Winter Decontamination

[Shermanator]

The weather is getting better, so I want to give the car a clean. However, it hasn't been washed since October/November and done near on 3000 miles in that time. Mainly on a motorway between two industrial towns, and a few on country roads. Oh, I'm also in Scotland, which apparently makes it much worse than the South East.

So, any tips on how to mke sure the car is spick and span and absolutely perfect for the nice weather.
I've already got the idea to give a full clean, then jack up and make sure the underside and wheelarchs are entirely salt/dirt free then giving it a full wash again. Once that's done, get the masking tape out and mask the edges of the black plastics etc before machine polishing.
Interior will get a hoover, glass a clean, and that's about all it needs really. Sadly I don't have a carpet cleaner, otherwise I would use it just to be overly precious.


Does that sound enough? Any tips on how to make it all easier/quicker/better.

[Rojibo]

Why does it need a machine polish?

[Shermanator]

Rojibo said:

Why does it need a machine polish?

Its 4 years old.

I bought it at 1.5 years and it was perfectly scratch free. Even though I've used the "two bucket method", snow foam, microfibre sponges etc (and never taken it through an automatic car wash) it still has a few scratches. While it is nothing compared to my sisters and dads cars (which are scratched to feck) I still don't think it's good enough.

[Rojibo]

You'll need to clay it before you polish it. Have you machine polished anything before? I don't want to temper your enthusiasm but you might be better off paying a professional detailer to do it.

Sounds like you've been taking good care of it so shouldn't be much corrective work needed, but very easy to eat paint with a machine polisher.

Could just use a glaze to hide the swirl marks and give it a nice shine? No risk of taking paint off then.

[Shermanator]

Rojibo said:

You'll need to clay it before you polish it. Have you machine polished anything before? I don't want to temper your enthusiasm but you might be better off paying a professional detailer to do it.

Sounds like you've been taking good care of it so shouldn't be much corrective work needed, but very easy to eat paint with a machine polisher.

Could just use a glaze to hide the swirl marks and give it a nice shine? No risk of taking paint off then.

I haven't no, my dad has many times though (albeit he doesn't understanding what claying is so that's never been done).
I did think of just using the "Spray On Shine" that my dad has, don't know if it will be enough though. What I could do is do everything but the machine polish, use the spray on shine and if I'm satisfied great, if not get a detailer out to finish it off properly.

[Master Bean]

Some blokes down the road will do it for £10. Job done.

[Shermanator]

Master Bean said:

Some blokes down the road will do it for £10. Job done.

Feck no! I've seen them wash cars, would never trust them with anything other than a £200 banger with paint so bad its unsalvegable anyway but definitely would not let them near my pride and joy!

Edited by Shermanator on Thursday 21st February 20:21

[Rojibo]

For what it's worth I always try and avoid machine polishing where possible, and you need to clay it properly before doing so.

I'll be doing mine this weekend too after a long winter of getting it filthy, would suggest you don't go overboard as it may look bad now but will look so much better when the winter grime is off. Plan is:

Rinse with hose
Two bucket wash
Rinse again
Dry
Apply glaze

Then I'm due to take it to my detailer for what he calls a ceramic top up in a couple of months.