How to superclean your cars exterior.

Cars, for some people it’s just a machine that makes our life a little simple, but on the other hand, there are people like me, the car guys who really know what car is, it’s value and what is it worth to. So, this is for those car guys like me, who are using their cars for a year or two and gives a painful look towards their car, because it has lost its new like shine and smoothness.

Wipe down the tears and brace yourselves up, coz today I’m going to show you how to super clean your car and bring its shine and smoothness back.

• If you have a black car, then this is probably the best thing you are about to read today.

So now, what is Super Cleaning?

We use our car daily, it catches dirt, grease and ultimately our car loses the shine. So, Super Cleaning is a process in which we remove all the contaminants, old wax and grease and give our paintjob a new wax layer for it shine like a new car out of a showroom.

Now, let’s come to the process, it involves six steps and is going to take about 6 hours in total and will cost you around 4000 bucks, which is totally worth it man. If you are thinking, a 3M Polish Service will be cheaper for you, they don’t work on your car as well as you will do. Trust me you will be proud to drive it once you have done this.

1. First of all, we will do a touch-less wash with normal water.

2. We will do a touch wash.

3. We are going to clay bar our car.

4. Then we are going to do paint corrections, fix any minor scratches, scuffs and swirl marks.

5. Again we will do a touch wash.

6. Then we are going to wax our car, detail it and boom, look at your car.

For my car, I own a Hyundai 1.6 Verna SX, one and a half year old. Due to excessive rough use, my girl had lost all its shine and was looking quite dull.

But after doing this, I am proud to drive it round the city and everywhere

Ok so now,

Touch-less Wash : Get your car ready for some good shower. Park it in a shade, not too dark, not even under direct sunlight, what you want is a well-lit area, but no direct sunlight, coz under direct sunlight, the the water will evaporate fast leaving watermarks on your car and you definitely not want that. Again, make sure your car’s body is cool enough.

If you have a power washer, then it’s probably the best, but if you don’t have that, don’t worry, a hose gun can even work for you. But mind you, no splashing of water directly from a bucket, coz the dirt from the bucket and the water splash is going to scratch your paint and you definitely don’t want that.

What you want is a power washer or a hose pipe. Start showering your car from the top and try to remove as much as dirt as you can with this water wash. At this point don’t touch your car, just water it from top to bottom, top to bottom because the action of gravity is going to pull your dirt downwards and if you wash from bottom to top, those dirts might scratch against your paint and you don’t want that.

Any dirt or debris which you couldn’t remove with the touch-less wash, nothing to worry man, you are going to remove it in the next step, the touch wash.

Mix some dish soap in a foam bottle and add to your hose pipe. Yes, dish soap, you heard it right. I know dish soap is not recommended for car paint, but its because it strips down grease and wax. And we just want to degrease our car and strip down as much wax from our cars body possible. Once super cleaned, do not use dish soap again, just use any high foam formula car wash to wash and wax your car and maintain it. I strongly recommend Formula 1 Wash and Wax.

Ok so here, once you have mixed the dish soap, spray it on your car with the hose pipe from top to bottom and foam up your car. Let the foam soak in the cars paint for a minute or two. The foam will loosen up dirts and debris and the grease and will pull them down gradually.

Touch Wash : After soaking in the foam for a minute, grab a micro-fiber towel. I repeat a Micro-fiber towel. No Paper towel, old t-shirt shall be used cause they are going to scratch your cars paint. What you want is a nice and soft micro-fiber towel. Take two buckets, one is your fresh bucket with soapy water (Dish soap and water) and another one is your rinse bucket. What you going to do is, soak your towel in the fresh bucket, wash a panel of your car and then rinse it in your rinse bucket. In this way, you are rinsing off the dirts which your towel has catched up. And then soak the towel in your fresh bucket and continue washing. Work your way from top to bottom and don’t apply too much pressure. Let your micro-fiber towel do the work for you and most importantly, wash in straight horizontal directions and make sure you are wearing a soft cloth, coz if you rub up against the cars body, a rough cloth may scratch it up.

Once you finish washing the car, do a water wash and remove the soap and foam.Don’t dry the car at this point. Because after this, you are going to clay bar your car and for this you need keep your car soapy wet.

• One thing, I want to make very clear, if accidentally, your micro-fiber towel touches the ground, please give it a thorough wash before using it on your cars body, because once it touches the ground, it takes up dirts and debris and what not in it, and once you use that on your car, the dirts and debris are going to rub on your paint and scratch it up, and you are doing to such to remove scratches, not build-up more scratches on your paint.

Yes during this touch wash, wash your tyres with a separate micro-fiber towel and do the same process as for the body. Foam wash the tyres too.

Clay Bar : Clay bar comes for around a 1000 bucks. But believe me, these 1000 bucks is worth it. You have definitely washed the car well, but still there are a few minute dirt particles present in the clear-coat of the paint. By clay bar-ing the car, we remove those particles and give our car the ultimate gloss and smoothness. The clay bar traps those particles in it and thus makes the paint job brighter. Wet your hands and run your hands on a panel of your car. If it feels a little coarse, then bro, you need to claybar it. One of the cheap alternative of Clay Bar is Plumber’s putty. It does the same thing. Wet a panel and start clay bar-ing it. Work up in straight horizontal motion and make your way all round the car. Use soapy water as, it’s going to lubricate your cars body and prevent scratches caused by the claybar itself.

Paint Correction : After you finish clay bar-ing your car, dry up your car using a fresh micro-fiber cloth. Again, no paper towel, no t-shirts, no gym towel, only a micro-fiber towel shall touch your car’s body. Your car doesn’t like anyone touching it except the micro-fiber towel. Work your way in straight horizontal lines, start from top and dry up till the under body. Now, check for any scuffs, minor scratches or paint imperfections. If any, grab a rubbing compound, essentially a polish. A polish is a very fine grit rubbing agent which peels up a minute layer of your clear coat and unveils a fresh new layer of your clear coat. Take an applicator pad, and pour some polish on it, make swirling motions on the minute scratches and paint imperfections or scuff marks. I suggest you to use the 3M Polishing Compound, it comes for 900 bucks. After applying the polish, work your way a little out of your affected areas, coz you don’t want to keep a harsh contrast between the freshly polished area and the other areas. Buff the compound with a soft micro-fiber towel. If you have swirl marks on your car, use Simoniz Color Restorer (comes for 1600 bucks) or Meguiar’s SwirlX (comes for 1800 bucks). I prefer the Simoniz one, because it is easily available. Work with the swirl marks as you have done with the paint imperfections and see the results. Your car looks like a new one.

• If there are a little deep scratches, (clear coat scratch only, paint scratches cannot be repaired by you, it needs a professional body-shop repair.) take a 2000 grit sandpaper and wet-sand the affected area in straight motions, until the scratch disappears. Now, take a 3000 grit sandpaper to smoothen it up and finally a 4000 grit sandpaper to give the final touch. Apply some polish and buff it up and look at that. The scratch has disappeared and the paint looks like a new one.

• If your headlights or rear-combination lamps have faded up with age, give them the shine back by rubbing it with any toothpaste. Make sure it’s the toothpaste, not a gel one. After finishing, polish it with a rubbing compound and make sure, while detailing your car, wax the headlights too.

• While polishing, work in swirling motion, coz you want to remove the scratches from all visible angles.

• Here, I want to make one thing clear, you don’t polish you car on a regular basis. You do it, only when there is a minor scratch, or there is any paint imperfection. Otherwise what you do is, wax your car regularly to keep it shining.

Touch Wash once again : Wash the car with dish soap once again and then dry up your car, as I told you for the previous wash. Again only micro-fiber towel, and work your way in a straight horizontal direction to get the shine. This touch wash is done to remove the grease or wax which has got applied by your polish or swirl remover or any compound you just used. After this process, your car might be shining like a badass. But, this is not the end man, you need to wax the car and then you will get the most of it. Once waxed, your car will get a reflective shine and for maintaining it just wash your car with a high foam formula car shampoo and wax it up once in a week or two. Personally I prefer, Formula 1 Wash and Wax (costs about 300 bucks) for the shampoo and Formula 1 Premium Carnauba Wax (costs about 400 bucks) for waxing the car.

• Here’s a tip for you, use a separate micro-fiber towel for drying up your windshield and other glasses. And wax those up with Formula 1 Carnauba Wax. See the shine, the deep, glossy, reflective shine along with smooth glasses, which doesn’t catch up even water.

Waxing your Car and Detailing it : This is the final step for your Super Cleaning process. After this, just dress yourself up, call up your friends and go on a ride with pride. J

So, to wax your car, if your car is black, I will recommend you to use Formula 1 Black Premium Wax, because the black wax is going to fill up the minute scratches that may be left over in your paintjob. In anyway Black shows up scratches really easily, so this is the best thing to make your car look like a perfect out of a showroom one and since you are doing so much, why not invest in this Black Wax? It costs just about 700 bucks. For other paints, use Formula 1 Premium Carnauba Wax (costs around 400 bucks.). Take an applicator pad and apply the wax one panel at a time. Just apply a thin layer of wax coat, and this is another time you will want to make a swirling motion. Wait for it to dry for five minutes. After that, buff it up with a soft and dry micro-fiber cloth. Work your way round the whole body, make sure you wax each and every panel. After waxing the whole body, buff the whole body again with a clean and tidy micro-fiber cloth.

After all these, take a clean brush, (a soft tooth-brush may work well.) and brush off a few tight spaces like between the bumpers and panels, and the brand emblem, where the wax build up residue is still present. Wax even the headlights. After buffing these off, look at your car. How does it look? Do you see yourself in the cars paintjob? Yes? Then you have finished the process and if not, then repeat another wax coat until you get the desired shine and reflection. Now, the carbon fiber areas are still left untouched. Take 3M Dashboard Dresser (costs about 250 bucks), its UV protected and also lasts for a long time, maybe a month. Apply a thin layer of the dresser on all the carbon fiber areas and rubber areas, like Mirror-skirts, Window Skirts, bumper protectors, weather strips and all. See those look like a fresh one.

Lastly, take a tyre dresser, preferably 3M Tyre Dresser (costs about 300 bucks) and apply a thin layer of the dresser with the help of a clean sponge on the tyres. Wax up the alloys and buff it off.

Give yourself some rest and also allow your car to take rest for a few hours, before taking it out. Let the wax and dressers sit on you cars body properly.

Now just look at your car and smile. Give me your valuable feedbacks at apratimdey9@gmail.com and if you have any better idea, feel free to tell me. For more blogs on cars, stay tuned. The previous blog would let you know about the cars paint. If you are my reader, then you have already learnt that, but if you are not, then just go back and learn that man. That will surely help you.

Wait for a while, I shall also upload how to super clean your car’s interior soon. Bye and good-luck guys.

#car #clean #superclean #claybar