by "Svend" (svend)
Published 09/06/2017 at 21:41
by "Svend" (svend)
Published 09/06/2017 at 21:41
No Tags
STARS: 10
A customer at work asked if I could clean his friend’s car and he would help if I showed him what to do.
He’s interested in looking after his car but been nervous about doing the things I suggested so today was a training day on his car.
So before cleaning his friend’s tomorrow, we tackled his today.
So after finishing work at 6am, I went round to his house for 10am to clean and show him how to clean his car.
Started off with a full clean of the engine bay.
Then a full clean of the wheels. Wheel cleaner, agitate, scrub tyres, rinse, fallout remover, agitate, rinse.
Then exterior. Degreaser, pressure rinse, snow foam, rinse, snow foam with shampoo, 2Bucket Wash, rinse, de-tar, fallout remover, re-wash, rinse, seal, rinse, drying aid dry. Tyres and wheel arches dressed. Gloss B pillar plastics polished to remove scuffs and sealed with a ceramic sealant to add some scratch resistance.
Interior. Vacuum, anti bacterial wipe down of the interior surfaces, glass cleaned, rubber seals around doors rejuvenated.
The Sun was playing silly buggers, coming and going behind the cloud.
To say Mike was happy I think would be an understatement.
I think he said thank you about 20+ times, lol.
So tomorrow is another BMW and we’ll see how that turns out.
"404 - User No Longer Available" (toni-cipriani)
09/06/2017 at 21:52, STARS: 0
Is it actually safe to spray water directly into the bay to clean the engine? I’ve heard multiple debates regarding that.
"E92M3" (E46M3)
09/06/2017 at 22:02, STARS: 0
I’ve done it for 22 years on probably 20 cars. Never had an issue doing it. I’ve never covered the alternator or anything other than the air breather on the classics.
"Svend" (svend)
09/06/2017 at 22:12, STARS: 0
It is as long as you don’t use high pressure up close or on jet and you keep in mind certain areas of electrics.
But I do it with a degreaser, some brushes and several microfibres. I don’t use water in the engine bay except round the edges in the guttering and the scuttle panel. There are too many electrics these days which makes me nervous.
"MM54" (mm54mk2)
09/06/2017 at 22:16, STARS: 0
What sort of brushes do you use for the engine bay and wheels? How about the engine bay degreaser, simple green or something else? This is an area of my cars I have no idea how to clean very well.
"Highlander-Datsuns are Forever" (jamesbowland)
09/06/2017 at 22:22, STARS: 1
Looks great as usual.
"Svend" (svend)
09/06/2017 at 22:31, STARS: 1
For wheels I’ve an assortment of brushes. A set of Wheel Woolies (though moderately expensive for what they are, the ones I’ve got are four years old) detailing brushes to get into nooks and crannies and wheel facings.
For the engine bay and door shuts I use Autobrite Jaffa Clean, it’s a cleaner and dressing in one (but for engine bays I follow up with 303 Aerospace Protectant and detailing brushes.
Spray on, attack with patience everywhere you can see with a detailing brush and wipe down with a microfibre.
"BlueMazda2 - Blesses the rains down in Africa, Purveyor of BMW Individual Arctic Metallic, Merci Twingo" (bluemazda2)
09/06/2017 at 22:32, STARS: 1
Manual seats in an M-Sport 5-Series? Gib pls.
"Svend" (svend)
09/06/2017 at 22:33, STARS: 0
Chhers mate. Mike the owner wouldn’t stop saying thank you and couldn’t stop looking at it and taking pictures. Lol.
"Svend" (svend)
09/06/2017 at 22:37, STARS: 0
The seats are electric for moving forward and back and changing the angle of the seat back (but still has a couple of levers for the bolsters and changing the angle of the seat base).
"BlueMazda2 - Blesses the rains down in Africa, Purveyor of BMW Individual Arctic Metallic, Merci Twingo" (bluemazda2)
09/06/2017 at 22:43, STARS: 1
Oh. That’s still cool, though.
"Svend" (svend)
09/06/2017 at 22:55, STARS: 0
The front of the seats (I think they are called upper leg supports) pull out whick Mike wasn’t aware when he was vacuuming. lol.
Though his work car is a 3 Series (this isn’t his one, but similar car, same police force).
"BlueMazda2 - Blesses the rains down in Africa, Purveyor of BMW Individual Arctic Metallic, Merci Twingo" (bluemazda2)
09/06/2017 at 22:57, STARS: 1
I love the thigh extensions. They really do make a difference for people my height (6'2").
Also, that police car? Gib pls. I like British BMW police cars. I have a London Metropolitan X5 on my wall.
"Svend" (svend)
09/06/2017 at 23:10, STARS: 1
Argh, that’s what they are called. Cheers.
We have an assortment of Fords, Vauxhalls, Peugeots, (the Volvos have been replaced with BMWs), etc...
We have some BMW X5s, which are used for armed response.
Most police forces have a decal to denote they are armed, but our force, doesn’t.
Red police cars in London are DPG (Diplomatic Protection Group)
"E92M3" (E46M3)
09/06/2017 at 23:21, STARS: 0
Looks great man. Just curious what time you finished? That would take me an entire weekend, assuming I had no other interuptions or obligations.
"Svend" (svend)
09/06/2017 at 23:28, STARS: 0
Started at 10am and finished about 1:40pm.
Though there was two of us, I was standing over him when he was working and he was standing over me when I was demonstrating.
I think if it was just me, it would of been an even four hours.
He was the old school of car cleaning of polishing everytime you clean the car. He couldn’t get round to only polish when it’s needed (ie to remove a scratch of correct paint). The body was in great shape so only needed to polish the gloss B pillars which then got a ceramic coating to reduce future scratching.
I pointed out, polish, to make shiny, wax/sealant/coating to maintain the shiny and at worst to act as a sacrificial layer.
The trick is, know what you want to do, set most of the day aside to do a full clean, if it takes less time. Great, but if it takes as long as you had planned you won’t feel under pressure to finish.
"E92M3" (E46M3)
09/07/2017 at 12:16, STARS: 0
That’s quick. Synthetic wax/sealants definitely save time over carnuba. What do you think about the synthetic claybar replacements? Claying takes me a long time, they seem like they would save time too.
"Svend" (svend)
09/07/2017 at 13:10, STARS: 0
A lot of sealants are Si02 based and so easy to apply. There are Si02 based shampoos (ie Gyeon Bathe+), snow foams (ie CarPro Hydro2Foam), post wash water activated (Gyeon Wetcoat) and simple sprays (ie Gyeon Cure).
The BMW yesterday.
Got Gyeon Wetcoat and then dried with Gyeon Cure.
Today took longer (as the interior was filthy). Had the same external decon. Not sealed with Gyeon Wetcoat but instead of using Gyeon Cure as a drying aid. Dried the car with a diamond sandwich waffle weave microfibre and then sealed with Gyeon Cure as a standalone sealant.
