Car cleaning

Hello All,

I was about to book my estate in for a full valet the other day but then had to spend the funds on repairing the electric window.

Can anyone recommend a good car wax and any other good interior cleaning products they've used ? With the amount of products on the shelf; and some of them ain't cheap, before I go and invest time,money and labour in doing it myself it's worth asking what's good !

Cheers,

Craig

Hi Craig,

I just used the Color Magic stuff (£8.99 from Halfords) on mine.
It comes in different colours, and you (obviously) pick the colour nearest to your car's colour. It worked very well, and comes with a "chip stick" for filling in bigger scratches.

Jez

Craig,
i don't think you can go far wrong with the autgylm products. the super resin polish is easy to use and very good. i have tried all of there products and cannot fault them.

neil

[Networkguy]

>Craig,
>i don't think you can go far wrong with the autgylm
>products. the super resin polish is easy to use and very
>good. i have tried all of there products and cannot fault
>them.
>
I can second that.

Okay so it isn't cheap by the time you have bought the polish, the leather cleaner, the leather cream, the dashboard cleaner, the glass polish and all the rest but as I only tend to do a full top to tail clean 2 or 3 times a year (as the dealer valetts the car on each service) , it does last.

Have a look on the autoglym website for loads of info on how to get the best results as well.

[markas]

Hi all,

As I show my car I use Autoglym myself. I have used other brands and especially Colormagic which in my view is no good at all, and is why i have never used it on this car and never will.

You must like most products ensure the car is really clean before applying them and make sure you buy a good supply of Lint free rags!

Mark.

Craig,

I, would agree with Mark that Autoglym products are probably the best on the market (easy to apply and brilliant results), and I've used them for the past 12 years on all my previous vehicles until my present Black V70. I wasn't happy with the results of using Autoglym's silicon resin polish, and thought I'd try some Color Magic, and the results surprised me - the car looked much better ! I now use Color Magic on My V70 and silicon resin polish on other colours.

Color Magic probably only works better on darker colours, as I tried it years ago on a red vehicle and the results were not very good at all.

Neil '99 RAWD

[markas]

Hi ya,

Color magic is like a t-cut and if you have a pearl colour you will slowly ware the paint away, is your car a metallic as these have a laquer on them ? Color magic is a silicon base that's why it give you that shine, autoglym is petroleum based.

mark.

Hi All,

I'm not trying to start a big polish/paint debate but :

1) 99.9% of "Retail" polish is silicone based or contains silicone, hence the easy application and good shine/water-bead results. Normally only trade polishes like the Autoglym "Bodyshop" range are none silicone, as anything silicone based is a sprayers worst nightmare.

2) Most polishes contain some degree of cutting agent, unless using specialist products like Autoglym's "Exhibition Polish" or trade products like hand/final glaze.

3) Manufacturers now also laquer most straight colours, especially reds, whites and blacks as well as metallics and pearls. This is done mainly on a cost basis as they only need to use the minimal amount of matt base colour, and give it a deep shine by using laquer.
It also has the added benefit that the base colour will not fade or bleach (like un laquered red does) over time.


Cheers

if you are looking for one of the best polishes then try MEGUIARS you can only buy it from them. i recently had a mr2 turbo which i polished with autoglym i thought it came up really well until i tried meguiars polish. i thought i would just try it on one of the wings but ended up having to repolish the whole car as it was such a deeper shine. you can buy this stuff by going on their website www.meguiars.co.uk it is a little harder work but certainly worth it.

Hi People,

Just to throw the cat amongst the pigeons...... I have a VERY red 855r (limited colour for the model) which responds incredibly well to MER.... either washing with it or polishing - Autoglym is no better or worse different at all on this type of colour - just harder work.

As for the interior 'Wonder Wheels' trim polish is excellent and Timpsons leather food does a lovely job on the leather.

Finally (as I have alcantarra faced seats) a spot of sand paper & some timpsons (again) suade cleaner to finish it all off.

There you are, there's one more day of your life used up ! :)

Jim,
'96 855-R (The Flying Wardrobe)