Hi Joe !
When I was studying, I used to valet cars as summerjob. I always used the same logic when valeting cars and still tend to stick to it now, although I change it according to the circumstances, paint etc. Main reason why I change the procedure sometimes is when it is not necessary to polish heavily (as it indeed wears out the paint).
Typical way of working:
1. Wash:- Wash the car, dry and wait for a few hours, ideally wash at night to polish the next day. This ensures all the water is gone from in between the door handles etc. Not entirely 'necessary', but it's just a nightmare when you're buffing up and then some water runs from in between a crease and you can start buffing again.
2. Clean:- Apply a good paint cleaner (e.g. T-Cut) if you need to get the paint clean again. (To test: use a cleaner on a small corner of the bonnet for instance and check whether the colour is different afterwards. Especially with light colours like the Ice Blue, pollution tends to make it 'darker')
Ideally use a polishing machine if the car is really in bad condition (e.g. after winter).
- Let dry.
- DO NOT BUFF UP !
- Put a layer of coloured wax on (e.g. Turtle Wax Color Magic or the similar Carplan product).
This will fill all the small pores and scratches. If the car's paint is not in bad condition, you could basically start with this product and skip the T-Cut. These 'polishes' are slightly abrasive by themselves so will clean a bit anyway.
Again, if the car is in bad condition, you could do a rerun with a polishing machine on it.
- The key reason why I advise to use a coloured paste or cream is because when you clean a light colour only with T-cut and buff up straight away, some small 'residuals' (pollution...
) tends to stay in patches on your paint. This is because you got them lose with the t-cut and 'grouped' them in patches on the paint. The small particles tend to stay there.
A coloured cream seems to trap the particles and probably also colours them (so if they stay there, you don't notice).
- Now you buff up for the first time. First take the main layer away with a big old towel, then use a clean cloth to buff up well.
3. Protect:Next you need to 'wax' the car to put back the protective layer you just took away
- If it's sunny, let the car stand a bit in the sun before waxing.
This will ensure two things:
1. The coloured cream etc (which contains some wax by itself) will cure fully. Buff again before waxing
2. Natural waxes bond much better to a warm bodywork. Zymol for instance needs the bodywork to be ideally 18C or more to bond.
- Don't wax in full sun.
1. Natural wax needs to be buffed up while it's not entirely dry. If you wax in full sun, the stuff dries before your buffed it into the paint.
2. Synthetic waxes don't seem to like being 'grilled' to the paint at all (no clue why).
3. You'll burn your bloody hands !
- You can wax with two kinds of waxes:
1. Synthetic waxes (i.e. about everything you can find at Halfords: P21, Maguires, Autoglym, etc). These tend to work fast, often give a good result but in my opinion do not last. One month later you find yourself waxing again
If you use a 'mainstream' wax, I always advise to quickly put a layer of Turtle Wax Sealant at the end. That is some kind of petrolish liquid (very watery) that seals the layer of wax and makes it last much longer.
2. Natural waxes (high Carnauba concentration). Mainly two makes: Swissol and Zymol. Both really only available via the web (or specialist shops). They cost quite a bit, are not easy to work and only give the best results after you put a few layers on top of each other. The results however are
and they last really long. I find they are the only waxes that can actually stand an entire winter in Northern Europe. You also use very small quantities of it, which makes the cost lower than it looks.
How to wax ?
- If you use synthetic wax, just rub on in circular movements with a cloth (sometimes needs to be humid)
- If you use Zymol or the likes, you apply it by hand (the warmth of your hand melts the Carnauba) and you apply by rubbing in straight line in the direction of the bodywork panel.
- If you use synthetic waxes, this is the moment to treat door rubbers etc with silicon spray. Do it before buffing up so you do not make silicon staines afterwards on the bodywork.
- if you use a natural wax that needs to be buffed up straight away before it is dry, this becomes more difficult. Either use something else for the rubbers (that is NOT in a spray can) or just use the zymol on the rubbers except the windscreen blades (worked fine with me).
- Next: Buff up ! ALWAYS in straight line (natural or synthetic wax), following the direction of the panel !!!
- Virtually all waxes need to cure for a few hours (ideally again in the sun) after which you want to buff the whole thing up again.
- If you used synthetic wax, you'd apply the Turtle Wax Sealant before you let the wax to cure. Otherwise you'd need to wait again for a few hours to let the sealant to cure fully before you buff up yet again...
- If you used Zymol or so, you'll notice the results after the first time are not much better than with an off-the-shelf wax, but after adding a few layers, the result is just like nothing you've ever seen before and maintaining the car's condition becomes easier and easier
Finally:
- Natural waxes only hate one thing: heavy synthetic shampoos. If you use Zymol, just buy some cheap Zymol shampoo at Halfords. Alternatively, wash the car with LOTS of water, no soap.
- Don't forget to wax all the windows, except the windscreen.
- Take your time !
Products I'd use:Washing: Zymol shampoo (if I used Zymol on the car)
Cleaning: Carplan T-Cut (for Metallic paints), Carplan coloured cream
Waxing: Zymol Concours (found this gave me the best results. Used Vintage too and for some reason it didn't want to bond with my paint).
Good luck !!
Posted: Tue Apr 18, 2006 1:47 pm
(wife on a course in town) and I wanna buy some of the Turtle Wax Nanotechnology-stuff, just to see what it's like.
Joe's probably still sourcing enough paper for his printer