[JackerCrack]

Hellow!... I need to go for a car wash... but im afraid they might scratch the glass roof... what do you think?... am i right or am i just chicken sh*t?

 

[TCrazy]

either go to a touchless wash, or just wash it yourself with sandpaper. Most carwashes dont bother cleaning the "cloth" they use to wash cars, nor do they clean the recycled water most of the time. A touchless was will do just fine, and is 100% guaranteed not to scratch anything. Just to let you know the great lenghts one needs to go to in order to acheive a swirl/scratch free finish:

Today i washed waxed my car. I used only 100% American made cotton towels for wash and wax application. I also clay-bar'd the car first to remove any sediment within the paint so that it would not have a chance to rust from the inside out once the wax was over it. The wash was done in an up and down motion, no circles(Mr. Miagi doesnt know anything about washing cars), and this is the same for both layers of wax application. The wax was then removed, you guessed it, in an updown patter to increase shine and completely eliminate any chance of swirl (although that would be impossible because the cotton towels I use can not scratch. Always keep in mind that the wax removel clothes at auto-stores are not cotten, and if they are they are made in India etc......and contain polyester which will desssssssssstroy your paint. Best of luck with your washing! -T

 

[JackerCrack]

thanks for the info...
sounds like a lot of work though... sh*t!

 

[Alpman]

If you are worried about scratches or swirlmarks do as tCrazy says. If you don't wan't to do all the work, just use a touchless car wash. Be sure to put a couple of good coats of wax on at least every 3 mos in order to keep that showroom finish. Pay a detailer if you have to, but do it. And it won't hurt to throw on a caot or to now. I just waked mine on Sunday and the car is only two and a half weeks old. She'll be gettin another wax in a month or so.

 

[Plissken]

ALPMAN, the sig is a bit much man. be nice to those unfortunate folks on dial-up. i'm not one but even so your sig is a bit much. my $.02

 

[Eric]

According to the forum rules signatures should be less than 400x250 and file size below 50k

 

[SilverX]

Alpman, how many coats of wax did you use? Some guy at Newtiburon did 9 coats! He took some pics and it was simply amazing and yet funny.

 

[splyt2nd]

new tiburon eh? The only reason there was time for 9 coats is because you can't get the ladies with a tiburon, leaving this person with nothing to do...

bwahaha

-Justin

 

[Alpman]

Sorry guys, how's that...better? Sure don't look as pretty though.

 

[Alpman]

Originally posted by SilverX@Jul 20 2004, 11:05 PM
Alpman, how many coats of wax did you use? Some guy at Newtiburon did 9 coats! He took some pics and it was simply amazing and yet funny.

I go over the whole car twice every time I wax it, just to make sure I didn't miss anything. No point in doin it any more than that.

 

[124AM]

thanks for the tip, Alpman. I didnt know that

 

[LoopyLady_1]

I'm so stupid when it comes to car care.....I can't even begin to tell you the last time I waxed a car (I got sick of mine and stopped trying to make it look all that good).

I could probably start a forum for that, make about 100 threads, and still not know enough...just hope my car doesn't suffer b/c of my ignorance.

 

[crix]

Hey TCrazy, how'd the wax bar work out for you? Is this your first experience with detailing a car and using the wax bar? I think we read the same website on car cleaning. I think it was the Autopia.exe actually.

 

[ycart1201]

ALWAYS wash your car by hand... carwash machines suck. even the brushless... dont do it PLEASE.

Nathan
ycart1201

 

[TCrazy]

Originally posted by crix@Jul 21 2004, 10:16 AM
Hey TCrazy, how'd the wax bar work out for you? Is this your first experience with detailing a car and using the wax bar? I think we read the same website on car cleaning. I think it was the Autopia.exe actually.

Crix, I have been into detailing cars since I can remember. There is a lot of hype around certain products but myself and everyone I know that cares about their car swears by www.zainobros.com products. The "WAX" i use is synthetic rather than carnuba based and this makes it UV protective, amazingly more durable and the shine is uncomparable to any product you can get in a store. Take a look at the pics on that site and you will see what I mean. Also, the product (z-2 is its name) is 99.9% optically perfect, meaning it only enhances shine with every added layer and you can add as many layers as you like. I dont get any commision off this stuff so this is an honest review, i swear. The claybar is also availible through their site, works wonders on the front bumper where bugs can build up.......i used it yesterday and the paint was so smooth that I could not rest the spritzer bottle on it, it just slid right off. Let me know if you need any details or help. -T

 

[Zygote55]

TCrazy, you should start a nice HOWTO thread about this.... I know a ton of people would appreciate it.

 

[TCrazy]

Originally posted by Zygote55@Jul 21 2004, 04:42 PM
TCrazy, you should start a nice HOWTO thread about this.... I know a ton of people would appreciate it.

hmmmmm sounds fun! I wonder if there is enough demand though, that would be a lot of work on my part with pics etc. haha. - t

 

[Zygote55]

I'm demanding it. Who else matters?

 

[crix]

Clay bar, wax bar, whatever! heh

That sounds great, thanks, I'll definately be checking out zainobros. If you wrote a cleaning guide of course that would be totally awesome and helpful (especially because it would customized specifically for tC cleaning!) but even recommending some good websites with detailing info would be great.

It seems like there are a lot of options out there. The way you broke it down was pretty helpful. Basically, the first step is soap and water all over. then drying? then the clay bar then wax and buff?

The tC (that i'll hopefully be getting in about 2 weeks now... ahh! the wait!!) is the first car I will have that I know I will be concerned about maintaining its appearance. I'd be greatful if you just wrote a nice, simple text list of things to do from having car a little dirty from road-side parking (as will be my case, unfortunately) to a great shine. Thanks!!

 

[crix]

Oh, there's actually a lot of great information on the zaino site.