MK5 Golf GTI
General => Detailing => Topic started by: Chris92 on October 13, 2013, 12:21:23 pm
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Hi everyone,
In My pretty short driving life I've only ever washed my cars with a bucket and sponge, but I want to detail my gti to keep her looking great.
I've done a little research online but I'm still confused about things. The product such as meguiars and autoglm seem to be some of the best.
Is this correct:
1: Cover the car in snow foam using a power washer and leave for 10mins. What's a good product for snow?
2: rinse off and use the two bucket way to wash the car with a Woolley mit. Just use shampoo?
3:rinse off and dry car then clay the car then wash again and rinse.
4: dry car again and wax it.
5: apply polish
6: sit back and crack a beer open.
Is this correct way of doing things? Also for now I won't be using a machine polisher I know the results won't be as good but for now until I know what's what my hands will do.
All the detail products etc just confuse me ha sorry for being a dumb ass :grin: any tips and advice would be great :smiley:
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Thats about it Chris,the products vary from person to person autoglym and meguiers are good.
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Thanks for replying, I'm still not clued up tho. I'm all good and clear up until the polish and wax parts.
1: Do I polish first and then wax or other way round?
2: How many layers do I apply polish and wax to the car in one session? I'm guessing it's good to lay lots of wax on to protect the car.
3: How often do I need to do a full detail again after doing one and do I need to strip the car from wax polish etc completely every time I do a full detail?
4: how do I maintain the car inbetween full details? What do I don't I etc.
If someone could take five mins and help me I'd appreciate it very much, all this has my mind baffled, we all have to start somewhere I guess. :happy2:
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Polish always comes before wax/sealant
One polish and a layer or two of wax. Depending on how long the wax lasts, then just top up when it starts to wear off.
Maybe twice a year. Depending on how dirty the car gets and if well looked after/maintained
Just a shampoo wash will be enough to maintain it i would of thought. Stay away from using iron x, tar remover and other certain products as some will strip your wax. Will be ok to use when giving a full detail
Hope this helps abit, i am just a newbie at detailing. Check out 'detailing world' as it will answer alot more of your questions :happy2:
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Hi everyone,
In My pretty short driving life I've only ever washed my cars with a bucket and sponge, but I want to detail my gti to keep her looking great.
I've done a little research online but I'm still confused about things. The product such as meguiars and autoglm seem to be some of the best.
Is this correct:
1: Cover the car in snow foam using a power washer and leave for 10mins. What's a good product for snow?
2: rinse off and use the two bucket way to wash the car with a Woolley mit. Just use shampoo?
3:rinse off and dry car then clay the car then wash again and rinse.
4: dry car again and wax it.
5: apply polish
6: sit back and crack a beer open.
Is this correct way of doing things? Also for now I won't be using a machine polisher I know the results won't be as good but for now until I know what's what my hands will do.
All the detail products etc just confuse me ha sorry for being a dumb ass :grin: any tips and advice would be great :smiley:
I'm just getting into the detailing lark too mate, there is a lot to get your head round! A lot to spend your money on too :grin:
As someone else has already said, get on Detailing World it's got so much information on there it's untrue!
Biggest tip would probably be don't do anything in bright sunlight! Given that it's now October though, that isn't going to be too much of an issue :smiley:
With regards to foam, you'll want to buy a proper snow foam lance mate, go on Detailing World website and there's a group buy for an Autobrite one. It's brilliant and works really well! It just clips onto the end of your power washer and works way better than the standard nozzle spray bottle thing you get on a power washer.
With regards to snow foam itself, I've only washed each car once so far and did a full cleanse but I used magifoam as a pre wash and then valet pro ph neutral advanced. (The magifoam came free with the lance too!)
I used Tardis and Iron X to decontaminate the car then clayed it too, all of that got rid of all the bits that you can't see but isn't something you want to do very often as will remove wax.
I then polished using AG SRP and waxed with the awesome (and cheap!) Megs #16
Maintaining it (probably every week or two) I'll just use VP Citrus pre wash foam (won't remove my wax) VP advanced neutral as a main foam (again won't remove the wax whereas Magifoam will I believe) and then hand wash with Megs gold class shampoo and a Megs lambswool mitt.
It's addictive mate and a money pit but brilliant fun and massively rewarding when you get the car absolutely shining! :happy2:
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Thanks for the info guys it's helped me a lot, things are starting to make sense...finally :grin: I've just had a look on that detailing word forum and I've had a read of certain things and so far it's great with a lot of info cheers for the heads up, think il sign up to it as no doubt they'll be plenty more to ask. Looking forward too having a go at it now :smiley:
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I signed up to that DW forum and it said I'd have to confirm something blah blah and they would send me an email, well it's been a day and still no email and it won't let me post. How long did it take you lot to get this email? Or maybes I'm just being impatient just Throught I'd have got it buy now
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I signed up to that DW forum and it said I'd have to confirm something blah blah and they would send me an email, well it's been a day and still no email and it won't let me post. How long did it take you lot to get this email? Or maybes I'm just being impatient just Throught I'd have got it buy now
Check your junk email mate, mine went there!
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No just checked :fighting: hate all this email rubbish ha
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Hopefully it'll be there tomorrow mate. If not let me know and I'll see if I can contact an admin person for you and see what's happening.
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I'm just getting into the detailing lark too mate, there is a lot to get your head round! A lot to spend your money on too :grin:
As someone else has already said, get on Detailing World it's got so much information on there it's untrue!
Biggest tip would probably be don't do anything in bright sunlight! Given that it's now October though, that isn't going to be too much of an issue :smiley:
With regards to foam, you'll want to buy a proper snow foam lance mate, go on Detailing World website and there's a group buy for an Autobrite one. It's brilliant and works really well! It just clips onto the end of your power washer and works way better than the standard nozzle spray bottle thing you get on a power washer.
With regards to snow foam itself, I've only washed each car once so far and did a full cleanse but I used magifoam as a pre wash and then valet pro ph neutral advanced. (The magifoam came free with the lance too!)
I used Tardis and Iron X to decontaminate the car then clayed it too, all of that got rid of all the bits that you can't see but isn't something you want to do very often as will remove wax.
I then polished using AG SRP and waxed with the awesome (and cheap!) Megs #16
Maintaining it (probably every week or two) I'll just use VP Citrus pre wash foam (won't remove my wax) VP advanced neutral as a main foam (again won't remove the wax whereas Magifoam will I believe) and then hand wash with Megs gold class shampoo and a Megs lambswool mitt.
It's addictive mate and a money pit but brilliant fun and massively rewarding when you get the car absolutely shining! :happy2:
Hello mate.
Iron X won't strip wax.
VP citrus pre wash will strip wax, Magifoam wont. :happy2:
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Over the weekend I will write a detailing / cleaning guide for people to read that I will post up here . hopefully that will be as useful as the other guides i've done.
The basics are asked very regularly and sometimes I can't be bothered to answer lol
But basically wax or sealant goes last you need 2 coats minimum to ensure even coverage
Most of "detailing" (unless you're correcting paint it's really valeting to be honest) comes in using the right products in the RIGHT way , little things like the way you apply waxes in straight lines rather than circular motions, use nice clean soft microfibre towels.. etc.
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Hello mate.
Iron X won't strip wax.
VP citrus pre wash will strip wax, Magifoam wont. :happy2:
Is that right about the citrus pre wash mate?! On the product description on Cleanyourcar it says 3 separate times that it won't strip wax and that was why I bought it!
"Valet Pro Citrus Pre-Wash is excellent at Traffic Film Removal, but a huge plus is that our product won't strip wax or paint sealant from paintwork"
"The biggest difference between Orange pre wash and other traffic film removers is that it is wax safe."
"Citrus Pre-Wash, like many other wax safe products, is best used on cars prepared with good quality waxes or sealants"
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It is a product of dilution and you can change the strength of it.
So yeah, it can strip wax if you use it in a strong dilution.
Orange pre wash is more of an APC to be honest . :happy2:
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Ah that makes more sense, cheers mate!
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Yeah XJAY1337 I'd appreciate a decent guide and I'm sure I won't be the only one :smiley: the most confusing thing for me now is when/what/how when it comes to the detailing products. But I'm getting my head around it, one step at a time ehh ha.
Still no email from DW :fighting: so I made another email and account and still no email :confused:
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You using the same profile name on there mate?
Thinking about it I remember that for some reason it rejected the first time I tried to set up an account.
I then went through and set it up exactly the same, using the same id and same email and it worked fine the second time!
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No I tried a different user name and email, il try what you just said :happy2: il report back, hopefully 3rd time lucky
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No luck again try to register again using same name and password but just comes up this name and email is already in use obviously because it me ha I also sent a message to one of the admins/mods whatever yesterday but no word back, saying that I haven't seen anything like a inbox on DW must be one somewhere?
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Yeah XJAY1337 I'd appreciate a decent guide and I'm sure I won't be the only one :smiley: the most confusing thing for me now is when/what/how when it comes to the detailing products. But I'm getting my head around it, one step at a time ehh ha.
Still no email from DW :fighting: so I made another email and account and still no email :confused:
It'll take me a while to write it as there is so much. Maybe 1/8th done and I've spent 2 hours on it already.
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if it helps I have a brand new Autobrite foam lance and 5litres of Autobrite snow foam for sale. Im in Cannock as it would need collecting ideally.
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Hello mate.
Iron X won't strip wax.
VP citrus pre wash will strip wax, Magifoam wont. :happy2:
Does Autosmart Tardis remove polish, sealant and wax?
I did a full detail on mine a fortnight ago, however my wax hadnt arrived by then so the car was finished off with polish and sealant. The wax has since arrived and i want to apply it so the car has a full winter protection.
Since then the car has got minging again witht the roads up here i was thinking of doing the full detail again including Snowfoam/2BM wash/IronX/Tardis/clay. Would i need to repolish and seal again before i wax?
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Tardis is a tar removal product! It will remove stuck on wheel weights yes it will remove wax
You can't remove "polish" as it isn't a product that leaves any sort of residue to be honest.
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Tardis is a tar removal product! It will remove stuck on wheel weights yes it will remove wax
You can't remove "polish" as it isn't a product that leaves any sort of residue to be honest.
:happy2: God point about the wheel weights. I hadnt considered them.
So Tardis wont effect any previous polish but it will remove wax. What about the sealant i use to seal the polish? Worth reapplying a sealant before waxing?
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You don't seal polish.
Polish is a term used for abrasive compounds which remove (or help to remove) microscopic screatches within the paint surface.
When you have finished polishing, you wax to provide a durable layer of protection to help prevent dirt from sticking to the surface, making future cleaning easier, and help prevent things like industrial fallout, road tar etc, from bonding with the paint directly (it tends to sit on the layers of wax).
Waxes and sealants are LSPs. Last step products.
You can apply both but you would always apply a sealant first if you are using both. This is because sealants differ in their chemical composition and often prefer to bond with bare band. Where as a wax which is generally quite oily will be more happy to bond with an existing base of protection.
Products like Autoglym "Super Resin Polish" are not really polishes, more like pre-wax cleansers , filler polishes or "glazes". They are abrasive yes but not enough to really remove many scratches or swirls from your car. You might get a 10-15% correction using a product like that however the fillers and oils within the product will give the appearance of a 60-70% correction.
You need to seal or wax after these glazes or "filler polishes" because in their very nature the minute fillers and oils would otherwise wash away in a matter of weeks if left unprotected.
Locking the fillers against the paint surface means the fillers don't fade so easily and the effect of a more shiny car is maintained.
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And to be honest there is a perfectly decent guide here
http://www.mk5golfgti.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,4823.0.html
I'm sure his guide covers all the basics
I will finish my guide (which goes into more detail but his is more easy to read and follow) and post it up anyway but to be fair that one is good enough :happy2:
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Your right. I was using a Glaze hence the sealant.
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So yes on a glaze you can use a sealant or wax .
It depends which sealant or wax you are using, as I mentioned glazes have oils in them which some sealants don't like and can cause them not be as durable as they would be to bare paint.
Extra Gloss Protection lasts a couple of months and will work on top of a glaze.
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You defiantly know your stuff Xjay thanks for sharing and posting that guide very good info for me :smiley: . I'm going to try and get it done this weekend or next but il leave the polish out I think and just give it a few layers of wax before the crappy winter and salty roads come. Could you recommend me a decent pressure washer? I guess the pressure of them isn't very important is it as you don't use them right up agaist the paint.
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Did you manage to get your DW ID through in the end mate? I emailed one of the mods for you too but again haven't heard anything back yet!
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I'm going off DW
The guy Shaun (one of the admins) just bans you (well, gives you infractions) for no reason, for simply saying he was incorrect.
talk about power trip :stupid: :signLOL:
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I'm going off DW
The guy Shaun (one of the admins) just bans you (well, gives you infractions) for no reason, for simply saying he was incorrect.
talk about power trip :stupid: :signLOL:
Jeez, really?? What did you say he was incorrect about?! :wink:
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Some guy wanted to put new wheels on his Golf Mk5
The discussion turned to Edition 30 alloys and someone said they were BBS Pescara or BBS CH's
They are BBH CH's just OEM, and Shaun was adamant that they were not BBS CH's as he'd seen some Non-OEM ones which were different... funny as BBS make literally many variations of the CH :popcornsoda: :stupid:
I was talking with another guy and as part of the banter I called him a miserable git, then said I was wrong about the wheels and not to argue with an admin in public LOL.
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Haha! Proper power trip eh!
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Maybe, maybe he genuinly thught he was right.
I provided him BBS reference numbers and articles but didn't want to listen to good advice.
Not my problem.
RE the guide it's probably another day away from being finished.
6 hours on it so far. :happy2:
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Yeah I've noticed a few people like that on there already too....
Shame really as there's also a lot of really helpful people on there.
Ha, good work on the guide, looking forwarf to reading the epic masterpiece! :smiley:
Are you a detailer or is it just a hobby? Your knowledge is incredibly good whatever!
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Yeah I mean, if you are knowledgable about something it is hard to appear "non arrogant" without using loads of smileys (then you can appear a bit special) :jumping: :jumping:
I am like that sometimes I will come across as a bit up myself even when I'm not really and whatever I wrote is not meant to offend. So you have to be careful HOW you says rather than what you actually say, which makes no sense to me but hey :stupid: :stupid:
I do it as a hobby. I'm not a professional detailer haha. I feel, given a unit, I could be pretty comfortable doing it professionally or working alongside someone who does it already. Problem is working outside there is only so much you can do. I feel definitely limited by my environment.
Problem is on my current salary working in IT, it is next to impossible unless you're VERY highly regarded (eg Kelly at KDS level or Polished Bliss) to earn enough to do it as a living. - Basically you have either got a HUGE presence within the detailing community and a good customer base, or you are the only guy (or group of guys) in the middle of an area where there is a high demand for detailing but few people who actually do it.
I mean let's say you charge someone £300 to do their car for a 2 stage correction (so we're talking about 80-85% correction) along with a ceramic/si02 sealant such as Cquartz.
I did a 90% correction on my friends Audi S3 to return a favour (so didn't charge him anything!) and with him helping me do things like tape up the car and apply the wax I spent over 18 hours on correction alone. I spent probably 23-24 hours on it in total.
So let's round it down and say you save time by doing things differently and you get a 80-90% correction down to 25 hours (and trust me you can spend 45+ hours chasing perfection).
In a normal working week there are let's say 40 hours - So by the time you've paid your unit's rent, insurance and products out of that £300 you probably TAKE HOME about £100. (that's just a rough calculation).
So on the basis you work 8.30-5 Monday - Friday and a couple of extra hours in the evening a few days a week, you manage to do 2 cars and after your expenses, your actual take home is around £200. Which to me is not enough to live on.
Thing is doing something for fun and doing something for a living are VERY different. And I wouldn't want to get sick of doing detailing.
Detailing is hard work it is a lot of effort and you need to concentrate on what it is you're doing.
The best money is in Enhancement details where you do a single stage machine polish to get about 60-70% of the swirls out and top with a decent carnuba wax or sealant. These can be done in 6-8 hours (normal day basically) and you can pay up to £150 to have this done at a "professional".
Many decent detailers also offer a simple wash & dry! (with other things like a decent wheel clean and trim dressings and what not) but still charge £50 for a couple of hours work..
Local to me a friend of mine does do it professionally. His quality of work is amazing and he has built up (with hard work and nothing but word of mouth reputation) a very large and loyal customer base doing Ferraris, M5s, Aventadors, anything... But even so I'm not sure if it'd be enough for him to work it full time. I believe he still works in his day job and does this on the side.
I don't step on his customers or business as I support what he does - I only do friends and family, people who wouldn't pay his (very very reasonable) prices so I do it for them for £50-100. People who I do wouldn't ever pay someone else that amount if it makes sense? If a friend comes to me saying they've already gotten a price from this guy and if I would dp it for less, I'd say no and tell them to use him.
It's not really a masterpiece haha it's actually pretty poor I think but hey :scared:
Edit: well that turned out to be longer than I thought LOL :drinking:
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Yeah definitely agree with that, it's hard to get a point across in just text as people read it however they want. What some read as tongue in cheek others read as "being a d1ck"! You can't win sometimes when you're only trying to offer advice! :signLOL:
Yep, when you break it down like that it makes you realise it must be really hard to turn over a decent amount, and actually how much consistant effort is involved. Plus there's no real room for error or complacency that you could have on your own car for example.
I love doing my own cars and therefore don't mind spending x amount of hours but I'm not sure I would love doing other peoples so much day in, day out! Yep you'd get to work on some amazing cars but then that brings a whole heap of added pressure knowing you're working on something worth 100k plus, and the fact it isn't even yours! :surprised:
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I have one or two more silly questions then I'm all good to go at it this weekend should of had it done by now.
When applying polish and wax (by hand) do I need to tape my car up with that blue tape?
Is tape needed when using a clay bar on the car?
Can I clay bar plastic such as wing mirror, front bumper etc?
I take it its ok to apply wax without polish so after every wash will I need to top up on the wax on the car? I'm going to be using collinite 476s as my winter wax I hear it durable but was wondering if it requires a top up any thing?
That's all I need to know even if they are daft things to ask just want to get it right :happy2:
Oh LEEBO310 I just read what you wrote early on in this thread and what did you mean by using a snow foam first then as a 'main' snow you used....... I Throught you just snowed the car with the same stuff in one detail session? Or do you mean you use a different snow when your doing the whole thing again and just use another snow foam that won't strip wax every time your washing it?
Cheers :happy2:
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No you don't need to tape up the car to clay or hand polish.
And clay bar is fine to use on plastic.
After waxing any polish you apply will remove any wax. If you want to top up the Collinite which you shouldnt need to, but a carnuba spray wax would be fine or carpro reload.
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It doesn't really make too much difference mate, I just use a citrus based snow foam to start and then use another one which just seems to work well for me. Citrus one was cheaper in bulk so I can use that a few times then i use a more expensive one to just do the final foam before the hand wash. Most people I think use the same one you're right. I just like to be different :-)
Check out the awesome guide Jay wrote by the way. If you read that there is no way that you can have any more questions as it covers EVERYTHING you could ever want to know :-)
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Thanks again jay that's great I just like to make sure.
Yeah I've seen the guide had a quick scroll through it and you have defiantly put some hours into that that, but I haven't had much time to read it but I will be doing that tonight.
All I need now is snow foam I was thinking of getting two a strong one to use every time I do a detail and then just a lighter one to use every week when I wash it so the wax isn't striped. I've been looking on cleanyourcar.co.uk but I'm not sure on which would suit for what I want.
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Bilt Hamber Autofoam is the only snowfoam I can recommend.
It has the most cleaning power , is £15 for 5L tub and is LSP safe. It is without a doubt the best snow-foam out there.
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I will try that next Jay, having recently run out of everything else... do I need to upgrade my lance (Karcher crappolo) - does it really matter, if so show me the best one for the money :happy2:
http://www.cleanyourcar.co.uk/index.php?_a=viewProd&productId=1165
http://www.cleanyourcar.co.uk/index.php?_a=viewProd&productId=1296
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CYC stuff is good quality. Should be fine. Will get you foaming away happily.
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Car is ridiculously filthy again, after one days drive... :sad1: Not bothering until May now.
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Haha
Once it's all done properly it'll stay cleaner for longer.. mine's just got minor dust from a weeks of commuting :jumpmove:
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Must be the sh*te roads and weather I'm taking it through. Rally this weekend too! :party:
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Clean cars go faster!! :jumping: :driver:
I think... something about aerodynamicicissisis?
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f*ckin eh (http://tinyurl.com/k6cshtk)