Which polish?

[Bren]

Following on from the polished shite thread, what kind of polish etc. do you use?

 

Do you go for the expensive stuff, or the kind of gear you find in discount shops, pound shops etc.

 

The last "expensive" stuff I bought was colour magic when it came out in 1993, fairly so - so regards the shine and it did get rid of some marks. However since then I have generally bought what has been on offer. I have heard good things about blitz wax, which you can get from frost auto restorations.

 

I have used auto glym in the past, however I found it to be over rated and generally unremarkable in it's results.

 

I also use armour all for plastics - a good shine with no residue.

 

So what is your weapon of choice?

[Mr Lobster]

Can't beat Farecla for a bit of paint restoration and I like Autoglym products, always been happy with the finish from all the Autoglym stuff I've used.

[Timewaster]

In days gone by, when I had time / could be arsed to polish stuff, I found Meguiars stuff was generally very good. Not cheap buy you dont need to use much of it.

These days, it is more likely to be whatever is in the pound shop this week.

[Lankytim]

I find meguars (sp?) very good. Not mega expensive, easy to use and good results.

[seacow]

Can't beat Farecla for a bit of paint restoration and I like Autoglym products, always been happy with the finish from all the Autoglym stuff I've used.

 

G3? The bonnet on my E30 has gone milky so I need to cut it with something. I managed to buy a spare bonnet in the same colour cheap last week in case I fuck it up!

[blackburied]

Autoglym Super Resin Polish (SRP) is a good all rounder I find. Not harsh enough to properly fuck a panel up.

[seacow]

Autoglym Super Resin Polish (SRP) is a good all rounder I find. Not harsh enough to properly fuck a panel up.

 

Thats my go to and it works well on the rest of the car but hasn't touched the bonnet - tried clay first too - need to up it a level!

[Split_Pin]

Autoglym SRP is what I've always used and it has given me satisfactory results. I top it off with some Autoglym High Gloss wax. I'm not really into detailing, just a general shine-up twice a year has the car looking quite smart enough for me.

 

I also find Autoglym SRP is good at getting rid of tar spots on alloy wheels. I then seal them with 2 coats of Poorboys wheel sealant, which also keeps them cleaner!

 

I'm going to try linseed oil on the plastics after seeing trigger's Alto.

 

One thing I don't like however are drab, grey tyre sidewalls. They really let down a car that's otherwise mint. I use Meguairs High Gloss tyre gel. You apply it with a paintbrush and it lasts for weeks! Not too much though or it ends up down the side of the car after 1 journey and fucks up the suds in your soapy water the next few times you wash the car.

[Spiny Norman]

Turtle Wax is about as far as I ever get.

One of the great truths in life is that the more time and effort I put into cleaning a car, the bigger the previous meal eaten by the seagull that flies overhead just as I'm putting the cloths away....

[Magnificent Rustbucket]

I tend to use Meguires or Autoglym. I find both pretty good.

[wackywacerwill]

After 20 years I've finally used the last of grandad's rusty tins of T cut. TBH it was always below par and took a heel of a lot of effort for a kind of decent result, seems rather on the harsh side too though that could of been the added rust.

 

I was given a bottle of auto guim which I found to be agreeable stuff and have tried the G3 too which is good. Once or twice a year is enough effort for me and I find a bucket of cold water and a leather does the trick in between.

[MK5 Escort]

Autoglym is about the most common that I use, as well as Halford’s own 'wash and wax' mixture in warm water which I've used for several years.

 

RainEx on the windows helps keep them clear of standing water and pending on how heavily you use your wipers, one treatment of it can last for a good couple of months. It does leave a slight 'foggy' like residue when you apply a new coat though which is a little annoying but the first sign of rain clears it.

 

In recent years I've also been using 'Showroom Shine' (of TV shopping channel fame) which is actually very decent too. I was genuinely surprised by it the first time I used it but it's ridiculously expensive considering how much you actually get.

[dollywobbler]

I use Rain-X on the side and rear windows (and headlamps) but I find it smeary and annoying on the windscreen itself. Just a personal opinion. The shite window cleaner is vinegar and newspaper, though that doesn't give the nice beading effect.

[Bobthebeard]

I use Rain-X on the side and rear windows (and headlamps) but I find it smeary and annoying on the windscreen itself. Just a personal opinion. The shite window cleaner is vinegar and newspaper, though that doesn't give the nice beading effect.

 

Agree heartily with this through experience. Rain-X on the windscreen is great until you use the wipers, then it seems to smear and cause visibility problems with oncoming headlights etc at night. Great on side windows and headlamps though.

[dollywobbler]

I blame this thread. I started polishing the Merc, using Autoglym SRP. My arm aches and I've only managed a quarter of it. The rest is going to have to wait.

[Pete-M]

Clay, then Autoglym SRP. I've tried Meguiars, Mer and a few others. SRP just does the job properly.

 

Windows are easy. Any decent window cleaning stuff will do, windowlene, neat vinegar or whatever. Just don't use a cloth - ever. Blue roll (or brown paper) is the answer, just spread your fingers and the blue roll as wide as you can to get the biggest surface area you can when wiping the glass. The number of people (and valeters) who 'clean' windows by scrunching up a bit of cloth and smearing the hell out of them. It has got to the point now where when I get my cars valeted I end up going home and doing the windows again properly. I get inordinately irritated when on a cold morning the windows on the car have lots of smears where the valeter insists on using a microfibre cloth to do the windows....

[RobT]

I don't normally go mental at cleaning, but last year I did a proper job on that Renault 25 as the white paintwork was very flat and contaminated. Meguiar's compound first, then clay, and Meg's polish to finish and it came up really well. I tried using their spray bottle wax for extra OCD points but all it takes is a slight breeze and you get a moutful of the stuff which is vile, so won't use that again.

 

I've stopped using my Halfords microfibre mitt for the washing stage as it doesn't sud up at all, so have gone back to using sponges. I know microfibres are probably better for the paintwork, but nothing I own is really mint enough to worry about such things.

[Bobthebeard]

I don't normally go mental at cleaning, but last year I did a proper job on that Renault 25 as the white paintwork was very flat and contaminated. Meguiar's compound first, then clay, and Meg's polish to finish and it came up really well. I tried using their spray bottle wax for extra OCD points but all it takes is a slight breeze and you get a moutful of the stuff which is vile, so won't use that again.

 

I've stopped using my Halfords microfibre mitt for the washing stage as it doesn't sud up at all, so have gone back to using sponges. I know microfibres are probably better for the paintwork, but nothing I own is really mint enough to worry about such things.

 

Speaking of microfibre cloths/mitts, do they all feel horrible to touch or is it just mine? Or me?

[Joseph]

I don't normally go mental at cleaning, but last year I did a proper job on that Renault 25 as the white paintwork was very flat and contaminated. Meguiar's compound first, then clay, and Meg's polish to finish and it came up really well. I tried using their spray bottle wax for extra OCD points but all it takes is a slight breeze and you get a moutful of the stuff which is vile, so won't use that again.

 

I've stopped using my Halfords microfibre mitt for the washing stage as it doesn't sud up at all, so have gone back to using sponges. I know microfibres are probably better for the paintwork, but nothing I own is really mint enough to worry about such things.

 

Speaking of microfibre cloths/mitts, do they all feel horrible to touch or is it just mine? Or me?

 

Yes - they make your hands sweat, they feel grubby and apart from supposedly not scratching the paintwork, they are damn hard to stop the polish from hardening and smearing.

 

As to polishes, I tend to use Turtlewax, and have found that it produces some satisfactory results. I've got a bottle of Autoglym SRP which I've yet to open, as well as a pot of 'Angelwax' which I've yet to open as well (using up the Turtlewax first)

 

A word of caution: Some of the Poundland polishes and waxes aren't just not great, they can be complete crap. I bought some car wax a couple of years back, and apart from looking and smelling like yoghurt, it left faint swirl marks that wouldn't budge with extra elbow grease, nor other polishes. Luckily I only done one front wing with the stuff - otherwise the car would look awful now! Apart from this, some of the Poundland car cleaning products can be ok.

[Partridge]

Whatever I can knick off my Dad

[barefoot]

Following some of the joy on here, I bought a turtle wax clay bar & I'm buggered if I can achieve anything apart from RSI with it...?

 

help / advice / tips please

[Cavcraft]

STU-CDX wax works well on Maestros apparently.

[Partridge]

barefoot, without sounding funny I’m assuming you don’t know how to use it? Let me explain

The idea of a clay bar is to take all the deposits (that’s shit to you and me) off of the paint work. So left over bits of bird poo, residue left by air pollution and ingrained road dirt with builds up over time. Wash the clay off, dry the car and go over it with a polish of your choice.

You should only really notice a difference once you’ve polished the car. Hope this helps.

[Pete-M]

Yup, it appears to be a waste of time until you polish the car afterwards.

 

I did one of my SD1s for one of El Watanabe's Q-park meets, even though the car had sat in storage for years and then under a tree with the chap I bought it from it came up remarkably well. Took a morning of claying the shit out of it but once that was done and it'd been polished properly it came up really well.

 

I'm going to give the Mitsubishi a few hours of cleaning tomorrow if there's nothing much going on, that hasn't been polished for years so the difference should be easy enough to see.

[Pete-M]

 

This is about the best "it's shiny" pic I could find.

[Pete-M]

Went on another polishing mission this morning. Two and a half hours later the car looks quite presentable.

 

Unfortunately, I'd run out of SRP so ended up using some mentally silicone laden stuff from Swarfega of all people. Clayed the car first, which took about 2:20 of the total time, waxing it with this Swarfega stuff took about five minutes. It's not the best, but if you just want to make your car shiny as quickly as possible it works.

 

This is the stuff. It's cheap and does the job.

 

 

This is the result.

 

[Pete-M]

Wheel sealant stuff is great. I did the Jag wheels with it and they were really easy to clean off afterward.

[Tayne]

.

[Pete-M]

Stuff I use is in an aerosol. Clean the wheels properly, spray this stuff on, leave it for a couple of minutes wait for it to dry to a haze then polish it off. Only talks a couple of minutes.

 

Unfortunately, I don't know what it's called.

[Shep Shepherd]

Mer, TR-3, and occasionally Color Magic keep the Volvos shiny and happy