How to Get A Good Shine?

[TorqueVR]

I want a good shine on my car with an easy DIY fix. What's the quickest and easiest solution? I assume wash and leather it but what's the best over the counter product?

[alec.e]

Throw away your leather cloths and get some microfibre cloths.
The general stages are:
Wash
Clay Bar
Polish
Wax

To get the best results a dual action polisher is a good buy. If you are after a quick shine, a quick detailer works quite well after a wash.

[Crafty_]

Decontaminate (clay/fallout remover)
Machine polish to correct swirls/RDS if they exist
Protect (wax/sealant etc)

Maintain - 2 bucket wash, LSP to keep protection going.

Alternatively, get a detailer to the first bit, leaving you to just maintain it.

www.detailingworld.co.uk has a whole bunch of guides.

[belleair302]

To get a really wet look depending upon the colour of your car you will need to polish the paint to remove any tiny scratches and somewhat renourish the existing top coat. Then hand apply a glaze finally two layers of a really decent way, buffed by a DA polisher, low speed. Will take a couple of hours, but pick your products well and dont rush the polishing stage.

[Alex_225]

It depends how in depth you feel like going OP.

As mentioned the key to a really good detail is the prep work so washing the car thoroughly and decontaminating by claying and/or using a fallout remove (Iron X etc).

Then you can polish the car either by hand or machine. If you just fancy getting a nice shine go for something with fillers like Super Resin Polish. It's not the worlds best but it's easy to use and will leave a nice finish.

Once you've polished, you would then need to protect your nice shiny finish and wax the car.

If you're new to detailing, try washing the car and giving it a hand polish, it will still look loads better and nice and shiny. Gotta start somewhere

[swisstoni]

TorqueVR said:

I want a good shine on my car with an easy DIY fix. What's the quickest and easiest solution? I assume wash and leather it but what's the best over the counter product?

Some good advice on here but if you want to keep it really simple, go to Halfords and get Autoglym (to buy British) or Meguiars products. Consistently good dependable stuff.

[TorqueVR]

Thanks for all the advice. I'm not in to detailing, just wanted a good shine with minimal effort. Once in a while Mrs Torque comes up with a bright idea and she said not to muck about and take the car to the local Iraqi car wash. So £25 got me a full valet and wax. Looks like a brand new car. So a pony for my Mustang!.

[Alex_225]

swisstoni said:

Some good advice on here but if you want to keep it really simple, go to Halfords and get Autoglym (to buy British) or Meguiars products. Consistently good dependable stuff.

Have to agree mate. As much as it's great hearing weird and wonderful products to buy on line.

If you're starting out and want a decent shine you can't go far wrong with Autoglym or Meguiars. Will definitely be able to get your car 100% better if it's never been spoiled before.