Swissvax "discovery kit" help

[theno23]

So far all I've discovered is that I don't have the patience to clean my car that obsessively

I'm taking my N400 to a pistonheads photo tutorial session on Saturday, and tonight is the last chance I have to clean it before then. I did consider the authentic mud-splattered (after weekend in Somerset), covered in London grime look, but feels like I should make some effort!

The pot of wax that came with the kit says that after waxing (with the pads they provide), you should "pre-polish with a clean swissvax cloth (red), buff briskly to a high gloss with a MicroPolish microfibre cloth (blue)".

I don't have either of those, so my question is A) can I cut that down to one step? B) what can I use instead that I can buy readily near the office/my house?

Robert Dyas sells generic car cleaning microfibre cloths, will that do the job? The swissvax blurb that comes with it has stern warnings against using normal microfobre cloths, but I don't know how much of that is just sales patter.

Cheers,
Steve

[Neil1300R]

generic micro fibre cloths will be better than generic J cloths!

[v8woollie]

I buy my cleaning stuff from Ultimate Finish. At least you know you are getting the right gear.

[theno23]

Thanks Neil, I guess I'll just buy a couple of microfibre cloths, and wing it

Cheers,
Steve

[Molly GT]

theno23 said:

So far all I've discovered is that I don't have the patience to clean my car that obsessively

I'm taking my N400 to a pistonheads photo tutorial session on Saturday, and tonight is the last chance I have to clean it before then.


Cheers,
Steve

I can see you are getting ready for the Alpine tour Steve! Don't worry about having an immaculate car for that - by end of day 1 I don't expect any of us will have one of those! Can see you will want it shiny for Saturday tho' - photo tutorial sounds good. Key thing is to have an obliging passenger who will take the photos for you

[ipd57]

I have a red cotton towel which came with the kit. The red (more like pink) MF cloth is a high quality one, the blue is a very fine one - not quite as fine as perhaps a spectacle cloth, but not far off. It does make for a nice finish, but for me the issue is more how clean the surface is before you wipe anything over it. I am no expert, but do use Swissvax stuff as core to my car cleaning duties. I don't think a good quality MF is doing any harm provided the surface is clean, a good layer of wax is on there and you are not rubbing hard to get a shine. It should shine up reasonably easily in my experience.

Enjoy the photo shoot.

[paddy328]

Well, allow me to be of some help. And shame on those that have not told you to give me a shout as I'm an authorised Swissvax detailer .

To be honest, I wouldn't take much notice of the book. I tells you to wash the car with a terry towel and that's never a good idea. The high end waxes (divine/crystal rock/mystery) have high levels of carnauba in them and after the first buff, they can out gas and you need to then give it a second wipe down. Putting it into the sun will help speed the curing time up, but I imagine you don't have one of those.

So...use the cleaner fluid, then apply a thin layer of the wax to either the whole car or half and then buff off with a soft microfibre. If you need to do it today, get yourself down to halfords and buy a few from there.

Francis

[AMDBSNick]

paddy328 said:

And shame on those that have not told you to give me a shout as I'm an authorised Swissvax detailer .

Easy tiger. I'm off to see my Polish mates later for mine

[paddy328]

You may as well mate, it's not as though they could put any more scratches and swirls on it....... Haha

[theno23]

Molly GT said:

I can see you are getting ready for the Alpine tour Steve! Don't worry about having an immaculate car for that - by end of day 1 I don't expect any of us will have one of those! Can see you will want it shiny for Saturday tho' - photo tutorial sounds good. Key thing is to have an obliging passenger who will take the photos for you

Yeah, I'm expecting it to be filthy very quickly on the tour, and to be honest it usually is in London too

Obliging passenger with camera I have sorted.

- Steve

[theno23]

ipd57 said:

I have a red cotton towel which came with the kit. The red (more like pink) MF cloth is a high quality one, the blue is a very fine one - not quite as fine as perhaps a spectacle cloth, but not far off. It does make for a nice finish, but for me the issue is more how clean the surface is before you wipe anything over it. I am no expert, but do use Swissvax stuff as core to my car cleaning duties. I don't think a good quality MF is doing any harm provided the surface is clean, a good layer of wax is on there and you are not rubbing hard to get a shine. It should shine up reasonably easily in my experience.

Enjoy the photo shoot.

I got a pink one, but pink is mentioned on one of the other bottles of stuff, and I wasn't sure mixing chemicals was a great idea...

[theno23]

paddy328 said:

Well, allow me to be of some help. And shame on those that have not told you to give me a shout as I'm an authorised Swissvax detailer .

To be honest, I wouldn't take much notice of the book. I tells you to wash the car with a terry towel and that's never a good idea. The high end waxes (divine/crystal rock/mystery) have high levels of carnauba in them and after the first buff, they can out gas and you need to then give it a second wipe down. Putting it into the sun will help speed the curing time up, but I imagine you don't have one of those.

So...use the cleaner fluid, then apply a thin layer of the wax to either the whole car or half and then buff off with a soft microfibre. If you need to do it today, get yourself down to halfords and buy a few from there.

Francis

Awesome, thanks Francis that's really helpful, and reassuring.

I only got through the first couple of pages of the book before I lost the will to live.

Cheers,
Steve

[theno23]

Thanks for everyones help, I managed to get it clean tonight using the hints here.

One thing I will say is be careful with the "buffing towels" you can get from Robert Dyas, it left bright yellow fibres everywhere! The microfibre cloth was OK though.

Edit to add: the Swissvax Cleaner Fluid really improved the state of my swirl marks - I'm not sure if it's just temporary, but it's really impressive either way.

In the spirit of "photos or it didn't happen", here a after picture:


Sorry for the lousy photo! Hopefully after Saturday I'll have some decent ones

Cheers again,
Steve