Stranded in Daytona
Go Kart Champion
- Location
- Wilmington, NC
- Car(s)
- 06 2 door TR GTI
There seem to be a lot of questions regarding how to properly clean and detail our vehicles. I have been working as a VW/BMW Detailer for 2 1/2 years in Florida, so I figured I would do a complete write up on how to do a full and complete Detail job. But let me say in writing this, I am not responsible for any damage to your cars if you follow my write up.
Materials Needed
Microfiber Towels (4-5)
Cotton Towels (5-6)
Wax Applicator
Liquid Wax
Windex
Window Towels
Car Soap
Laquer Thinner (NOT TO BE CONFUSED WITH PAINT THINNER)
Clay Bar Kit
Vacuum
Exterior Wash/Detail
Engine
This is usually the first place to start on a full detail. Pop the hood and examine the engine bay, if it's only dusty then water will do fine, if it seems pretty nasty feel free to use some soap and water in the jams, or even spray a diluted degreaser onto the really nasty parts. Then take your water hose or pressure washer and spray out the engine bay. Of course, do not spray directly into any open electrical areas, but luckily, our engine bays are pretty covered. Don't forget to spray the hood underside. once you spray off all the soap/dirt, just shut the hood. I promise the car will start, and if it doesn't for some fluke reason, just wait a while for the engine bay to dry and it will then.
Washing
First, start off by Spraying the car down to remove excess dirt. Get a bucket with some good soap and water and use the Microfiber towels to wash your gti, but be careful.. Make sure you don't rub in sand or dirt into the paint b/c you will scratch it. But wash the entire car with the microfiber towels with soap and water. Rinse the car off of all the soap. If the car is extremely dirty, and has things stuck to it such as road tar or other things of that nature, please see the section titled Clay Bar.
Clay Bar
Clay bar should be done before drying the vehicle, because you need water to lubricate b/w the clear coat and the clay bar. If your clay bar kit came with a spray, feel free to use it. While the car is wet, get the clay bar and spray that comes in the kit and begin to claybar the car. Now, in case you don't know how to clay bar a vehicle, here is the low-down: Spray the stuff that it comes with to one part of the car... aka the hood, or a fender or a door. Do it one body part at a time, after you spray it, take the clay bar and rub it on every inch of that body part that has been sprayed. You will feel it resist at first, but as the clay bar removes the old wax and stuff stuck to your paint, you will feel it smooth out. This hurts your arms, and takes a long time. Make sure you do this in the shade and keep the car as cool as possible...aka out of sunlight. After you claybar the entire car (Any Part that is Painted, and you can do the windows as well, but it's not needed) you can just let it drip dry. After you are done with the claybar, please see the Wax section.
It has been brought up that our cars are very new and do not need claybar, but sometimes things get on there that normal soap and water cannot remove such as hard bug tar, road tar, and other deposits that only a claybar will remove without being damaging to the vehicle.
Drying
Yes I know this seems self explanatory, but you'd be surprised how many people don't know how to do this correctly. Take a few cotton towels, NO SHAMMY'S, and wipe the car down. Start at the top and work your way down the vehicle... makes sense, right? After the body is dried out, open up all your doors, hatch, and hood and dry all the jams so that no water will drip out onto the dry body. This will also keep the Jams Clean.
Exterior Windows
Usually, just regular windex and a nice cotton window towel will do fine, but sometimes there are nasty streaks that don't come off, or other things that require something more.
For streaks/stains and things of this nature that wont' come off, do the following: Spray a window with windex and cover it completely, then take some of the steel wool and in circular motions, throughout the entire window, then wipe it down with the Window Towel. Do this on all the outer windows/sunroof and you shouldn't have anything else on them, they should look like they are rolled down, assuming the inside of the windows are clean. You can also do this to the inside of the windows if they are really dirty, but don't do it if you have window tint. This does not damage the windows in any way, I promise
For hardened tree sap, or sticky residue, or window chalk, do the following: Spray the affected area with windex, or even water, then take a new razorblade and scrape the area at a 45 degree angle. If it is sticky residue (ie a sticker) then the windex will help a lot because it causes the glue/sticky residue to bunch up on the blade. This will allow you to scrape it, and remove it easily. Then wipe the area with the towel clean.
Wax
(This is the next step after you claybar, assuming the car has dried)
Take your wax pad/wax applicator and soak it with a hose. Then ring it out so all the excess water is rung out. The reason for doing this is that a wet wax applicator will help spread the wax out more evenly and help you not waste it.
Apply some of the liquid wax to the wax applicator, and using even and small swirls, apply the wax. Start with the hood and just go from the top down, in uniform columns. Now, it is important that you don't let wax fling everywhere and get on the plastic parts b/c if it dries, you'll never get it off. A tip to waxing is that you don't actually need to apply wax up to every edge, you can keep it a good 1-2 inches away from edges. The reason for this is that when you wipe it off, it will still spread to the outer edges.
Now, wax the entire car like this, including headlights, tail lights, even emblems, but be carfeul not to wax the black plastic, (ie lower valences, strips around the windows/sunroof, grills). Now you let the wax dry.
After the wax has dried for about 15 mins or so, take another clean/dry microfiber towel and in circular motions, wipe away the dried wax. But don't just wipe it away, wipe as if you were rubbing it into the clear coat. Think of it as if you are trying to fill in those swirl marks in the clear coat. Go through the entire car and do this wherever you applied wax.
Once you are done, back it out into the sunlight to check for spots that you missed, or need to improve on. After you wait a day, you can also apply another coat of wax to act as a "Sealer" wax and it will be super smooth.
Wheels/tires
My personal opinion on cleaning wheels is to just just soap and water and good elbow grease to clean them. I do not like using acidic cleaners because they hurt the brake pads, as well as the rotors. Some can even cause oxidation. If you just soak the wheel, normally at the time you wash the car, and take a cotton towel that is soaked in soap and water, you can just rub the entire wheel down and remove the dirt. After the wheel dries you can take a dry cotton towel and wipe down anything you missed. Then feel free to wax them in order to protect them from brake dust and also to make them shine.
As far as tire shine goes, use whatever you like, but I just advise you to wipe it down so it doesn't fling all over your freshly waxed car when you start driving.
Stains/other misc. things
Sometimes there may be other things you might have to worry about that I didn't cover above.
Tree Sap on Paint: Hopefully you will catch it while it is still soft and hasn't actually hardened onto your paint. Get a cotton towel and soak a section of it in LACQUER THINNER. I can't stress this enough, NOT PAINT THINNER. Remember, LAQUER, NOT PAINT. Ok, once you soak a section just rub the tree sap until it comes off, there should be no marks visible when you are done. But be careful using the Laquer thinner... you can't let it hit any of the black plastics b/c it will turn it white, and don't let it drip either, keep it in the affected area you are cleaning.
If the tree sap does harden, try to soften it up using the laquer thinner, then take a razor blade and put it at a 45 degree angle right up against the tree sap. Very carefully PULL the blade across the tree sap and it should come off. IF you try to push it, then you will go into the paint, so remember to pull and be extremely careful.
Materials Needed
Microfiber Towels (4-5)
Cotton Towels (5-6)
Wax Applicator
Liquid Wax
Windex
Window Towels
Car Soap
Laquer Thinner (NOT TO BE CONFUSED WITH PAINT THINNER)
Clay Bar Kit
Vacuum
Exterior Wash/Detail
Engine
This is usually the first place to start on a full detail. Pop the hood and examine the engine bay, if it's only dusty then water will do fine, if it seems pretty nasty feel free to use some soap and water in the jams, or even spray a diluted degreaser onto the really nasty parts. Then take your water hose or pressure washer and spray out the engine bay. Of course, do not spray directly into any open electrical areas, but luckily, our engine bays are pretty covered. Don't forget to spray the hood underside. once you spray off all the soap/dirt, just shut the hood. I promise the car will start, and if it doesn't for some fluke reason, just wait a while for the engine bay to dry and it will then.
Washing
First, start off by Spraying the car down to remove excess dirt. Get a bucket with some good soap and water and use the Microfiber towels to wash your gti, but be careful.. Make sure you don't rub in sand or dirt into the paint b/c you will scratch it. But wash the entire car with the microfiber towels with soap and water. Rinse the car off of all the soap. If the car is extremely dirty, and has things stuck to it such as road tar or other things of that nature, please see the section titled Clay Bar.
Clay Bar
Clay bar should be done before drying the vehicle, because you need water to lubricate b/w the clear coat and the clay bar. If your clay bar kit came with a spray, feel free to use it. While the car is wet, get the clay bar and spray that comes in the kit and begin to claybar the car. Now, in case you don't know how to clay bar a vehicle, here is the low-down: Spray the stuff that it comes with to one part of the car... aka the hood, or a fender or a door. Do it one body part at a time, after you spray it, take the clay bar and rub it on every inch of that body part that has been sprayed. You will feel it resist at first, but as the clay bar removes the old wax and stuff stuck to your paint, you will feel it smooth out. This hurts your arms, and takes a long time. Make sure you do this in the shade and keep the car as cool as possible...aka out of sunlight. After you claybar the entire car (Any Part that is Painted, and you can do the windows as well, but it's not needed) you can just let it drip dry. After you are done with the claybar, please see the Wax section.
It has been brought up that our cars are very new and do not need claybar, but sometimes things get on there that normal soap and water cannot remove such as hard bug tar, road tar, and other deposits that only a claybar will remove without being damaging to the vehicle.
Drying
Yes I know this seems self explanatory, but you'd be surprised how many people don't know how to do this correctly. Take a few cotton towels, NO SHAMMY'S, and wipe the car down. Start at the top and work your way down the vehicle... makes sense, right? After the body is dried out, open up all your doors, hatch, and hood and dry all the jams so that no water will drip out onto the dry body. This will also keep the Jams Clean.
Exterior Windows
Usually, just regular windex and a nice cotton window towel will do fine, but sometimes there are nasty streaks that don't come off, or other things that require something more.
For streaks/stains and things of this nature that wont' come off, do the following: Spray a window with windex and cover it completely, then take some of the steel wool and in circular motions, throughout the entire window, then wipe it down with the Window Towel. Do this on all the outer windows/sunroof and you shouldn't have anything else on them, they should look like they are rolled down, assuming the inside of the windows are clean. You can also do this to the inside of the windows if they are really dirty, but don't do it if you have window tint. This does not damage the windows in any way, I promise
For hardened tree sap, or sticky residue, or window chalk, do the following: Spray the affected area with windex, or even water, then take a new razorblade and scrape the area at a 45 degree angle. If it is sticky residue (ie a sticker) then the windex will help a lot because it causes the glue/sticky residue to bunch up on the blade. This will allow you to scrape it, and remove it easily. Then wipe the area with the towel clean.
Wax
(This is the next step after you claybar, assuming the car has dried)
Take your wax pad/wax applicator and soak it with a hose. Then ring it out so all the excess water is rung out. The reason for doing this is that a wet wax applicator will help spread the wax out more evenly and help you not waste it.
Apply some of the liquid wax to the wax applicator, and using even and small swirls, apply the wax. Start with the hood and just go from the top down, in uniform columns. Now, it is important that you don't let wax fling everywhere and get on the plastic parts b/c if it dries, you'll never get it off. A tip to waxing is that you don't actually need to apply wax up to every edge, you can keep it a good 1-2 inches away from edges. The reason for this is that when you wipe it off, it will still spread to the outer edges.
Now, wax the entire car like this, including headlights, tail lights, even emblems, but be carfeul not to wax the black plastic, (ie lower valences, strips around the windows/sunroof, grills). Now you let the wax dry.
After the wax has dried for about 15 mins or so, take another clean/dry microfiber towel and in circular motions, wipe away the dried wax. But don't just wipe it away, wipe as if you were rubbing it into the clear coat. Think of it as if you are trying to fill in those swirl marks in the clear coat. Go through the entire car and do this wherever you applied wax.
Once you are done, back it out into the sunlight to check for spots that you missed, or need to improve on. After you wait a day, you can also apply another coat of wax to act as a "Sealer" wax and it will be super smooth.
Wheels/tires
My personal opinion on cleaning wheels is to just just soap and water and good elbow grease to clean them. I do not like using acidic cleaners because they hurt the brake pads, as well as the rotors. Some can even cause oxidation. If you just soak the wheel, normally at the time you wash the car, and take a cotton towel that is soaked in soap and water, you can just rub the entire wheel down and remove the dirt. After the wheel dries you can take a dry cotton towel and wipe down anything you missed. Then feel free to wax them in order to protect them from brake dust and also to make them shine.
As far as tire shine goes, use whatever you like, but I just advise you to wipe it down so it doesn't fling all over your freshly waxed car when you start driving.
Stains/other misc. things
Sometimes there may be other things you might have to worry about that I didn't cover above.
Tree Sap on Paint: Hopefully you will catch it while it is still soft and hasn't actually hardened onto your paint. Get a cotton towel and soak a section of it in LACQUER THINNER. I can't stress this enough, NOT PAINT THINNER. Remember, LAQUER, NOT PAINT. Ok, once you soak a section just rub the tree sap until it comes off, there should be no marks visible when you are done. But be careful using the Laquer thinner... you can't let it hit any of the black plastics b/c it will turn it white, and don't let it drip either, keep it in the affected area you are cleaning.
If the tree sap does harden, try to soften it up using the laquer thinner, then take a razor blade and put it at a 45 degree angle right up against the tree sap. Very carefully PULL the blade across the tree sap and it should come off. IF you try to push it, then you will go into the paint, so remember to pull and be extremely careful.
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