Cleaning and polishing

[mattsbmw]

Looking for a bit of advice around cleaning and polishing.

Currently i use either turtle Wax or halfrauds own brand shampoo to wash the car every week or fortnight followed by a coat of Autoglym Super Resin Polish once a month or so.

Wheels are usually cleaned aith Autoglym Clean wheels and i apply a coat if Autoglym Tyre Dressing.

For the other trim i use Autoglym Bumper care.

Ok, so this isnt an advert for auto glym

I do like the autoglym products as they are easy to apply and give reasnoablbe results.

What i would like to know is, is there any other products in the range i should be using and should i be using anything more than the Super resin poilsh.

Is there any advantage in using a random orbital polisher? if so are the cheap (less than £20) any good.

any advice welcome as to what is the recommended way .

I dont have lots of money to spend on products but i do have some to complement the products i am already using.

I also dont have lost of time available to clean the car, maybe 1 hour a week..

any help or advice welcome, would like to have the car really shiny for the summer.

It's a 1988 Baur convertable in White, 15" standard BBS Wheels

[The_Diddler]

The super resin polish is a good product but it does contains abrasives that will eventually eat away slowly at you paint, i'd cut down on the polish a tad and perhaps top the finish up with "Extra Gloss Protection" from autoglm which is a sealant followed by a top layer of wax.

Than at least this way you arent constantly removing microns of paint with the polish, which after a period of time will strike through to your undercoat ., especialy on any sharp lines in the bodtwork where the paint becomes thinner over time with lots of polishing.

I certainly wouldnt use a electric polisher on your paint without first having practised alot on some scrap panels, you dont know the thickness of your paint without a paint gauge and seriously risk burning through to the undercoat very very quickly using one of these. Dont get me wrong they do with the right polishes give fantastic results but you need to be very careful!!!!!

As you have now by the sounds of it got a nice shine to the paint by using the super resin polish, i'd go with the EGP "Extra Gloss Protection" and finish off with a nice wax, then you can keep applying the wax every month or so with no risk to the paint.

Now if the finish of your paint feels a little rough when you glide your hand across it you could also "clay" it, by clay i mean the automotive type which removes bonded crap from the surface of your paint when used with a lubricant without damaging your paint, this should leave the paint as smooth as glass to the touch and is an excellent base for your polish, sealant and wax.

have a look at this website, especially in the showroom areas of the forum, a wealth of great advise here, alot better than i could ever give.

http://www.detailingworld.co.uk/

The wax and sealant need not cost the earth if on a budget and the Autoglm stuff is reasonably priced.

I'd use a foam pad applicator for applying the sealant and wax, with a decent quality plush microfibre cloth to remove.

I'm sure one of the proffessionals will come along and point you in the right direction.

[march109]

right normally I'd wrote a long winded detailed reply but the link above would shame my reply into submission, use www.detailingworld.co.uk as above it is awesome.

HOWEVER please be aware the word polish is technically refering to an abrasive product (when I say technically I mean according to the Oxford English Dictionary's definition!), but depending on the company whose product you are looking at it can also refer to a protectant, please bare that in mind.

It used to only be american companies that called protectants polishes but now european companies trying to break into the larger US market are marketing their protecatnts as polishes and referring to the polishes as cutting compunds, its a mine field of terms so investigate the product first and its usage before you purchase.

[mattsbmw]

Thanks for the quick responses, so a good start would be to clay the car using say meguiars Quick Clay, then Super Resin polish, then extra gloss protection, than a wax on top of this?

Any recommendations for an effective wax that is reasonably priced?

[bmwsport]

I've just ordered some Collinite Marque D'Elegance (No. 915) wax. I ordered two tubs from a guy in USA for £26 delivered to my door. If you look on ebay uk you'll see it can cost that for just one tub

From doing a little google'in this stuff is meant to be the dog danglies and lasts for ageeees. Came No. 1 in tests. Now i just need to research what other stuff i need to do/buy before the wax as this detailing stuff is all new to me too.

O/T but does anyone rate Autoglym ultra deep shine? I have a full bottle of this in the garage but i've read it is developed for dark colour cars. . . mine is white