Car Bibles: Care Care & Cleaning. http://www.carbibles.com/carcare_bible.

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The car c ar Bible, c overing was hing, waxing, detailing, c leaning and c aring for your c ar and muc h more.

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The Car Care & Cleaning Bible

I am a pro-car, pro-motorbike petrolhead into basic maintenance. This site is self-published to spread my knowledge. By reading these pages, you agree to indemnify, defend and
hold harmless the author, any sponsors and/or site providers against any and all claims, damages, costs or other expenses that arise directly or indirectly from you fiddling with your
vehicle as a result of what you read here. If you hurt your vehicle or yourself, don't blame me.

Translated versions of this site: Русский (Russian) 中國 (Chinese)

- It Simply Works. Cleanplus® Wipes, Cleaners & Polish to simply make your car shine! www.cleanplus.com

Smartwax Autodetailing (R)Evolution in Car Care Large Stock & CHEAP Prices www.smartwax.nl/webshop
USP 797 Cleaning Products Cost effective cleaning solutions for USP 797 compliance www.berkshire-usp797.com

Love it, care for it, stroke it gently

If you tr eat your car as a method of getti ng from A to B, then you can stop r eading
thi s page ri ght now and carr y on with the rest of the site. Thi s page i s dedi cated to
the car owner who cares for their vehicl e, wh o on occasion wants to clean it and
make it l ook nice agai n. This page came about because fr ankly I got fed up with the
vol ume of emai ls asking for it. So I present my basi c guide to clean ing your car and
car ing for it. Enjoy.

The lazy way out

It's wor th poi nt out ri ght u p front that if you want the sort of decent job doi ng on
your car that I go into on this page, but can't be bothered to do it your self, there
are plen ty of pr ofessi onal car cleani ng cen tres or detail ers that will do the job for
you. Expect to pay $150 or £100 u pwards and to be without your car for a couple of
hours.

Pre-school cleaning basics

Take off your bling
I know your Spi ce Gi rls anni versary ri ng i s special , but take it off then you won't
acci dental ly scr atch your paintwor k to buggery.

Get a clay bar

You know how car detail ers somehow manage to get your paintwork gleamin g like
new when the best you can manage is some swi rls and dried-on watermarks? It's
because they use clay bars. G et a decent quality on e and use i t a couple of times a
year . How? See the section on cleaning it l ater on.

Use two buckets ins tead of one

One for cl ean water, one for rinsi ng all the crap out of your sponge or wash mi tt.
Simpl e. The bri ght ones amongst you will al so have noti ced the di stinct lack of the
phrase "power washer" there. That's because....

Kärcher be damned!
I know you don't believ e me, bu t pressure wash ers or lances r eally don't get your
car that cl ean. They sh ift th e surface dirt bu t they wil l also peel off stick ers and
make mincemeat out of damaged paint. Trust me. Or not - see for yoursel f. Jetwash
your car then get a clean, whi te, li nt-fr ee cloth. Dampen it and wi pe it acr oss the
door . Be hor rified at the result and lets move on.

D on't use household cleaners or dish soap on your paintw ork

F ai ry Liquid does a great job of cleaning you r dishes and i t smell s lemony fresh too.
It'll also do wonders at stripping the wax and pol ish off your car and then eating
away at the clearcoat. Houshold cleaners can ei ther be v ery acidic or very alkal ine,
and that's A Bad Thing for your car's paintwork. Get a pr oper PH-neutral car
shampoo.

Bring microfibre cloths - lots of them

Simpl e enough r eally. They do the job and wash up well afterwards.

For that matter, bring s hop tow els - lots of them too
G et a big drum wi th a coupl e of hundred shop towels in it. They're pl entiful, cheap
and disposable. They'r e also typi cally made from recycled material and are
themselves bi odegradabl e. Which is useful to know when fending off the tree-huggers.

Get rid of your chamois

Old sch ool and they never real ly worked anyway, the chamois should be consigned to
history. A nd don't even thi nk about getting one of those ShamWow thi ngs - they're
even worse. G et a soft sil icon water bl ade for swishing the water off your bodywork
and y ou'll never l ook back.

D on't skimp on the wax or polish

If you're r eally goin g to invest a saturday afternoon in cl eaning your car, don't in sult
it with the 3.99 manager speci al fr om the local par ts store.

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Silicon cleaners are quite sticky

I know Back-To-Black look s l ike it does a good job on outside of you r car, but try
not to use it if you detail your engine. When it dri es, i t's sticky and your engine wi ll
get dirty mu ch quick er if all the shiny bits are cover ed in si licon cleaner residu e.

If you live in a hard water area, don't clean your car on a 40°C day
Trust me - the soap and water will dry out and cover your car in calcium streaks
qui cker than you'll ever be able to ri nse i t off. If you must do it, buy a popup
portable awning and do i t in the shade. You'll at least have some ch ance. F rankl y I'd
wait for a cloudy but dry day myself.

Keeping up appearances
The cleaning it section that foll ows assumes you reall y want a clean car once i n a
whil e. Not a jetwash clean or a carwash clean, but a properly decent, showroom-fresh
cl ean. So if you deci de to do i t, make sure you keep on top of the si tuati on. There's
no point i n spending this sort of time doing your car if you're going to let i t get all
cack ed up an d not bother to at least hose it down once in a while. So wi thout
fur ther ado, lock the wi fe insi de with a good book, chain up the dog and lets get to
it.

Cleaning it
F ir st, some 'before' pictures. Th is i s my dail y dr iver and what you see here is the
end result of 4 mon ths of winter driv ing withou t ever seei ng a bucket or hose. OK
it's not that bad, mostly because a lot of the crud didn't sti ck because I cleaned it
properly i n the autumn. An d sil ver isn't the easi est colour to photograph di rt on, but
it's a what we have so lets just work with it.

Star t off by getting al l your junk together. If you have a blanket, coll apsibl e table or old duffel bag you can use,
its a good idea. That way you're not wanderi ng ai mlessly about looking for stuff half way through your qual ity time
with your car. In the last photo above, you can see one of the two buckets, some microfibre cloths, the clay bar
and l ubricant, car shampoo, paint con ditioner, tyr e shine, latex gloves, a wash mitt, a water blade and some gl ass
cl eaner. Th ere's a giant tub of shop towel s but that shows up later.

F il l both buckets wi th hot water. Squir t some car shampoo into one of them as its fil ling up so you get a soapy
mixture. Use a wash mitt to do the first stage of cleani ng. These things are great - they have microfibre 'finger s'
on on e side and a textured sur face on the other . The 'finger s' are great for getting into all the nooks and cran nies
and the textured side helps scrub off stubborn grime. They hold a lot of water too and I typi call y put another
squi rt of car shampoo on to the mitt before doing each secti on of the car.
Star t from the top and work down, doi ng one section at a ti me - roof, then hood and boot, then si des. Once each
bit has been soaped up, dunk the wash mitt in the cl ean bucket to rinse i t out, and then use i t to wipe down the
suds with cl ean water . Because a wash mi tt hol ds a lot of water, it's easy to ri nse a car using one.
Once you've rinsed th e bi t you're wor king on, use a water bl ade to whip the water away. These come in many
fl avours but all of them have the same basi c feature - a su per supple sili cone blade that is shaped li ke an inverted
'T' on th e bottom. Hold the blade at a sl ight angle and wipe i t across the bodywork and it wil l squeegee the water
away l eaving a dry sur face wi th no streaks or water mar ks. Death to the chamois.

Pai nt conditioner i sn't strictly necessary but i f you want to do a thor ough job i t's a worthwhil e extra step.
Essentiall y it's an ul tra-mil d cutting compound combined wi th a detergent that hel ps to r emove li ght pain t scratches

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and swirls, as well as di ssolvi ng caked-on bugs and road tar . Most of these products work the same way - apply
them with a clean mi crofibre cl oth in a ligh t ci rcular motion, l et them dry to a matt fin ish, then hose the product
off with col d water and this time wi pe the car down wi th an other mi crofi bre cloth. This is probably the only time
you'll actually use a h ose duri ng the whole cleaning pr ocess, so make the most of it. Don't use the blade to wipe
the water off at this point - it wil l l eave conditioner residue. It doesn't really matter but the str eaky mess that
remai ns will make you l ook at the car and wonder what the hell you've done.

So far you'll probabl y be fairly fami liar with ev erythin g I've done. The next bit migh t be new to you though. Using
a clay bar kit on your paintwork wi ll make the differ ence between a good cleaning job and a great cleani ng job.
The 'clay' is a putty compound (a l ot li ke plasticene or sil ly putty). Used in conjunction with a l ubricant, it will get
stu ff off your car that you di dn't even know was there. To use it, wor k in small sections, with the clay bar in one
hand and the lubricant spray i n the other. Wi pe the clar bar across th e paintwork i n lines - not in a circu lar
moti on - and you'll feel it bind and drag. That means i t's picki ng up stuff off your paintwork that you can't see.
Eventually it wil l glide effortl essly across the surface and you can move on to the next secti on. After each bi t that
you do, kn ead and roll the clay bar to keep it supple and to present a clean sur face to the pai ntwork. The th ird
picture below shows the crud that a clay bar picked up off one door of my car during thi s process. The amaz ing
thi ng is that before you u se the bar, you'll swear bli nd that the car is cl ean.
Very important note about clay bars : If you drop i t, throw it away and go get a new one. The putty is so sti cky
that it wi ll pi ck up gr it and dirt from the ground the instan t it mak es contact. If you keep using i t after its been
on the ground, you'l l then be scratching your paintwork to buggery.

F in ally, on to the home straight for the body work. Wax or poli sh. I prefer polish - a l ot of detai lers prefer a good
wax. Both will do the same job but pol ish i s gen erally easier to use i f you li ve in a warm climate becau se it's
easi er to bu ff to a shine. This is the simpl est part of the whole process - squi rt the polish on, use a clean
appl icator to apply it, l et i t dr y for 4 or 5 minutes, then buff it off using yet another clean micr ofibre cloth.
Depending on the product you u se, i t can probably be used for external plastics as well whi ch wi ll help br ing those
black plastic par ts up to a nice shine.

Windows
Year s of cleaning car wi ndows has taught me one thing - don't use the trigger-spray clear type window cleaners.
They dry too quickl y and no matter that the pack aging and mar keting tel l you, they wi ll streak and it takes an age
to get the str eaks off. I'v e been usi ng foaming type cleaners for a whi le now and I find they're a much better
sol ution. They're simple to use - shake the can , spray the wi ndows so that the pr oduct foams up ni cely, then use a
micr ofibre cl oth to buff the windows to a sh ine. I'l l give a plug to one parti cular product here because of al l the
foami ng clean ers I've tried, this one does seem to work better than most. Lifter 1 ProG lass has done an excell ent
job for me every ti me I've u sed it and it works wel l both i nside and outsi de.

Engine bay
Ever l ooked in your engin e bay? Do you care what it looks l ike? F or 80% of

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motor ists, the answer wil l be no. F or the petrol heads amongst us, the answer is
yes. Cleani ng an engine mak es no sense at all - i t's i nside the car and n ever
visible - why clean it? Vanity, mostly. But it does ser ve one useful pur pose - it
gets your head under the hood looki ng at the engi ne. You could spot l eaks or worn
bel ts, or any mann er of other nasties that might otherwise go u nnoticed. But
mostl y vanity.
F or basic engine cleani ng you need nothing mor e than shop towels, mi crofi bre
cl oths an d distill ed or filtered water. It's best not to use tap water directl y - any
cal cium in it wi ll dry on to the engine parts super qui ck as soon as it gets hot and bak ed-on calcium deposits are
a bitch to get rid of. Cleaning is simpl icity i tself. Use wet shop towels to get the majority of the cr ud off the
engi ne parts, and dry th em off wi th a mi crofi bre cloth. You mi ght need a degreaser for some parts but water wi ll
do most of the wor k. In the seri es of photos bel ow y ou can see I did most of the engi ne bay inclu ding the scuttle
panel (between the engine and wi ndscreen) as well as various l ines and h oses. It only took about 10 mi nutes to
make that sort of a differ ence.
If you're looki ng for car-show clean, then y ou'll need a dedicated gui de to that. Si mply using water and ending up
with a "good enough" fini sh won't do - you'll need to start removi ng stuff to cl ean it but that's way beyond what
I'm trying to show y ou here.

Wheels
Cleaning your car wheels is another vanity thing bu t if you're goi ng for a properly clean ri de, you can't miss out
on doing them. If you don't let the dirt and brake dust bake on - ie. if you at least sponge your wheels down once
a month, keeping them clean i s simplicity itself. Wet shop towels and a dry cloth . Use the shop towels wi th tap
water to clean the majority of the crud off the wheels, then use a damp towel to wipe them down. You r eally don't
need anything more than that.

Tyres
Ever clean ed your tyres? Probably not. Once again though - if you want that showroom-condi tion car, you have to
do the tyr es. The easiest way to get this job done is usi ng tyre dress-up or tyre shine products. They're easy to
use and the r esults are always pleasing. Th e gel-type products are the best ones because you don't have to
concern yourself wi th ov erspray. I always wear l atex gloves to do this because the gel product itself is a pain to
get off your hands. Squi rt some of the gel into the applicator sponge (most ki ts will come wi th one) and then
gently work it around the outside edge of the tyre. Do no t put this stuff on your tread - it's a grease-based
compound and the last thi ng you need is greasy tyre treads. Use a shop towel to wipe off any excess th at gets on
to the wheel rim and the job is done. 5 minutes per wheel .

Inside plastics
Ther e are hundreds of products availabl e to clean the plasti cs and other hard surfaces insi de your car, but once
agai n, v ery often the simplest sol ution will do. As with the wheels and the engine, shop towels (agai n wi th di stil led
or filtered water this ti me) and a mi crofibre cloth should be all y ou need. Work on one small secti on at a time,
usi ng the damp towels to get into all the nooks and crannies, and fi nish it off wi th the drying cl oth. Be careful not
to use too much pressu re when using the shop towels - any grit or gravel should be wi ped off the sur face, not
rubbed into it - most soft pl astics will scr atch easily if you do it wrong. As with the wheels, if you do this fai rly
regu larly - once every couple of months - you ought never to need any plastic restorati on chemical s or products. A
li ttle time and patience will yield nice results wi th nothi ng more than water. The photos below show the side of the
dri vers seat and the plastic door sill inser t.

Inside fabrics and soft coverings

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Depending on what your seats and floor coverings are, anythi ng from damp cloths to vacuum cleaners and
toothbrushes can be used h ere. A vacuum cleaner wi th a thi n noz z le attachment is handy for getti ng stuff out of
the crease between the seat bases and seat backs, an d a toothbrush is u seful for wor king crud out of the car pets
so i t can be v acuumed up. If you have a leather interi or, it's probably worth investi ng in a decent leather
condi tioner and appl ying i t once a year, especial ly if you li ve in a hot cl imate.

Result
So here's the end result of thi s exercise. The whole project took me about three hours including the photogr aphy,
and this isn't a smal l car . I always think the resul ts ar e worth the effort and it's ni ce to have a car back in the
condi tion i t was when I fir st bought it. A decent polish or wax on the bodywork will last 6 months or so, so this
lev el of cl eaning i s a twice-yearl y event for me. In between times I'll use a qui ck sponge down with a hose and a
water blade to dry i t off. Simpl e.

- It Simply Works. Cleanplus® Wipes, Cleaners & Polish to simply make your car shine! www.cleanplus.com

USP 797 Cleaning Products Cost effective cleaning solutions for USP 797 compliance www.berkshire-usp797.com

Smartwax Autodetailing (R)Evolution in Car Care Large Stock & CHEAP Prices www.smartwax.nl/webshop

These pages were last updated on 18th December 2010. Sitemap

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