Automotive

How do you keep the car clean? If you're a do-it-yourselfer, what products do you use? I have a thing against machine washing the car, and I also don't entrust the car to the car wash boys at the office. Running the car to the dealer for a detail takes to...  

Not me. Definitely not. ;) De : automotive watchprosite <[Email address suppressed for privacy]> À : [Email address suppressed for privacy] Envoyé le : Mercredi 4 avril 2012 9h29 Objet : {5237523} AutoForum response Which Purist has the cleanest car? How ... 

Your car always has a fine layer of rubbery dust on it, from all the tire burnouts at Place Vendome...

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Car-wash is the best way to keep your car 95 % clean, no more scratches due to a new generation of brushes. I thnik it is the best way to clean your car when it is very very dirty. I take each one of my vehicles to the carwash every two months, i think Vl... 

Thank you for your input Filip! Please remind Vlad to wash his car more often... So, the Clio is the pampered car. Washed every week. I know the feeling about the wheels... Speaking about brake-dust, I just wanted to mention, I really like the Brembos on ... 

Speaking about Brembo, they are fitted on most Italian bikes and on Renaultsport cars ... on the little Clio they're just superb, the feeling is right, very sharp and yet so controllable, very powerful and it appears it's difficult to experience fading (u...  

Would they be a worthwhile upgrade to any regular car, or just for fast sports cars..? They always look good Andy.

It's the feel, it's the performance, and it's the increased braking capacity. Brembos have one of the most rigid brake calipers on the market. The rigid structure helps with the pedal feel. They have a "Fixed" design which offers superior pedal feel over ... 

that makes a lot of sense and explains why they are so good. They also look amazing..!! Thanks, Andy.

The larger the pad and disc, the better braking (plus all the stuff Patrick said ) Better cooling design too

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.... a bit like bike brakes .... which have seriously evolved also these past years ... I remember having floating disks on my Bimota, now floating disks are long time gone, radial brakes are the business now which i think Brembo came as first with . Bim

... but i guess they're just built with smaller tolerances and better materials ... . Fitting them to any regular car is a bit too much as new brakes and calipers are always very expensive. There are a lot of other brands like AP that offer brake-kits but... 

to be fair it stops on a sixpence anyway so brakes are the least of any problems - the Brembo's just look so good..!! Red calipers would look so good on a black car Me.

there's no need to change the discs if they are good, but get a set of EBC's. greenstuff for under 200 bhp and redstuff for over 200 bhp. they give of very little brake dust, use a compound that enables better braking in both the wet and dry without any f... 

at the moment she stops on a sixpence so like you say the brakes are already good for a BMW but when they are due for a change I'll bear this in mind...it could be a while yet though..!! Speak soon big boy, Me.

..that when it comes to cleaning cars, I tend to take after the late Alan Clark MP...

I'm afraid my knowledge of English history is limited. All I know is that Alan Clark was a very Conservative British politician. Did he say something about washing cars are not worth doing?

...infamous for driving desirable cars (SS100s, DS23 Decapotable, Silver Ghost, 6.5 Bentley, etc etc) and not washing them (nor did he maintain them very well, something I don't agree with...) Personally, I only wash the car when it really needs it. Bucke... 

A good philosophy to live by too.

I'm not much of a clean-freak. It gets put away dirty most of the time. In fact it usually only gets washed when a bird has crapped on it road grime doesn't worry me. The dust cover just means the top can stay down and the interior doesn't fill with dust.... 

This message has been edited by DonCorson on 2012-04-04 04:05:09

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... wash their car only once a year Bim...  

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Pic taken in Paris, might be a cousin of Nicolas....  

...he left a deposit on it.

Even full of mud. Vte

...Been very happy with Meguire's products. I usually have my buddies at car wash wash my car, then I'll detail it, though I get lazy from time to time. A good car wash can do a fine job, and the newer equipment is far better on a car's finish than what t... 

I keep on saying, the next car will be silver. But for some reason, I still doubt that I will follow through with that. Do you wear a silver leather motorcycle jacket? It's just that black is so universal, I still have difficulty thinking that I will driv... 

when i owned a proper big 4x4 i only ever gave it a jet wash when the mud under the wheel arches stopped the wheels turning, but since i've owned the subaru i've had it washed every month at one of the many hand wash centres run by very hard working easte... 

Looking forward to hearing your impressions about that 50 Pound car wash. Didn't know Big Daddy spent two days detailing his car. I want to see pictures of that!

Not sure what they did to my car before picking it up but it was immaculate and they must have done some serious polishing to the paintwork as it was like new. I've moved on to Turtle Speed Wax as you can do the whole car in 10 mins and last long enough t... 

Vroom... weekly carwashes @ anything that's touchless. the paint is too bright to have anything touch it, i'm afraid of the swirlmarks so it only goes through touchless....  

Weekly car washes, that's gotta do it! Thanks for sharing!

And this is after she had cleaned it....  

I can't say how good that effort was because I don't know how bad it was to begin with.

Clean your car? Doesn't it rain where you are?

very expensive and pedestrian. To my eyes, the 'cheap' stuff like Meguiars works as well as anything else. It's all about you washing the car meticulously and waxing regularly and with attention to detail. If you do this, your garden variety wax products ... 

the product. That said, there are huge differences in ease of application, and certain products in certain product lines are easier, last longer, and result more consistently in "glass like smoothness and shine and beading" than others. I know the Peterse... 

I used Meguiars for everything - Deep Crystal Car Wash, Ultimate Polish, and Deep Crystal System Carnauba Wax. I remember the first time I hand waxed car the car, I put 2 coats of Polish and 3 coats of Carnauba Wax. I spread the work over 5 days while I k...  

nice look Anthony. i had mine valeted and polished on tuesday, but after they demonstrated the benefits of a clay bar i booked them to come back tomorrow to clay bar the whole car, polish it with an electric mop and wax it with top quality trade products.... 

Five day wax job! That's intense! But the results never looked better! Thank you for the expertise and the pictures!

but water ONLY washing every other day does it for me...

Plenty of rain...

...with my favorite being "Hydro". After you wash your car, before you dry it, spray it with Hydro. Then dry it. The towel glides over the car (rather than sticking to it) and is given a light coat of wax. Dean....  

An interesting and efficient way to wax your car! Thanks for sharing! Great pic of the car.

yesterday morning i had the finishing touches to my spa treatment. the difference is amazing. before hand it felt rough with impurities embedded in the pores of the paint, but afterwards it feels smooth as silk or as smooth as a salesmans chat up line. th...  

Looking good Graham!

and i didnt break a sweat Patrick...  

and wash my cars once every other week and detail twice a year. He used P21S products. Some how he decided to get out of auto detailing business. So I now have to bring my cars to a local detail shop for wash and detail. This guy uses Prima Car Care produ...  

Very clean cars. Are the photos of the cars showing the treatment of Prima products or P21S?

Bottom two are Prima.

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Those Bentley paint jobs are second to none. The black color also helps to bring out the shine. But it was a pain in the xxx to maintain. I vowed never to get another dark colored car again.

Probably starting off with a better product in the first place. Black is never easy. I will say though, I find the black on the Mercedes-Benz with the ceramic clear-coat to resist fine scratches more-so. However, I do think that under certain lighting con... 

Not that I do it myself so often, but when I did I mainly used Turtle products Best Hans

Haven't ever tried Turtle Wax products, but have definitely heard of them. Were you satisfied with the Turtle Wax products?

... Especially when comparing also on price.. I have tried also much more expensive products, but not giving much better effect. I mainly use shampoo, wax, wheel cleaner spray, cockpit cleaner, seat cleaner and polisher Best Hans

Probably the most unorthodox of the bunch on this one - but then I do only have a black edition A3! I wash with (cold) water applied by a sponge with a bit of autoglam shampoo just to get all the dirt off, then use some nanowax spray and sham it off using... 

This post is to find out which PuristS has the cleanest car, and what they use to keep it that clean. Thank you for sharing with us your experience!