheel is a great and inexpensive wheel cleaner that's non-acidic and good at removing contamination and embedded iron.

For winter prep and sealants (aiming for min 6 months protection, with almost 30k / year) I tend to go with Car-lack nano sealant, topped with Collinite 476, never fails to get through the winter still beading at the end. I do find waxes attract dust though, which is annoying in summer, so for summer protection the Sonax Protect and Shine hybrid NPT is amazingly easy to apply and beads like nothing else I've tried. Wheel sealant tends to be Sonax too, although my wheels are in need of a re-finish now, so less bothered about that.

I recently got a DA polisher so summer prep this year will involve full decontamination and some simple paint correction, after 7 years without any correction, some swirls are starting to appear, despite the extreme care when cleaning.

Drying uses some lovely plush AutoFinesse microfibre drying towels and glass etc. is done with cheap Amazon Basics microfibre towels as I bought a huge bag of them a while back. I have various other microfibre towels of various qualities - you can never have enough!

For the interior I like the Sonax matte finish dashboard cleaner, it's non-glossy and seems to resist collecting dust, which I hate - I have been seen cleaning dust from the dash when at traffic lights or stuck in traffic :)


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Auto Glym wash for the body.
This for the wheels and calipers - Espuma 0532-05 5L Revolution Wheel Cleaner (wonderful stuff - no touch wheel cleaner)
Sonax Brilliant Shine Detailer is great for a drying aid and finisher.
 
Andrew, do you really do 30k miles a year in a Suzuki Swift? I drove its predecessor, the Ignis, for a week and hated it. Brilliant to thrash down a country lane, horrible to live with.
 
Andrew, do you really do 30k miles a year in a Suzuki Swift? I drove its predecessor, the Ignis, for a week and hated it. Brilliant to thrash down a country lane, horrible to live with.

It's probably closer to 24-25k in reality, still a lot though! It's a Swift Sport, so it's a pretty good motorway cruiser on cruise control as it has a 6 speed box and it's an absolute bloody hoot on an A road or anything twisty. It's proper old school warm hatch normally aspirated revvy fun, but not insanely fast or licence losing.

It currently has almost 150k on the clock and doesn't use a drop of oil and is pretty much as tight as when I bought it, the only expenses have been regular servicing and quite a few sets of tyres.

Some nasty wear on the driver's seat bolster is the only negative, I still don't know what I'd replace it with, it still puts a grin on my face after all those miles in a way little else ever has. There's lots of faster cars, lots of more refined cars, but it has that special something that just communicates so well to the driver. I'd never have believed a cheap, plasticy hatch would still have me feeling like this after all these years and all those miles!

I'm not alone in thinking it was about the best smile per pound you could get at the time

Currently as it's getting little use working from home, there's little point in replacing it, next car will be fully electric, but there's no saving if I'm not using it and there's no obvious sporty electric hatch equivalent.

Having owned lots of larger cars, the joy of having something small, nippy and easy to park, as well as cheap to run, is something I intend to stay with. It's nice to be able to keep your wing mirrors on a B-road blast :)
 
It's a Swift Sport, it's a good motorway cruiser on cruise control as it has a 6 speed box and it's an absolute bloody hoot on an A road or anything twisty. It's proper old school warm hatch normally aspirated revvy fun, but not insanely fast or licence losing.
That's interesting. I was sniffing around getting one, but my pal offloaded his Audi A5 at a very good price.It's a long time since I had a warm hatch, other than borrowing a mate's Vauxhall Tigra for a week and loving it, and I miss them, so I can see what you get from it.
The other thing to dislike in the Ignis was how cheap it felt. The interior was horrible, carpets were thinner than Fuzzy Felt, the seats had unresolved gaps around them that made the thing look like some low budget kit car that had been bolted together from whatever was lying around at the scrappers that day. I think the Swift looks better screwed together, so when the Audi goes, I'm guessing in 2-3 years' time, a Swift might well be worth a look, assuming petrol cars are not yet taxed out of existence.
 
Forgot to mention shampoo!

The standard Autoglym is a great product and often on 3 for 2 at Halfords, I like the Sonax products I've tried (have you noticed?) and currently I'm using Bilt-Hamber Auto wash - super concentrated (5ml to 10l water) and I have enough to last for decades at the current cleaning rate!
 
That's interesting. I was sniffing around getting one, but my pal offloaded his Audi A5 at a very good price.It's a long time since I had a warm hatch, other than borrowing a mate's Vauxhall Tigra for a week and loving it, and I miss them, so I can see what you get from it.
The other thing to dislike in the Ignis was how cheap it felt. The interior was horrible, carpets were thinner than Fuzzy Felt, the seats had unresolved gaps around them that made the thing look like some low budget kit car that had been bolted together from whatever was lying around at the scrappers that day. I think the Swift looks better screwed together, so when the Audi goes, I'm guessing in 2-3 years' time, a Swift might well be worth a look, assuming petrol cars are not yet taxed out of existence.

It's hardly plush inside, but better than the basic Suzuki's. It's fairly hard plastics but it's comfortable and I always clean the interior weekly too, so most of the car is as new, with the exception of the drivers seat, which annoys me.

I didn't buy it as a luxury cruiser but as a comfortable daily driver that was fun, and on that brief it's perfect. The new swift sport has got bloody expensive compared to this though, not sure it would appeal in the same way, although they did miraculously manage to shed 80kg on the new one, and mine is hardly heavy by modern car standards. It has more torque as it's a turbo and mild-hybrid now, and it's certainly better equipped, tech wise.

Simple things like HID's on mine make such a difference to night driving and my older eyes and they were standard on the car at the time unlike most of the completion I looked at, although I imagine LED's have taken that mantle now.

At the time it was Cooper mini/ Swift Sport or Twingo sport, I'm almost certain the mini and the Renault wouldn't have been as reliable. The Twingo arguably had the edge on driving, but the Swift definitely had a massive lead on reliability!

I can see it becoming a disposable track car when I retire it.
 
... assuming petrol cars are not yet taxed out of existence.

Hopefully within a few years the hysteria and moral panic around petrol/Diesel cars will have died down as people realise that electrification is not the answer to all our problems.

I was spitting feathers today as a contributor talked about her road to Damascus moment about climate change when she collapsed taking part in a warmer than average Boston Marathon. Silly bint didn’t mention once the environmental damage a Brit causes flying across the Atlantic to take part in a bloody running race.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000qy35
 
Hopefully within a few years the hysteria and moral panic around petrol/Diesel cars will have died down as people realise that electrification is not the answer to all our problems.

It is currently the best answer to personal automotive emissions problems though.
 
Hopefully within a few years the hysteria and moral panic around petrol/Diesel cars will have died down as people realise that electrification is not the answer to all our problems.

It is however a significant part of a complex solution to a complex problem. Along with reducing travel, cycling, eating less meat, recycling etc etc. Because one solution does not fix everything is not a reason to abandon it. Electric cars will never be a 100% solution but I bet in 20 years they will be 80% of all cars on the road.
 
My favourite subject, I do like a shiny car!

Before the plague, I used to wash the car at least once a week and have done that for the past 7 years of ownership. Since March I've only washed it a handful of times, as I'm barely using the car.

Anyway, the general weekly regime is:

Nilfisk pressure washer, in summer it's mainly rinse, two bucket wash and whatever top-up is my current go-to, like Sonax Xtreme quick detailer, or more recently I've been trying the 'squirt and rinse' water-activated products like Meguairs Hybrid Ceramic Wax. Quick glass cleans are done with Sonax Xtreme glass cleaner or some Auto Finesse crystal. Deep cleans are done with Auto Finesse vision glass polish.

Tyres are dressed with Sonax Xtreme tyre gel, or Meguairs Endurance tyre gel. Glass sealant is either Car-lack (great product) or some cheap Power Maxxed Rain Off (cheap, but easy to apply).

For winter I tend to break out the snow foam cannon more often (Autobrite) and the best cleaning snow foam there is, Bilt Hamber Autofoam. I often add another bucket just to clean the wheels too as they are usually filthy! Bilt Hamber auto wheel is a great and inexpensive wheel cleaner that's non-acidic and good at removing contamination and embedded iron.

For winter prep and sealants (aiming for min 6 months protection, with almost 30k / year) I tend to go with Car-lack nano sealant, topped with Collinite 476, never fails to get through the winter still beading at the end. I do find waxes attract dust though, which is annoying in summer, so for summer protection the Sonax Protect and Shine hybrid NPT is amazingly easy to apply and beads like nothing else I've tried. Wheel sealant tends to be Sonax too, although my wheels are in need of a re-finish now, so less bothered about that.

I recently got a DA polisher so summer prep this year will involve full decontamination and some simple paint correction, after 7 years without any correction, some swirls are starting to appear, despite the extreme care when cleaning.

Drying uses some lovely plush AutoFinesse microfibre drying towels and glass etc. is done with cheap Amazon Basics microfibre towels as I bought a huge bag of them a while back. I have various other microfibre towels of various qualities - you can never have enough!

For the interior I like the Sonax matte finish dashboard cleaner, it's non-glossy and seems to resist collecting dust, which I hate - I have been seen cleaning dust from the dash when at traffic lights or stuck in traffic :)


ejROx7GGAj0e5D2OYRZ4fBT1k0D3dVBUPMeqJ3ouNm6ads0DQ7xOwF5S7br-1paQQraHJaWV8iTvJ7d4cJjlf6aFzJ37n47pLp2WcGrlz85Ol8uqn8sLFRyd1rqUwFRpjrT4jaQDhSk8fFkRBSvYu8XI1JZ0fJ6gCUGFNZDHlggWa8YjTC5xmuz_ATEUUMYbohywuCCYASnREJ5W9h5ZGvQG6Nj_6KKq6x3WjgpQJhXSQulux2WHk1SWN2aR8iPxFKvZWI0e73v30kQ7_wKFVFDIZFZzA-1DOca2m1Dj3l6Orh1SNo-b8Ufkp81zAcyqhXOhHE6cYRev0DY8L0_v6V0bkAp6Lu4NMt3Pta0TLjHWo9hfhfqZkYG88n2BZct9XUZ4XSCBPumx7Ho0yTLq8wf0bBvajdQkruFJ-LG_f3C_t4M3qie3wi6P6Cs45fblRiN61hg_V_c2AfL5X1RSCzHNDDe1t1VuEX9_egGB7RRWvgMpoNgU1FPH9DSxrrlJl0QDr5vUoyl3wP1QdiB1Yuy-nQKfyCX0aoGdhB-y66AdsyuXMn9alNGGyxmPSrRYuvbU0shf2nQ1co9fJ6LGCSym61v2XPCC-949a_eBvAavE2nNp_XV27t4aqFMMLgaHtnpiXDNXDDgLSbEwFEGvPKp01wAV52yPMqo-OrgSo0XqLGPC0xql-PirOhywjQ=w1282-h961-no

You’ve missed a bit.
 
It is deeply sad that I have a whole google photos gallery named beading pics...

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And I still take pics when I leave it in a car park and the sun is out.

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My advice, never buy a black car, they can look stunning, but most the time they just look dirty :)

I still look back when parking it though.

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That's a stunning finish Andrew.

For those at the other end of the spectrum this sort of video might make you feel nauseous


The thing I learnt is it's far easier to keep a car clean with regular maintenance than it is to bring it back from neglect. For most of it's life I've cleaned the Swift inside and out weekly, so it doesn't get too ingrained. This year has been very different, but equally with less use, there's less dirt!
 
It is deeply sad that I have a whole google photos gallery named beading pics...

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And I still take pics when I leave it in a car park and the sun is out.

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My advice, never buy a black car, they can look stunning, but most the time they just look dirty :)

I still look back when parking it though.

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Yup; agree

Owned this for about 2 years; 1st and last black car I'll ever own. Did my nut in trying to keep it clean o_O





It'd be spotless after a full detail and then 5 milliseconds after; a gentle breeze would carry loads of dust and dump it on the car; it was then filthy again :mad::D
 


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