Car Shampoo Recommendations.

[peter49]

Never use a leather... sacrilege.... Always use and dry with pure detailing cotton towels and while wet spray with britemax wax before wiping down.

The best soaps to use which some of the guys have already suggested are some of the Maguires products, anyone of those are really good, I use Maguires pre wash after I have double snow foamed the car. Also Britemax Grape shampoo if superb and is used by my detailer as one of the best. But if you want something a bit special but its not cheap is nanolex concentrate shampoo. Dont use this while it is really sunny but best results in dull weather. Only thing it does cost about £50 a bottle, the maguires are around £15 - £30 for 5 litres.

Take a look at the website http://www.i4detailing.co.uk/ I order all my stuff from here.

Good luck

Thanx Benjy, I have an Autoglym microfibre drying towel but I find that it doesn't dry as completely as the "leather" but leaves wet streaks so it's back in it's box for now.

 

[EddieH]

Pardon my noobie ignorance ... why are shammy leathers a bad idea?

 

[Damien O]

If you top regularly decontaminate & re-seal or wax your then an open ended hose can take most of the water off the car and only leave a small amount that needs to be towel dried.

 

[Millarcontracts]

Goes a long way as you only use a capful and dries without marks.

Snap it bring car up great for just a wash

 

[Merc Owner 2B]

Thanx Benjy, I have an Autoglym microfibre drying towel but I find that it doesn't dry as completely as the "leather" but leaves wet streaks so it's back in it's box for now.

Wash your towel a few times from new. Then it'll work fine.

 

[ringway]

We used the Meguiars Gold Class shampoo on the Obsidian Black Vito yesterday and it's good stuff (smells good too).
I saw one guy on foot do a treble-take as he walked past the van.

Thanks for all the recommendations.

 

[Benjy]

Pardon my noobie ignorance ... why are shammy leathers a bad idea?

Speak to any detailer and they'll tell you they are not a good idea the reason is unlike a detailing towel if you have any grit or the smallest bit of dirt left on the car and you wipe over with a leather all you are doing is pushing the grit over your car and that's like putting a Brillo pad to it. The towel will pick the dirt up into the towel and you don't get it doing a wet n dry job on your car. Look at a black car in bright sunshine after its been wiped down with a leather and I guarantee you you will see swirls in the paint. Only my opinion but anyone that saw my black C63 will tell you the paint didn't have a mark as my detailer showed me the way to wash and dry my car. Rashman who is the king of clean will also verify this.

 

[EddieH]

Speak to any detailer and they'll tell you they are not a good idea the reason is unlike a detailing towel if you have any grit or the smallest bit of dirt left on the car and you wipe over with a leather all you are doing is pushing the grit over your car and that's like putting a Brillo pad to it. The towel will pick the dirt up into the towel and you don't get it doing a wet n dry job on your car. Look at a black car in bright sunshine after its been wiped down with a leather and I guarantee you you will see swirls in the paint. Only my opinion but anyone that saw my black C63 will tell you the paint didn't have a mark as my detailer showed me the way to wash and dry my car. Rashman who is the king of clean will also verify this.

Brilliant full reply thanks. I just bought a shammy & not used it yet ... going straight in the bin!

 

[moff]

This new Meguiar's car shampoo is excellent:

Buy Meguiar's Ultimate Wash & Wax from Meguiar's UK

I also use the Gold Class too.

Zymol also excellent.

 

[ringway]

Speak to any detailer and they'll tell you they are not a good idea the reason is unlike a detailing towel if you have any grit or the smallest bit of dirt left on the car and you wipe over with a leather all you are doing is pushing the grit over your car and that's like putting a Brillo pad to it.

I once saw two valeters working on a car a few doors down from my house. I couldn't believe my eyes when one of them put the chammy leather on the pavement, jet washed it and then rang it out to use on the car.

 

[boxbrownie]

Salt is what give shampoo and snowfoam it's suds. If there was none in it you wouldn't get any foam!

Is that correct? Because I am sure the there was always a warning of not to use normal 'fairy liquid' detergents for washing cars as they contained salt.

Quite frankly if I found out that a foam cleanser for car bodywork contained a lot of salt that would stop me using it straight away.....I thought that's why we wash our cars regularly during winter to get rid of the salt deposits from the roads?

Now I must qualify this with the fact that I have never used a snow foam type cleaner but have been wondering what it is all about, and now would really like to find out if these contain high levels (or even any levels ) of salt.

I have used my Karcher foaming cleaner for years and upon checking the ingredients there appears to be no salt used........can somebody give a definitive answer to this?

 

[Image2000uk]

Zymol for me i double dose it though (1 full cap ful per bucket rather than 1/2 a capful) makes a much better job and friends think i have polished the car after they have seen it

 

[Conquistador]

I've always been happy with the seemingly infinite amount of Autoglym products. Halfords own brand stuff is pretty good too.

 

[Millarcontracts]

Auto glym products (e.g. polish)are very dusty leave too much mess in my opinion but the glass polish is great stuff I have to admit

 

[mikec32]

My personal favourite shampoos are as follows:
In the shade:
-Gtechniq G wash.
-Zaino.
-Chemical Guys Gloss Workz.
-Dodo Juice born to be mild.

Caught out in the sun:
-swissvax car bath.
-dodo juice supernatural shampoo.

When I have time, hopefully the end of the week, I will do the basics, 'how to wash your car' thread & get the admins to make it a sticky for you guys

 

[Damien O]

Is that correct? Because I am sure the there was always a warning of not to use normal 'fairy liquid' detergents for washing cars as they contained salt.

Quite frankly if I found out that a foam cleanser for car bodywork contained a lot of salt that would stop me using it straight away.....I thought that's why we wash our cars regularly during winter to get rid of the salt deposits from the roads?

Now I must qualify this with the fact that I have never used a snow foam type cleaner but have been wondering what it is all about, and now would really like to find out if these contain high levels (or even any levels ) of salt.

I have used my Karcher foaming cleaner for years and upon checking the ingredients there appears to be no salt used........can somebody give a definitive answer to this?

Sorry for not replying in ages.

Yes it's true. Information from the industry itself.

Salt aka Sodium is the most common chemical used in the production of shampoos & snowfoams to give them suds. There are other similar forms of the stuff that can also be used too.

Nothing obviously as bad as road salt though you'll be glad to hear!

 

[Billy-cls55]

Goes a long way as you only use a capful and dries without marks.

I have used this and the purple one great products, sometimes use the quick detailer if I am not polishing or waxing