I first used auto glym sealant but didn’t read instructions and used 250ml and let it dry. My fault and now what gets the dried in spots off ?

Later found out it says a cap full and rinse immediately

Hello, just trying to get some recommendations for workboots from other full time valeters/detailers. Keep buying shoes only for them to last a couple of months, assuming the chemicals I use are breaking down the glue in the shoes.

Has anyone else had this issue? Any recommendations thanks.

Hi, hope this is OK to ask here as it involves detailing!

I have a 15 ton truck I've imported to the UK, and it's got a solid build up of grime on the chassis, which I need to remove before I prep it for paint.

I have been recommended Jizer degreaser, but was wondering if there was anything else that would work. I'd like something I can spray on without worrying about damaging any plastics or hoses etc, and also something I can rinse off with water/pressure washing. Something available in bulk would be good as week, I reckon I'll need several litres of it!

Sorry if this isn't the correct sub, I wasn't sure where to ask.

Any help would be appreciated, thanks!

Edit, actual experience of recommendations would be best, please.

Hi y’all

this is not really a question about specific brands or vacuums but more the minimum specs required

What would you consider the absolute minimum power of the vacuum or is there some other spec that is more important ?

Just looking around there many shopvac’s 1200w is that good or would 1400-1500w be more ideal.

If i use karcher as an example

Wd2-1000w Wd4-1100w Wd6-1300w

Is the extra power from the wd6 really needed or are the smaller enough?

Asking for my mate. Car hasn't been washed for 2-3 years. Usually parked under a tree so lots of sapp. Also looks to be algee of some sort growing on the paint. It's very rough to touch. Is there a wash on/wash off product to sort this out? Wants to avoid time consuming clay etc. Cheers!

Question says it all really. Thank you

Hi All,

I found these scratches yesterday on my brand new EQA.

What is the best way to fix/mask these?

The scratches were caused by muddy/dirty training shoes.

I bought some Chemical Guys Invisible super cleaner, is this product suitable for this type of plastic? I already have Mercedes StarGard Door&Dash enhancer but I find this makes everything look overly shiny.

Thanks in advance :)

Basic what the title says. What is the best products to use on vegan leave car seats. I've done real leather previously but never vegan leather

Hi guys, I’ve just recently bought a white car and it is proving more difficult than I anticipated to keep clean, especially with the weather recently!!   At the moment when I clean my car, all I have been using is demon foam snow foam in the jet wash, washing it off after letting it sit and then spraying more on and using a microfiber mitt from RAC to properly clean all the gross bits off. I then use a brush to clean all my alloys, and then I’ve got tire shine that I spray on, and I use a big microfiber towel to get the water off the car.   I was wondering if anybody can recommend a simple, easy, and effective wash routine to keep my car nice and shiny. Nothing too expensive or over the top please, just basic and easy for me to use, and preferably stuff that I can buy from Halfords as I’ve got a gift voucher to use.

I'm so fed up going in to the like of Nickle & Dime and seeing 'Duzzit' Miracle Wipes promising to clean my dashboard etc...... because they don't. What can this community recommend for a decent long-lasting matt cleaning wipe? Thank you.

I've got a '19 cx8 and use fussocoat to seal the paint (not interested in ceramic) but looking for a spray coating that I can wipe over windows/door shuts and black and "chrome"trim to give a similar level of protection. I will use solution finish on the black trim but want something to go go over that. Maybe turtle wax seal and shine??? Basically looking for a lazy spray for everything except paint.

Hi, I'm 20 from the UK with my 20 year old Porsche Boxster. I really enjoy cleaning my car but I think it's time to take it up a level. I've got a random orbital polisher and I was wondering if there was any tips on polishing and more specifically what polish to use. I believe the paint for my Boxster is pretty soft and scratches easily. I'm not sure if the car/paint's age maters or would any polish do the job. Are there any brands/ products to go for as l'm a beginner in the polishing world Cheers

Hi All, I’m not even sure the picture makes it visible but struggling to fully clean the inside of the window. It almost looks scratch (which given the 12 year age could well be) but seems too many to be scratches. I appreciate the advice.👍🏻

Just bought a second hand car and the wheels have a hard, white residue on them.

Would a non-acidic wheel cleaner get rid of these stains or do I need something stronger?

After my body taking its toll for the last 25 years washing a car once a week and just using the two bucket method, I delved into this sub and came up with an obscure plan.

Basically I was to do a full detail on my car, then use turtlewax seal and shine to provide a good protection, with weekly washes then being limited to just using touchless from bilt hamber, some virosol citrus on any bugs/birdshit, pressure washing it all off and allowing it to air dry.

First impressions were decent, the car was pretty much clean after doing this for 20 mins and I was happy I’d found a cheat code. I planned to do a full contact wash every 3 months as that’s how long the seal and shine lasted and also occasionally top up the protection in between with Gyeon wet coat.

Sadly after two touchless washes (therefore two weeks or so), the car was still left with a heavy traffic film that refused to budge. My pressure washer is only a karcher K2 but even with going over areas repeatedly quite close, stripes and traffic film were left. I appreciate this method is only supposed to be used as a “pre wash” but everyone assured me 90% of the dirt would be gone, which isn’t the case.

My biggest problem too is that the seal and shine and Gyeon wet coat, while protecting the paint, constantly leave water spots after washing and each time it rains which make the car look much dirtier than when I used nothing before. My cars are all black and they look leopard print all the time. I appreciate beading is what people want for protection but it’s completely counter intuitive for keeping a relatively clean looking.

I’d be grateful for your thoughts. I guess my only option with the products I have would be to go back to contact washing, but this along with the pre wash is going to take longer each time than the position I started in, and also not solve the water spots issue after each time it rains?

Thanks all

I have a new car and don't want to risk damaging the paint by going these cheap car washes. I will probably find a good detailer. However, if did a self service car wash which one of these options in the picture should I go with in order?

https://preview.redd.it/umfex9z8z0pd1.jpg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f673b012c019ad7ce26ccc75238ca911d5c1dedd

https://preview.redd.it/yj0ufgie70pd1.jpg?width=4000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=51cfc9d11bfd16e94d649494f4c12c61bd16d178

Just learning how to clean my car, and it's surprisingly not as easy just just use some soap and a bucket.

So far trying to a certain extent the 2 bucket method, with a hand pump water spray to rinse, and while I'm getting better, I'm still seeing marks like that above.

Could be either bird shit or tar from a tree. I'll go through my process now but I'm wondering if a clay bar would remove that, or if I try first with a tar/glue remover?

Current process:

• 2 buckets with halfords Ph neutral shampoo in one of them
• Clean with a stringy mitt thingy from halfords. I find I have to put a bit of effort in to remove dirt though.
• Rinse mitt in rinsing bucket,
• Rinse panel with spray pump
• Once I've gone round the car:
• Spray on Autoglym rapid detailer
• Dry and buff with a buffing cloth I have

So I know I'm not doing things 100% after the wash stage, as I probably need a proper drying towel.

But i'd be interested to know how I could better clean those marks. And if it is a clay bar job, would AutoGlym ceramic spray thing I have work well after that, or do I need a specific wax thingy?

Has anyone found an easy way to clean the inside of the rear windscreen on a coupe like a 4 series. I nearly ended upside down in the back with my feet out the windows earlier. Bet the neighbours were all laughing their socks off 😂

I hope this hasn't been asked before but I'm looking for a simple budget routine to detail my car.

It's a rather old (nearly 20 years) BMW and I'm just looking for a simple product list and routine to restore the paintwork on a budget.

Hopefully someone can help thanks!

Hypothetically, if somebody was loading a bike in the car of a partner, for the story, let's say it's the wife's car. Whilst going about this hypothetical action the cranks and rear derailleur which had a covering of wet lube (the sticky type) and they touched the roof lining, which is off-white.

How would you hypothetically go about removing this whilst doing a full deep clean for the wife as way of an apology...

Looking for some advice on good leather cleaner and deoderiser your products

My cupra is fitted with black non perforated leather seats which as you can imagine get a little warm on sunny days. After 80k miles of my backside sat in them it has taken on a little odour.

Anyone got any good recommendations for a cleaning/care product that can get rid of smells as well. I don't want to mask the smell but get rid of it.

Any tips tips on technique to do it would be appreciated as well. Cheers

This cheeky chappy has been popping up on my various feeds and as entertaining as he is he seems very invested in his products. I say his, not sure if he’s a reseller but anyway I’m interested in the products.

The videos, results and general approach to all of the product range look great, reviews out in the wild seem decent but I don’t tend to o my go by reviews on an easily gamed Amazon review platform etc so I generally use multiple opinions for a bunch of sources. They seem to be aimed at both the multi day, multi process approach right across to the weekend warrior like me :)

Edit to add as I did some dowsing and replied to someone else on this thread. This has to be “if it looks like a duck and sounds like a duck…” scenario but the videos were quite frankly astonishing. No frills chemicals though so god knows what’s in them but the stuff from Valet Chem seem to be designed to do one job, the one it’s meant to do with plain marketing, no added smells to make it more attractive to the user. Just cold, hard, weapons grade chemicals??

On the complete other scale I’ve just found a. Company called Valet Chem. £2.60 for 500ml of TFR and the YouTube video I watched showed it as amazing effective for the money. They also showed the wet shine stuff and filmed again after 2 weeks. The hydrophobic properties didn’t last but even a gentle hose down removed most of the traffic grime before you started into your routine.

At that money I might just give it ago for general maintenance washes and maybe stick to the big guns like natty wax and black hole for my swirls.

I’m too chicken to try a machine polisher still…

I have a black car that has a fair amount of contamination and swirls, etc. I’m looking to standardise my products as at the moment I use products from almost all reputable companies and when it comes time to refill I am always chasing the best price at that time. This stuff seems to be consistent in its price increases, decreases and deals. What say you?

So i recently purchased a black car and i've slowly built up a solid maintence wash routine. However I want to take my paintwork up a notch by decontaminating it and using a hand polish. Now the paintwork is covered in mild-moderate marring all over and I can feel a lot of contaminants on the paintwork. I have heard good things about using a clay mitt and I have purchased korrosol, BH Soft clay bar, g3 clay mitt. Now i am a weekend warrior and want to just spend as litle time as possible on decontamination hence the clay mitt but i am concerned it might not be strong enough to remove a lot of the built up contaminants.

I don't want to further marr my paintwork, I was wondering if the clay mitt will suffice albeit the heavy contamination of the paintwork? The clay barr will be used as a touch up and working between the panel joints to remove any excess clay build up from the mitt. it is probably the first decontamination my car has received and it is 7 years old.