My first PW

[jamier27]

Well this week I have bit the bullet and ordered a nilfisk e130.

With my previous cars I have been pretty shameful and always washed using a MIT and a single bucket :quiet:

Now with my new car (59 plate 135i) It has come pretty much immaculate and swirl free so am going to try and look after the paint best I can specially during these winter months.

i chose the e130 due to rave reviews and it having the long hose on a reel. Although I know a few people hate the plastic hose I can upgrade that at a later date.

i am a complete novice at cleaning so any tips are welcome.

i ordered the magifoam and foam lance from autobrite yesterday as the dwell time is praised (dwell ... Detailing lingo already!)

not sure if you just apply foam direct to a dry dirty can or does it work better with the car washed first??

J

 

[john182rs]

Regarding the other thread.

Get two buckets to wash the car with and you can even go to the extreme of buying grit guards, these stop the dirt floating around in the bucket and getting back on to you mitt. I have 2 big white ones ordered from i4Detailing with guards.

Car shampoo, buy some proper stuff thats ph neutral and is better for protecting your car specially if you've done the whole wax thing previously.
Washing up liquid is a big no no to any detailer.

Mitts - well you can buy any, the lambs wool ones seem to be a thing at the moment for the paint work. Buy another or use an old one for the wheels with a wheel brush or two for the more tricky area's.

Wheels - I use either iron x or autobrite cherry power via a hand trigger, both are excellent.

Exhaust tips - if you can see them, britemax metal twins! say no more.

Glass - 3M spray glass cleaner, about £3 in tesco at the moment.

MF's for drying get i4d's mega drying towel, its cheap but its huge and very good. Also get yourself some others, different colour for different jobs.


With regards to the snowfoam, I usually cirtus wash it all over first then rinse off, I have been hitting the car with TFR (traffic film remover) after this if its mega dirty then on to magifoam and leave it to dwell, while thats doing that I go around all the shuts, gaps, badges and meeting points with a brush.

I personally use an air blower to dry off with in the cold as its bloody cold.


All of the above is in my opinion, I maybe wrong with some of it but the pro's like JD, Gally, Russ and so on will be along shortly

 

[john182rs]

OR....

If you can not be arsed with most of it, get the car corrected properly or do it yourself if you can?

Then wack on two layers of Carpro's CQuartz with a quick spray on of ReLoad, twice if needed. An when it comes to wash time, its sooo much eaiser with just magifoam and maybe abit of TFR through the lance.

 

[jamier27]

Thanks alot for all the info.

So i still shampoo car first then use magi foam? then clay and wax?

Am thinking quick blast with pressure wash, spray iron x over leave for 5 mins then magifoam it and give a good thorough PW rinse and should be pretty clean

so many stages and products ... :S

 

[john182rs]

Citrus wash on a dry car and leave for a few mins, power rinse off, magifoam on for 10 mins while your brushing all the gaps and tricky parts, rinse, tfr for 5 mins or so if its still dirty, rinse then washmitt and 2 bucket method.

You should not need to iron-x all the time but I would do it before the wash mitt part.

It all sounds very complicated but once you start, its a breeze.

 

[jamier27]

Thanks john thats made everything a lot clearer!

one more q whats tfr (traffic film remover)??

 

[john182rs]

here ya go...
http://www.eurochem.co.uk/products.php?categories_id=11

 

[jamier27]

thanks again john.

but 20 litres will have a look for a smaller quantity.

cheers