[Klayre]

I just got my gorgeous MINI last week and am not very well up on how to clean her properly. She was looking a bit mucky so I cleaned her with the only car cleaner I had to hand - the Turtle Wax one.
I cleaned her roof and higher bodywork first, followed by the lower bits of bodywork (ie the muckier stuff) and wheels last. But I used the same water for all and rinsed her off by covering her (and in the process, myself) in buckets of water. Does this make me evil? Can someone tell me how to mend my wicked ways?
I've heard about using car polish, but they all seem to come in particular colours and as my car is red with a white roof, I'm a bit concerned!
If someone could give me a step-by-step guide to cleaning her, that'd be really handy! All I know is
1. Rinse
2. Wash
3. Wheels
4. Chamois

Is this right?

Thanks,

(a very blond)
Klayre

[Ebrian_x2]

Not to worry Klayre, you've got most of it right.

All I do is rinse, wash, wheels, and dry...after that if you want a
good shine put some wax on it..They do recommend that you use
a second bucket of water to rinse your sponge off before you dip it
in the soapy bucket for some more suds.(does that make sense?)

If you want to get really invovled in cleaning the car, theres tons
more things you can do, try a search of this forum for cleaning tips
and you will find enough to spend an evening reading instead of cleaning!

[Klayre]

Wow, so maybe I'm not quite as blond as I thought!
Thanks for the tips - I'll go down to the shops tomorrow and find myself a shammy. Any particular car shampoos better than others? My dad mentioned about one that's really expensive (around £50+), but that seems a bit excessive to me!

[MarkPe]

Try this thread out for some tips.

http://www.mini2.com/forum/maintenance-mini-care/99386-cleaning-polishing-hints-tips.html

[AndytheScientist]

If your off to get a shammy, get yourself a lambswool washing mit too, much better than a sponge. Just don't use this on the wheels, keep if for the body work


If your off to halfords....

I use, autoglym shampoo, interior cleaner, window polish and bumper care and chrome polish, all available from halfords.

For polish I use an american one called zaino. I think it's great but there is only one place in the UK on the net to buy it. At £15ish a bottle it's not cheap but the results are great. It's a synthetic polymer type polish so it bond's to the paint and lasts for ages.

There are many options for polish though, all have slightly different types of finish. Have a look at some posts on here try searching for zaino, zymol, meguiars polish. Try and avoid the coloured polishes though, these are for old battered cars which are scratched to hell. Keep your can in tiptop cond and you should not need them

A nice website for cleaning info is http://www.autopia-carcare.com/how-to.html

PS whatever polish you get stick some on your alloys when their clean it helps to make it easier to clean. Avoid any harsh acidic alloy cleaners.

[Klayre]

Thanks - that's really helpful. Actually, that's just thrown up another question though...what do I clean my alloys with? I know you can get special cleaning brushes for wheels and special wheel cleaning products, but my car has the white alloys - does that make a difference?
I think I've got an AutoGlym kit somewhere, so I might have a look for that and see if it's any good. But I think a little trip down to Halfords may be in order!

[Baggers]

If you want more car clean info than you can shake a stick at, head on over to;

http://autopia.org

and check out the forums for any advice you like.

p.s. 50 quid for a shampoo!

For £12.99 at Halfords, meguiars NXT car wash is very good. Also good advice about getting a nice wash mitt, either synthetic or lambswool is nicer than a sponge.

[AndytheScientist]

Quote: Originally Posted by Klayre

Thanks - that's really helpful. Actually, that's just thrown up another question though...what do I clean my alloys with? I know you can get special cleaning brushes for wheels and special wheel cleaning products, but my car has the white alloys - does that make a difference?
I think I've got an AutoGlym kit somewhere, so I might have a look for that and see if it's any good. But I think a little trip down to Halfords may be in order!

Not sure what's recommended for Painted alloys. I don't think things like wonderwheels are good for those. I've been trying wheelwax and so far it seems pretty impressive, cleans reasonably well, and seems to help stop break dust build up. Think i ended up buying some from http://www.speeding.co.uk it's 20 quid a pot, expensive but so far i seem to be using hardly any, and my alloys look great. you can read more about it at http://www.wheelwax.com/ i'm definatly glad i decided to try some.

[MarkPe]

Oh white wheels, you will have fun keeping those clean. I have white alloys. They look great clean but get dirty so quickly.

Currently I have just been using ZIPWax shampoo on my wheels, mainly because I got a big bottle for my birthday. Its seems to work well enough. I also use a brush which is reasonably soft. My routine is use a fresh bucket of water with shampoo, give them a scrub with the brush and rinse off with a cotten mitten. My wheels seem to come up nice.

I shall be trying a Zaino treatment on them when I get a chance, as have been very impressed by it results on the bodywork. Very shiny and is lasting a long time. My reason for using Zaino was because my car has to live outside so wanted something which maintains it shin for a long time.

I also tried the Autoglym Alloy wheel cleaner but wasnt overly impressed by the results per cost. Yes it did the job but I managed to use the whole bottle in less than a month, that was washing the wheels a couple of times a week.

Anyway enjoy looking after your new MINI, am sure you will.

[CC1970]

hi ...DONT USE A SHAMMY! TRY A MEGUIARS WATER MAGNET DRYING TOWEL...SHAMMIES CAN SCRATCH BIG TIME!!!!! i know from experience but its all sorted now..also check up on waxes.. would recomend meguiars if your off to halfords.. its the best stuff you can get over the counter.
Gold class or nxt should do it and the paste wax is better than the liquid!
hope this helps
ps im not in anyway obsessive about the shine on my car (if you wanna read up about it check the forums on www.autopia.org those guys are more obsessed than me!! or

[Klayre]

Am I ok using my AutoGlym stuff? I'm going to Halfords later to get a cleaning mitt and a Meguiars water magnet drying towel (thanks Charlie) but obviously don't want to buy more car cleaning fluids if the ones I've got are decent.

[AndytheScientist]

The autoglym cleaning stuff (shampoo, bumper care etc, interior) is fine. The polish is ok, just not the best but will do fine till your ready to replace it

PS I really do recommend the autoglym bumper care if you haven't got any, pick some up at halfords. If there is one critisism of the new mini is that the plastic trim right around the car is a pain to keep looking black, particularly when waxing. But the autoglym bumper care is great for restoring the black and removing wax off the plastic.

PPS If you hate doing windows the autoglym glass polish is great too, works like a dream both inside and out, really makes window cleaning very easy. Much better than things like windowleen. It's non abbrasive so you can use it as often as you like.

PPPS Polish applicator pads are much easier to use than cloths and only a couple of quid.


Here's a complete list of what i use at the moment:

Autoglym bodywork shampoo conditioner
Autoglym interior shampoo
Autoglym bumper car
Autoglym glass polish
Autoglym metal polish (for the chrome bits)
Zaino Z2pro Polish (with activator Z1)
WheelWax
Sheridan leather cleaning cloths (from tesco)

[MINI-Morgan]

Quote: Originally Posted by Klayre

I just got my gorgeous MINI last week and am not very well up on how to clean her properly. She was looking a bit mucky so I cleaned her with the only car cleaner I had to hand - the Turtle Wax one.
I cleaned her roof and higher bodywork first, followed by the lower bits of bodywork (ie the muckier stuff) and wheels last. But I used the same water for all and rinsed her off by covering her (and in the process, myself) in buckets of water. Does this make me evil? Can someone tell me how to mend my wicked ways?
I've heard about using car polish, but they all seem to come in particular colours and as my car is red with a white roof, I'm a bit concerned!
If someone could give me a step-by-step guide to cleaning her, that'd be really handy! All I know is
1. Rinse
2. Wash
3. Wheels
4. Chamois

Is this right?

Thanks,

(a very blond)
Klayre

Congratulations on your new Girl

I useto just lightly jetwash the car off every week. Then once a month give it a good wax and use alloy wheel protector on the wheels. The jetwash would then just blast away all the dirt and it would look perfect again! I was amazed! And the paint lasted sooo much longer.

Also if the car was ever really dirty like after a mini run id quickly jetwash it off to get most of the dirt off instead of scratching it.

[CC1970]

klayre....for over the counter i tend to use all meguiars...thats after using autoglym for years.
My cousin owns a distribution co and stocks both..he put me onto the megs and it is incredible stuff..get the nxt for the most protection www.meguiars.co.uk
for windows i use autoglym window polish and tyre spray are pretty good. but i wouldnt go for their polishes.
it is mainly a synthetic polish and not a wax
i have been using NXT to protect and then P21s (from ebay) to top up and it has really given the car a good glow.
you do need a wax on it and autoglym dont do a pure one that i have liked over the counter (ultra deep shine has wax in it, but it aint brilliant.. super resin polish actually strips down to the clearcoat/paint and polishes that..you can extra gloss protection over it but i wasnt impressed with the results. Go meguiars all the way, you can get it from Halfords.
ps i know aston martin give their seal of approval to autoglym..but no way is that the over the counter stuff they use
pps. need anyone for your mag to write about this stuff???? im getting good at this lol

[CC1970]

oops..just noticed you already have autoglym...yeah its not bad stuff (still got loads myself)
if you have the SRP keep hold of it as its great for getting rid of old wax residue (god im boring myself here...i need another hobby

[Klayre]

I'm a radio journo but thanks for the offer!
I just got back from Halfords and I think I made a bit of an idiot of myself! I wasn't sure how to pronounce Meguiars and when this mid twenties blond went up to the sales assistant and asked if they had any 'megwars' cleaning stuff, it must have looked pretty funny.
Was a little confused when there - was going to get a wool cleaning mitt, but they only had cotton (is that ok?), and I wasn't sure about which Meguiars wax to get. I've got the AutoGlym Showroom Shine kit (it was a freebie), which contains the shampoo, polish, glass polish, a sponge and this cloth that looks like a bandage (is that for drying?). I'm a bit worried about using the polish as someone said it strips off a layer of paint, so I'd be better off using wax. Meguiars had a cleaning wax, a tech wax and a Carnauba wax which was part of a three step thing. So given choice I was clueless! I think I'll go back on Saturday...
(Hopefully the salesman I asked won't be there)

[AndytheScientist]

That cloth that looks like a bandage is for polishing, this is what i use to do the windows with the window polish

I got the same autoglym kit and use all the stuff except the polish.

I'll let someone else direct you as to which meguiars stuff to use as i don't use it


.... remember the bumper care though

[Klayre]

Do you use the bumper care every time you clean your car?

[AndytheScientist]

Quote: Originally Posted by Klayre

Do you use the bumper care every time you clean your car?

I use it pretty much every time i use wax on it. You'll find the wax will go on the bumpers, turn white and look poo. The bumper care easily removes this white wax residue. It's usually the last thing i do when washing the car. So to answer the questions not everytime just when i polish it, about once per month.

[CC1970]

Quote: Originally Posted by Klayre

I'm a radio journo but thanks for the offer!
I just got back from Halfords and I think I made a bit of an idiot of myself! I wasn't sure how to pronounce Meguiars and when this mid twenties blond went up to the sales assistant and asked if they had any 'megwars' cleaning stuff, it must have looked pretty funny.
Was a little confused when there - was going to get a wool cleaning mitt, but they only had cotton (is that ok?), and I wasn't sure about which Meguiars wax to get. I've got the AutoGlym Showroom Shine kit (it was a freebie), which contains the shampoo, polish, glass polish, a sponge and this cloth that looks like a bandage (is that for drying?). I'm a bit worried about using the polish as someone said it strips off a layer of paint, so I'd be better off using wax. Meguiars had a cleaning wax, a tech wax and a Carnauba wax which was part of a three step thing. So given choice I was clueless! I think I'll go back on Saturday...
(Hopefully the salesman I asked won't be there)

get the meguiars NXT liquid wax or the gold class (if they dont have those try your local chav car accessory shop otherwise youve done good.
the autoglym polish will clean up the paint b4 waxing so u are ok to use it....just dont rub hard (wont take off the paint...thats a cutting polish ) get some megwars (thats about right ) applicator pads as well. have a look under enthusiast on www.meguiars.co.uk and it will give you an idea .
ps used to run my own restricted license radio station on the south coast!!! god i miss it.(still got all my shows on minidisc though..bloody guardian pipped us to the dance license..gits)