A little something for the weekend

[chrisk2010]

I had to take my little girl for a blood test yesterday so roughly four hours of driving later i have been left with this





So it's going to be an early start on Saturday to get it back to it's former glory! And yes those air fresheners will be binned lol.

 

[TeddyRuxpin]

Looks like a good way to improve your mental health for a few hours, this weekend!

After lots of winter motorway driving I have been spraying the car down with BH AutoFoam in a small hand pressure sprayer, leave it for a while and then hose it down to get the salt off. Get the arches and the sills best I can. I don't really care about water spots so much and it's too cold to actually wash the car (at the moment).

More importantly, hope your little one is in good health!

 

[C240Sport97]

Beat this

 

[LeeJV]

you're going to get serious satisfaction from that one buddy, looking forward to the updates

 

[MEMERC7]

Unlike the county set with their 4 x 4's that must be kept scruffy & dirty because a clean vehicle smacks of the suburban working class precious about their cars. Think of it as a badge of honour to prove you're well off by making it obvious you don't need to look after your expensive possessions, after all one just pops out & buys another one. Or get ones handyman or those foreign chaps at Waitrose to wash it.
For most a clean car represents a certain level of personal standards - anybody can be scruffy dirty & careless as it requires nil intelligence.

 

[chrisk2010]

Beat this

View attachment 108711

Not going to lie i really want to clean that!

 

[chrisk2010]

you're going to get serious satisfaction from that one buddy, looking forward to the updates

I seriously can't wait, i tried to get up early this morning to have a chance at it but the snow came in the night so once i'd, taken the rubbish out, de-iced two cars at set about getting to work alas i ran out time.

P.S. I ordered the new DA

 

[chrisk2010]

Looks like a good way to improve your mental health for a few hours, this weekend!

After lots of winter motorway driving I have been spraying the car down with BH AutoFoam in a small hand pressure sprayer, leave it for a while and then hose it down to get the salt off. Get the arches and the sills best I can. I don't really care about water spots so much and it's too cold to actually wash the car (at the moment).

More importantly, hope your little one is in good health!

Thanks buddy, my little is fine she needed a follow up blood test that has been booked for a month now so i didn't really want to put it off and what's the point of buying mud and snow wheels if they aren't going to be used. On the plus side it seemed everyone else had cancelled so we went straight through .

I really can't wait to spend a Saturday on it and even though i'd like to do it my better half said to leave her car so get get to do a bit more of a detail on mine than i normally would.

I was considering doing mine at the local tesco on my way in with some surfex hd and autofoam but they have taped off there pressure washer so i'll have to wait it out one more day.

 

[chrisk2010]

Unlike the county set with their 4 x 4's that must be kept scruffy & dirty because a clean vehicle smacks of the suburban working class precious about their cars. Think of it as a badge of honour to prove you're well off by making it obvious you don't need to look after your expensive possessions, after all one just pops out & buys another one. Or get ones handyman or those foreign chaps at Waitrose to wash it.
For most a clean car represents a certain level of personal standards - anybody can be scruffy dirty & careless as it requires nil intelligence.

I have always treated my cars with care and respect, viewing their overall cleanliness and condition as a reflection of ones self.

Though being a maintenance manager with a greek father i suppose i could class myself at least in part as a foreign handyman albeit i rarely visit Waitrose.

 

[zipdip]

Dead easy getting the car messed up driving at the moment,but much harder to find a break in the weather to clean it,more snow last night,not often we get weather like this,looks like Sunday might see the end of it,not much point cleaning the car now.

 

[C240Sport97]

Not going to lie i really want to clean that!

I am in East London, I can drive over

 

[st13phil]

Beat this

View attachment 108711

Here ya go:

That was four days of commuting

 

[Deleted member 113659]

Here ya go:

That was four days of commuting

I feel sick.

 

[zipdip]

You could leave that another few weeks there are still some near white patches.

 

[chrisk2010]

Here ya go:

That was four days of commuting

oh damn, if it wasn't for covid i'd offer to clean that one too

 

[chrisk2010]

Right guys the day I selected was a cold one -3 on the day but we got there and i think the temp went up to +1.

I got everything set up and kicked off with some BH autofoam at 4% PIR (750ml in my case) and i planned to us the whole bottle with two treatments given the state the car was in.



Once left for a good 5 mins (you'll see why only 5 in a sec) I thoroughly pressured washed the car starting with the lower bits and arches to remove all the large debris as best as i could which took a while as it was freezing ......... no literally the snow foam started to freeze on the car!




So once that was tackled i wanted to treat it again with the other half of the bottle to really get to any bit i may have missed and underlying grime.




Feeling much better about things the car was begining to ice over so some hot DI water was in order, this became something i needed to do after each stage to sheet the standing water off and warm the panel for a moment.



Next was an intermediate stage i have been playing with for getting in the nooks and crannies. I mixed up some warm di water and Autoglym polar blast in my foam lance and set about it, now we know this doesn't have a massive cleaning ability but it does have one thing and that is plenty of foam which is exactly what i want for the next bit which is going around the car with a detailing brush getting in the trims and around the wheels and badges, what i'm looking for is plenty of foam, dwell time and slip which i hope is a good combination to reduce marring in these areas.



I have different brushes for different things trims and badges i use this brush.



Wheels i have a blue nylon brush which i was a bit sceptical about but have come to enjoy using it, a barrel brush and a blue Vikan for the tyres



I had to work fast and actually done it in two halfs in the end as you guessed it the other side had froze and need warm DI water.



I took the above to show how quickly everything was freezing, please ignore the wheel corrosion they are the winter wheels.

Once i was happy i defrosted and then my mate who i work with turned up to drop off the cupcakes i ordered from his wife for my better half and i'm not going to lie i was very tempted to sample them while warming up with a coffee.



However i excercised self restraint, put the sweeties in the boot and gave his car a quick clean while my coffee cooled. Seeing i missed some bit i also gave him some Carpro elixir and a cloth from my boot and instructed him to get any bits i missed when he got home.

 

[LeeJV]

Great work buddy, your a braver man than I, even under the shelter that's Brass Monkeys .

I've not tried warm water through a DI before, wasn't sure if it would work correctly.
How ever, now I have a direct Hot water supply I can run it thorugh both the Di and Jet wash.

Looking forward to seeing the next updates

 

[chrisk2010]

I used the multi mitt method which people are finally starting to take notice of it's so much easier and safer than the two bucket method.



A little Autoglym Shampoo and conditioner in a bucket of warm DI water throw in your multiple mitts and that it. The White Megs mitt on top is an older mitt which i use for the lower, dirtier parts of the car like the skirts and arches and once i'm done with it i chuck it in bucket to take home and wash.

For the panels what i did was spray some left over polar blast on the panel take one side of the mitt and clean it with straight horizontal lines then flip it over and do the next panel then discard it to one side, get a fresh mitt and so on.

I do rinse the panels as i go with the pressure washers solution attachment to ensure the dirt doesn't dry back on i just like removing the dirt straight away and once i have worked may way around the car i flood the panels with di water to encourage sheeting which effectively helps dry the car.

Finally i topped up the screen wash and checked the fluid levels but while the bonnet was up I thought i would give the engine quick clean though to be honest it was pretty clean to start with so i sprayed it over with some Surfex HD at 5%, agitated with a detail brush and rinsed over with some DI water and dried with a microfibre cloth and compressed air.



Personally i don't really like dressing the plastics with anything as i find it attracts dust and is pretty short term but when the weather is warmer i do treat them with either Solution finish or Gtecnique C4 for a longer lasting finish.

Finally for the exterior i went for my go to in this weather which is Autoglym Polar Seal, I have talked about polar seal before and it a great quick winter coating for maintenance washes with the added bonus of being fairly cheap. As a rule of thumb I apply this maybe every 3-4 washes but really i decide on the day when cleaning the car, if i feel the hydrophobic properties aren't there when cleaning then it'll be used.

With Polar seal it really couldn't be easier you dilute into a snow foam lance spray on the give it 30-60 seconds and rinse off but seeing as i mixed a little to earlier when i cleaned my friends car i gave mine two coats to use it up, i really do enjoy the way it beads instantly though and it leaves the paintwork nice and glossy.



Check out those icicles under the car and around the door handle! I rinsed the car over with the pressure washer and a 40 degree nozzle and flooded the panels one last time with DI water so i didn't get and water spotting.



Apologies for my lack of photography skills.

 

[chrisk2010]

For anyone that's reads this and wonders what i mean by flooding the panels what i do is fill a bucket with DI water and then with a smaller 3ltr bucket i just pour over the panels which sheets the water and runs away. The same thing can be achieved either by doing what like Lee has done by either making up and attachment for the pressure washer with a quick coupling and a bit of hose (good idea!) or use your garden hose with no attachment on the end you basically just need low pressure water to acheive the below.



This will get your car maybe 80% or higher dry then i just mop the rest with a decent dry towel.



Frozen badge there, that was it for the exterior we went from a salt encrusted mess to something i don't have to duck behind the wheel in.



I may have missed i few steps small things i done along the way there like the wheel arches for example which i had to spend a bit more time than usual blasting the gook out of but the short trigger does make easy work of it.

The brushes i use i had to keep defrosting in a 3ltr bucket of hot water and i also forgot to mention i did make a pass around the car with 10% surfex HD in between BH foams and i also carefully use the pressure washer to clean out the door sills.

Because of the temperature i did have to do a little more and use much more warm water than i would have liked but i was taking great care in each step to ensure i didn't miss anything.

Finally after clearing the floor and cleaning up the exterior equipment i turned my attention to the interior to "freshen" it up. I'm pretty good at keeping the inside clean as it is really only me that drives the car so it never needs much more than a brief wipe over and vacuum, however with having to get up defrost two car parks every morning and clear the snow it did get a little grubby in the drivers area.



So first up was mats out and cleaned with surfex HD, a drill brush, then pressure washed clean i like to do these first to give them time to dry.



Then in with a soft detail brush and vacuum all around. I don't really need much more than a soft brush for my car but i do have other interior brush for more stubborn jobs.



That was a hard picture to take lol.

Next was the seats and steering wheel which i used Leather repair company cleaner and conditioner with leather brushes and a microfibre to sort these out.



Then i wiped over everything else with Wowo's interior cleaner and finished with Aerospace 303 which i also applied to the rubber mats.



Well that's all folks! I thoroughly enjoyed doing the car even though the temperature was mostly below zero and i had to have a few coffee's to warm up but it was completely worth it in the end i think.

 

[st13phil]

I thoroughly enjoyed doing the car even though the temperature was mostly below zero and i had to have a few coffee's to warm up but it was completely worth it in the end i think.

I admire your perseverance and commitment to keeping your car clean.

I no longer have to commute, but when I did (see post above from 2018 ) at this time of year my cleaning regime tended to be to no more than washing the lights & number plates, and making sure I could see out of the windows - not just because it's too darn cold to be splashing water about, but also because after my next commute journey it would like at least 25% as bad as did before I washed it.