How do you clean your Elise (i.e. what bits/how detailed)

[TonyHetherington]

Hi all

Ok I'm a bit of a picky bugger when it comes to cleaning my car (read; anal) and, surprisingly, get alot of joy out of it. My last car I only used at weekends and I loved that because I could clean it, and then detail it. Now, I actually DRIVE my Elise and so it makes it much more difficult; I'm forever cleaning it rather than 'detailing'.

Anyway...I've just come back from 2000miles through the highlands and the car is proper proper filthy. I jet washed it (only jet wash, no brush) just to get the loose crap off ready for mucho cleaning session this weekend.

I need to clean every part of if, thoroughly, and so my plan is as follows;

wheels off; clean and wax
clean wheel arches
clean calipers *
wheels back on, clean diffuser **
clean exhausts then polish exhaust tips
clean exhaust surround
clean car bodywork and dry ***
take out interior carpets and hoover annd carpet shampoo them
hoover whole interior
autoglym leather cleaner on all leather
autoglym interior cleaner on plastics etc. on dash
clean inside windows (front/sides/rear)
clean plastics (speaker surrounds, behind seats etc)

if there's time, I'll then polish the car and wax it, but I doubt there will be

So, the purpose of my post is to ask what other bits do you more 'exacting' Elise owners clean? I do loads of little picky bits and especially when I have the car in bits but wanted to know everyone elses, urmmm, 'fetishes'

Oh, and a quick note; how easy is it to take out the seats? Would make cleaning the interior fabulously easy to whip them out, if it's easy enough to do of course!? Thoughts please!?

Anyhow, I'll stop talking now. Thanks for taking the time to read and if you've got this far, well done hehe!

Thanks
Tony




*I always clean calipers every week I wash the wheels so they're fairly clean, but I use taking the wheels off as an opportunity to do them properly
**I do the diffuser each week also but this time it needs a good old scrub from some Highland muck!
***my normal sunday approach; top half, new bucket of water, bottom half, dry with chamois, all sills and painted bits cleaned and dried.

[TonyHetherington]

Thanks for the replies guys!

Tony; yes, I get grief also for cleaning my car so much (without fail, once a week)...and I really wish I could do it more!

Regarding the wheels, I wash my wheels front and back every week and I do this by poking my hand through the spokes (I have a 111S so it's the 8 spoke jobbies). You can clean the WHOLE wheel with it still on the car (if you have big hands though, you will graze your knuckles. all worth it though!). However, every 2 months or so I take all wheels off the car (very easy to do) and give them a good scrub front and back and then wax them with just normal car body wax. This helps to keep brake dust off and makes future cleaning much easier. Especially with the rear jacking point lifting both wheels off the ground, it makes it fairly easy to take the wheels off the car.

I'm still struggling to find a polish I've fallen in love with - but then I do have a black car I guess. Doh!!!

I tried the meguiars 3 stage system and found it 'ok'. VERY time consuming though. Also what I did find good was the clay bar - wash car, clay bar, then do the 3 step system. Takes a fair while (so helpful to keep it in the garage and do 1 a day or something) but did look good. I didn't find the shine 'stayed' though.

Hope that helps!
T

[TonyHetherington]

cuzza said:

Tony - you do all that, every week? Are you serious?

oh no no no. My 'every week' regime is

clean wheels front and back,
clean and polish exhausts,
clean diffuser.
wash body work top half, new bucket
wash body work bottom half,
and dry with chamois.

the above I am only going to do this weekend because of my recent long trip the car is filthy; completely filthy. Actually I have a photograph of just how dirty it is (this embarasses me almost to post; please don't think this is the norm!!)

(I've jet washed the car since these just to get the actual lumps of dirt off but you get the idea. The brake discs just had a little water on them the previous night when I stopped the car so don't worry about those!).




To give you an idea of the state of the interior too...



but, I tell you, the trip was worth it though......

[TonyHetherington]

my problem is that I like to do 2, diammetrically opposed things;

1) Clean the car so it is BEAUTIFULLY clean, to the most ridiculous degree

and

2) Drive the thing as much as I can through some beautiful, far away places.

Both things should be mutually exclusive!!

[TonyHetherington]

Yay, there ARE people out there like me!

Thanks Janitor - I don't recall reading the rest of that thread so will go to those links.

My biggest problem has never been the dedication or the willingness to clean the intricate parts of my car, it's been either the weather, or finding the right products. I've still not found a polish/wax combination I'm happy with and I've tried a fair few.

Damn my striving for perfection

Reubusta...ya git

[TonyHetherington]

that detailing world...OMG! I've found a new home!

Expect not to hear from me for a while...oh, except to show you this...see, my car CAN be clean, when it's not moving








>> Edited by TonyHetherington on Friday 31st March 12:20

[tonyhetherington]

That's one hell of a deep shine there Kevin! I've just bought some of the new Autoglym deep shine stuff...unsure whether I'm going to use that tomorrow or not, I'll have a look and see.

Well, everyone, you're all in similar company it seems!!

Today I have...

cleaned car, dried with chamois
removed wheels
cleaned wheels front and back
polished wheels front and back
cleaned wheel arches/suspension etc.
polished/blackened wheel arches/suspension etc.
cleaned calipers
polished calipers
replaced wheels, blackened tyres
removed ENTIRE interior
removed all 4 rear lights

and so now currently in my utility room I have the rear lights, my whole interior (inlcluding most carpets) ready to have a good old clean with while watching saturday night tele

Tomorrow for the bodywork (car's currently in the garage), but unsure what I'm going to do with it (I have SO MANY polishes and waxes in my garage it's untrue. I might try the new autoglym one, but I think I'll start of with halfords colour polish - I have so many scratches it might disguise a few of them

Oh, and the weather's been fantastic for me; woke up this morning with it CHUCKING it down. 1/2hour later perfect car washing weather. A-men!!

[tonyhetherington]

It's a scarey thing to imagine, but there are people FAR worse than me out there...!!

eg....(as lovely as it is...)

(pic removed)

Edited by TonyHetherington on Monday 12th March 14:35

[TonyHetherington]

So...wanna see wht a weekend's cleaning does for an Elise?!

Well you all saw the 'before' pictures on the first page of this thread. 'twas a little grubby from my scotland trip.

So, as my above posted, Saturday mainly consisted of taking the car apart and the wheels/wheel arches....



Then comes Sunday; with car in bits...





a polish with Halfords professional colour polish (black, obviously) got me to this stage (2 1/2hours later). I have been recommended the colour polish by Miles at Fibreglass services as my car has many 'whispy' scratches and he said this is the best thing for them. He mentioned it would need 2 or 3 coats and this is the 2nd coat in about 3 or 4 weeks and, to be honest, it's frustratingly UNinspiring. It's alot of work and I don't think the shine is THAT great. I don't think I'll use it again (another half empty bottle of some wax type polish thing in my garage, then ). We all need to learn though...!



So, with that initial polish done it's then onto the detailing. The door sills, the hinge areas, the roll over bar, the rear lights (which are surisingly easy to take out) really do make a difference;



Polish the lights themselves also, not just the bits you can see...



So, next on the agenda is trim. To be honest, I have NEVER found a trim detailer I like. In halfords the other day I saw Meguiars Trim Detailer versio of it and chose to give that a go. This picture is right half with detailer on it, left half simply washed. The final finish was 'ok' but, as always, the difficulty is with how rough the plastic is so it makes spreading very difficult. The jurys out on this one...



With the interior, I removed all carpets and seats (bar the back one) as you can see in the picture somewhere above. To the remaining 'cabin' I hoovered, then used Autoglym Interior shampoo everywhere. Then I hoovered again to get all the cloth crap out again . Then I shampoo'd the carpet (and also the carpets then lying in my utility room). Then used Autoglym Leather Cleaner and then Autoglym Leather Care Cream on all the leather - seats, steering wheel centre, door cards, centre console, gearstick.






Taking out the seats made a HUGE difference to how clean I could get the interior you see above.

So, with all that looking sparkly, and the seats, after re-assembly I was WELL chuffed with the interior;



With lots and lots of other tinkering bits (I'm sure Janitor knows what I mean ) I was really happy with the way the car came out. Disappointed, I won't deny, about the finish on the body work but I think next weekend I will give that new Autoglym Ultra Deep Shine Polish a go and cover it with Extra Gloss Protection - I'm STILL searching for THE finish to the body work on my car.

I spent approx 20 man hours this weekened getting the car like this (yes, 'no life' is the expression you're looking for), and the weather was playing silly buggers with me as well (I rolled the car in and out the garage perhaps 20 times!) but it was worth it. By the time these pictures were taken about 7pm last night I had no desire to go looking for somewhere nice to take it so it stayed on my front lawn and my little close, sorry! That, plus I STILL haven't watched the grand prix so NODBODY tell me the result. I've managed to stay away from the result up until now!
Some automotive pornography I am quietly pleased with;

[TonyHetherington]

cuzza said:

If having a £450 wax done or spending all weekend detailing it makes people happy then fill yer boots - still seems a bit bonkers to me

Cuzza - I must admit, the value of that £450 is exceptional, I think. Even though you see all the stuff I've done to my car above, I would STILL have that treatment done on my car like Mel (Ed's girlfriend) - the guy uses a tub of wax that costs £5k a pop!!! Regardless of my intentions, I don't have the skills or products to get anywhere that finish. I honestly think that is money very very very very well spent. As we have mentioned many times before - each to their own, it's what makes the world go round!

[TonyHetherington]

S Works said:

Autoglym Gold Class Wax as the final finisher. My car GLEAMS after just one thin coat.

I assume you mean the MEGUIARS gold class wax? If so, I have some of that and to be honest I also found that 'uninspiring'. It was good, I won't deny. Actually having said that I hadn't polished it before using it.

Ok what I may do then is give it a polish with the Autoglym Ultra Deep Shine polish...



and then wax it with the Meguiars Gold Class Wax...



Thanks!!


PS: Janitor, yeah I saw that post, did make me chuckle. I wanted a nice quiet entrance and was going to have a browse but mentioned to Karen I was joining. Foolish mistake that was . Re the pictures I've grown lazy on PH because it resizes it for you - best get resizing I guess!!! Thanks for your comments

[TonyHetherington]

Thanks Gooby Tell you what though I am intent on finding the right polish combination for myself this year. I think Janitor and the car detailing forum will help me out there!

Nick - it's the first time I've taken my seats out and to be honest it was fairly easy but you do need the right tools - big extension bars and knuckle head bits to be able to get into the seats at an angle, otherwise it's a bit fiddly (but do-able). I found it SO good to take the seats out - you can see above the look of the carpets etc. etc....all the bits you can never get down to.

Regarding the leather I think Autoglym leather cleaner (a spray) followed by Autoglym leather care cream, both available in Halfords, is an excellent combination and is what I used above. I really recommend it.

Thanks all for your comments - I'm off in a little while for a couple of days but will be back to bug you all soon

T