Fleet Cleaning

[beko1987]

Took advantage of a warmish day and SWMBO being out for the day with her friend

 

 

 

 

Was very salty after a round trip to peterborough at the weekend!

 

Quick 50/50 from just the pressure washer

 

 

Whole thing was rinsed, the wheels and tyres cleaned and foamed

 

 

 

 

I went round and did the tightwork, then rinsed all over and filled the buckets

 

 

Washed!

 

 

 

The wax I put on in November is still there and sheeting nicely

 

 

 

 

 

 

Moved onto the interior next

 

 

 

 

Cleared out the front first, took loads of shrapnel out of the ashtray

 

 

and a good vacuum saw the passenger footwell sorted

 

 

Evas seat now, rubbish removed, shoes bought back indoors (bloody wummin) and dummies found and put with the washing up

 

 

Another vacuum, and ice scraper, pine cones and a toy car replaced

 

 

Boot next, and more rubbish found

 

 

 

Vacuumed

 

 

She seems to be missing a carpet tile (we use them so muddy pram wheels dont need to be cared about when putting it away!)

 

 

Gave the pushchair a quick vac too, was full of crap...

 

 

 

Tidier! Topped the screenwash up too before i refitted the bottle in the boot

 

Other rear seat and footwell

 

 

 

The seats desperatly need a shampooing too but I'm fucked if I'll be doing that in this weather!

 

Grabbed the rubbish out of the drivers side footwell and doorcard and filled a whole carrier bag by the end!

 

 

 

Vacced

 

 

Left the bonnet up after topping up the screenwash and vacced the leaves and crap from the scuttle

 

 

 

Major heads up to the Hoover Aquamaster that one week ago was a pile of shit, and now works REALLY well!

http://manchestervacs.co.uk/DysonForum/index.php/topic,1639.0.html

 

Finally, I refilled her pot of softmints

 

 

and found this in the drivers door pocket so sprayed a load around

 

 

 

[beko1987]

Yo dave, when did the picture amount per thread change?

 

Have a part 2, which would have been with part 1...

 

Job done, I had a rolly, cup of tea and peice of cake, and swapped the cars over...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This hasnt been cleaned since the last time I posted it being cleaned on here, so was proper salty after a few thousand miles up and down the M40 in this shit weather

 

The reversing light had dried a bit out on the cluster

 

 

I started rinsing, immediatly the difference was noticable

 

 

Managed to loose a bit of paint by the rear wheelarch though

 

 

50/50 after a rinse on the lower rear door

 

 

I suddenly felt compelled to grab the wheeltrims from the garden

 

 

give the backs a quick clean just because

 

 

and fit them for probably the first time since I took them off in the service station car park just after buying the car, before the wheel fell off (was checking them iirc and removed them to feel the wheel for heat, if only I'd checked the nuts...)

 

 

Something metal had been sat on this one though

 

 

I gave them a scrub on the outside with bilberry, and topped the foam lance up after the meriva

 

 

I think my lance needs a service as it;s not laying the foam down as thickly as it should, although I dont use as much solution per bottle as the bottle says I should either

 

 

Lobbed some ironx onto the wheel trims

 

 

 

Then I went round and cleaned the tightwork and rinsed the whole thing off

 

 

2 new buckets of water were filled

 

 

 

and she was washed

 

Quick shot of the bonnet before, as I remember polishing and waxing it last time, all the beading went long ago when the salt started to build

 

 

and after a wash

 

 

Also noticed after washing that the windscreen rubbers did odd things to the water...

 

 

 

All washed and rinsed!

 

Noticed the other day that the end cap for my front blade had done one

 

 

so fixed that before it flew apart on the way to work or something annoying

 

 

 

I moved onto the interior

 

 

Really wasnt too bad as I had the interior out at new year, remote from the old head unit and spare usb-fag lighter thing relegated to the shed

 

 

t'other side

 

 

Front wasnt quite so easy...

 

 

well, it wasnt too hard

 

 

 

Center console next, all my rolling bits were put in their box from where I'd thrown them after making rollys in traffic jams

 

 

 

I only had 40p in my car

 

 

and finally, the drivers footwell

 

 

 

She was a bit drier now for the after shots

 

 

I barely managed quarter of a bag of rubbish from my car!

 

 

Ah, forgot the boot...

 

 

Put the car seat in the back, and the set of Hoover tools in the loft with the rest of them

 

I'd forgotten this Dyson was in there!

 

 

I popped it in the embarrasingly untidy shed

 

 

Gathered up all the random bits I have in the boot, like bits of trim, wheel brace, frost cover that I never use cos I dont mind scraping the windows into a box I found in the boot and wedged it behind a fixing on the rear seat

 

 

All done!

 

 

Bit shinier even though its not been polished yet!

 

 

 

One day it will be as reflective as this

 

 

Realised that having a full bottle of screenwash rolling around the boot was asking for trouble, so wedged it in with my extendable snow brush

 

 

and job done, both cars washed and vacuumed! Should do them for another few months until we get out of winter! Then time for the summer details. The next thing I do to the ZX is rear tyres, rear brakes and a damn good service, been putting it off for too long! Will have to wait until payday though...

 

 

 

[Skizzer]

You're making me feel bad for not washing any of mine at the weekend.  Or almost any weekend, in fact.

 

 

 

I've found her missing carpet tile, by the way

[beko1987]

lol yes, I noticed that! Mine now...

[Bren]

Nice work on the vaux.

 

Pre clean the interior reminded me of something that had been repo'd by yes car credit.

[Louise2cv]

The interior of the Merv was close to how bad mine was. Close but not quite up to my kids standards*.

 

It has taken me three days to do the Audi (accounting for doing it in child/my attention span size chunks). Three days and still only a cat-lick-and-a-promise type job *sigh*

[vulgalour]

I'm waiting for shampoo to dry on Xantia carpets while I read this.  Always nice to see a car cleaned thoroughly.

[beko1987]

Cheers. The meriva will always come up better than the zx as it's a cleaner car, the zx will be up to that standard one day!

 

Louise, I fear we have worse to come! I had to vac out mini cheddars from the door pocket, bread sticks from the seat runners and fuck loads of bloody glitter. Haven't yet got to car sickness, wet foods or poo thank God!

[MrDuke]

I think Vulg is just being polite. I can clearly imagine him wincing and gently rocking as he looks in horror at the 'after' shots. I mean, did you even bother buying new toothbrushes for the dashboard?

[beko1987]

Lol I found a pack of baby wipes in the meriva, they did the plastics a treat!

 

Did use my horsehair brush for the tight work though, and an older brush for the wheels...

[smellmycheese]

This site aint what it used to be

[Hendry]

Working for a hire car firm who don't fit mats to their cars we see cars worse than this several times a day, you wouldn't believe me if I told you I cleaned a 3k miles 64 plate Astra and 1k miles 64 plate Focus worse than the Meriva today.

 

What also annoys me is the other driver valeters I work with don't take any pride in their work and don't hoover down between the side of the seats and centre console etc or the door shuts, they always say I'm being anal and that the car is to be cleaned to rentable condition not showroom condition, this annoys me because what they think im cleaning toshowroom condition is is a million miles away from what was expected of us when I worked for a dealer doing showroom standard valeting.

 

Your ZX looks like it has lovely deep plush velour carpets which are a skoosh to hooverr because the dirt sits on top of them unlike the cheap shit thin nasty Vauxhall carpets which stuff gets ground into very easily.

[Matt]

Fuck the road salt man, that shit robs cars of shine so quickly. Can this officially be a dirty to clean car thread?

 

 

Karcher foam lance sucks major wang

[Uncle Jimmy]

Only a true shitter could make car cleaning look so attractive.

Question- what wax would best on a silver car?

[chaseracer]

Washing a car?  In this weather?  Just stick 20p in the handbrake and move on...

[AnthonyG]

I wonder if James Dyson's nightmares look a bit like Beko's shed?

[Magnificent Rustbucket]

I seen this 'two bucket' method mentioned before - do you fill two buckets so you don't have to go back to the tap as often?

[oldcars]

I seen this 'two bucket' method mentioned before - do you fill two buckets so you don't have to go back to the tap as often?

One bucket has the shampoo water mix, one with clean water to rinse the washmit before going back into the shampoo bucket. Keeps the shampoo clean so your not washing the car with dirty gritty water.

[Matt]

Only a true shitter could make car cleaning look so attractive.

Question- what wax would best on a silver car?

 

They aren't colour specific, just spend whatever you want to spend. 

[worldofceri]

One bucket has the shampoo water mix, one with clean water to rinse the washmit before going back into the shampoo bucket. Keeps the shampoo clean so your not washing the car with dirty gritty water.

Stone me, all the times I've washed a car and I'd never thought of that.  I only own the one bucket, mind you.

[beko1987]

I use a grit guard in the rinse bucket too. Broke one of the fins off though so it's a bit lop sided but does the job!

[brickwall]

Kids sure do make a mess.

[fordperv]

I love cleaning cars, mrs fp reckons it have a problem, as I think it's necessary every couple of months to take seats out to hoover where the runners are etc, she took my car to work one day so I set about her car as she doesn't bloody clean it so i sent her pictures of her interior out to amuse myself

[Skizzer]

I think it's necessary every couple of months to take seats out to hoover where the runners are etc

 

 

i sent her pictures of her interior

 

 

 

[beko1987]

There's nothing wrong with a seats out clean! The meriva needs one tbh but it's a Vauxhall, something will break when I do, plus as alluded to above, the carpets are fucking awful, worn almost into lino in places. Certainly not the plush French stuff mine has...

[320touring]

I dont get why detailers like the "two bucket" method..

 

You'd think they'd get a lob on for all the swirl marks they could polish out;)

[brickwall]

I'd pay extra for swirls.

[Hendry]

There's nothing wrong with a seats out clean! The meriva needs one tbh but it's a Vauxhall, something will break when I do, plus as alluded to above, the carpets are fucking awful, worn almost into lino in places. Certainly not the plush French stuff mine has...

Renault carpets are fucking awful too though, it gives me nightmares thinking about the state of some of the Scenics I had to clean when I worked in the dealers, 207/208/308s are bad too, 206/307 seem ok though, my Clio has expensive (£40) genuine carpet mats in it and still on some places the dirt has ground in even though I hoover it monthly.

 

The guys at work can't understand why I'd rather clean an Insignia than a Astra, Focus, Fiesta etc reasoning it'll be smaller so easier and quicker to clean, they don't realise Insignias have velour carpet so all the shite just gets sucked up by the hoover without having to dig the nozzle in and scrub it along the carpet.

[beko1987]

I dont get why detailers like the "two bucket" method..

 

You'd think they'd get a lob on for all the swirl marks they could polish out;)

The idea is not to put the swirls there in the first place.

 

When I got my rotary I made the Puma look like glass (apart from the rusty bits) and swirls became very evident. 2 buckets, a good mitt, a good wash and foam help to reduce the chances. My asda wash mitts aren't the best either tbh, lambswool ones are better, as they don't hold the grit, but I'd never take care of it properly and it would rot.

 

Granted, it's a bit pointless on our chod but I've got so used to it now it's second nature. Looking at the rinse bucket each time it was like soup, whereas the wash one was quite clear. I could buy clear buckets to show it more, but their £20 each, plus £8 for the wheels so they can fro, my 99p B&q buckets do just fine!

 

I keep having lustful thoughts about buying a dual action polisher and seeing if it's any easier, never got on with a rotary tbh, although I did buy a cheap one with shit pads...

 

Don't forget, I was on detailing world before autoshite, although this place has made me see sense and not be too anal any more, and put mechanicals before prettiness!

 

One day I'll take the zx to wax stock and enter it in the show and shine maybe. Took the meriva the first year, it didn't win any prizes, but beaded better than any of the others, may have helped that I washed and waxed it at my grans after we drove up before driving the 300 yards to the east of England showground...

[Louise2cv]

Wax Stock.

 

Wax. Stock.

 

 

 

Tell me there isn't a "festival" of car cleaning?