Hand car wash recommendations

[Steve S]

Can anyone recommend me a decent hand car wash that can also do clay bar and waxing etc? I want a professional service that can actually assess my car and maybe make a recommendation also, rather than just ask how much I want to spend and give me free cup of bad coffee. TBH I've never actually waxed or polished a car in my life. My experience stops with a hose and bucket. Oh and degreaser is usually involved also!

As a person not use to paying for car washing I have found myself quite nervous handing over my baby for someone else to wash.  I've been to 2 places so far and only been mildly impressed at best. I want to get the car looking at its best and I'm not keen to just hand it over to anyone, let alone pay for a lousy job.

Somewhere close to the city, or southeast/bayside would be good.

[colcol]

The best place to have a good car wash and polish is YOUR place, learn to do it yourself and connect with your car, i have learnt all the tricks over the years and now there is so much good cleaning products, you don't know where to start, and on the internet and youtube there are instructional clips to show you how its done, one of the most satisfying things you will ever do to your car is to give a good detail, satisfaction rating about 100%, Colin.

[John Hanslow]

Once you see it done professionally with an electric polisher you reaslize how it should be done you realise  while it is all simple stuff, it still takes a bit of effort.

A professional will clay bar you car and use some sort of light cutting compound to get rid of the swirl marks so the base is a smooth and clean as it can be.  Then correct application of suitable quality polish on all the surfaces including trim, crome etc is most important.

As any Wash'n Shine entrant will confirm, it the extra bit of cleaning at the end on glass, plastic and cleaning surplus polish from panel gaps etc. - that makes the difference.

[Steve S]

Like usual I've left it to the last minute so I'll have to take it to the place down the road. 

[Davidm1600]

Ughm guys what on earth is clay baring your car   How freakin weard is that, it sounds to me a bit like colonic irrigation etc.  Bugger it what is actually wrong with washing your car at home and getting out the polish and some rags and giving it a decent buff. Crickey are we really that incompetent or lazy that we actually have to pay for this sort of totally basic car maintenance.  Or am I missing something.  Frankly I have done this sort of stuff for as long as I can remember (ie. over 4o years) and that predates actually having a licence and/or my own car.

[colcol]

Well said David!, if you do it yourself, you will find out what is the best car polish for your car, you will see scratches and dings that need to be touched up, and in older Alfa Romeo's you will see the rust bubbling under the paintwork, whatever you do, don't use a power buffer - polisher, these are only for professionals, not like us weekend detailers, we could ruin a good paint finish in 5 minutes, remember the art of polishing is removing big scratches with little scratches, Colin.

[Davidm1600]

Hey Paul, thanks for the tips re use of Brasso.  I had forgotten about this.  I remember a guy I know who sprayed his Fiat 128 2 door sedan (I know even further off track now  ), but used Brasso to cut it back.  I remember it took a long time to get the finish he was after but the results were superb.

Thanks also re the hint for french polished timber, and getting rid of heat marks.  As someone who restores antiques for fun and does a lot of french polishing, again I had often wondered how best to deal with this sort of problem.  Must get myself a bottle of the stuff.

[colcol]

Brasso is good, but toothpaste is quite a good cleaner too, as i have more toothpaste at home than Brasso, the paste having quite a mild abrasive in it and it smells better than Brasso, Colin.

[wankski]

clay barring is essential before polishing! get two! waxit.com

basically after washing your paint will still have a lot of 'fall out' on it... little specs of grit and plant matter... when u run your hand over it, it is a little rough - after barring - glass smooth!

if you polish without barring u risk the small grit scratching the paint...

whatever you do, don't use a power buffer - polisher, these are only for professionals, not like us weekend detailers, we could ruin a good paint finish in 5 minutes, remember the art of polishing is removing big scratches with little scratches, Colin.

  i use menzerna. it requires machine buffing. an electric dual action/ orbital is pretty safe.... i've moved on to air, but my first choice would be a 8" variable speed 2400w bosch or makita buffer/polisher.

steve, if you're close to the SE burbs of melb, i'd be glad to invite you to see how its done and give you some tips. The stuff i do to my car u cannot get done for you less than $500+  - plus its hugely satisfying.... (btw, u should see richard's car [shiny_car on here and ausalfa.com.au] - that guy knows his sh!t)

[Davidm1600]

I have to say Shinycar's 156 looks damned nice.

But as per my previous comment, what is clay barring, and how do you actually do it, where do you get the stuff, I assume not the clay from your garden .  I have never heard of such a thing until this thread topic noted it, and as said I have been polishing cars for over 40 years. Heck I just polished my 156 after giving it a hand wash this afternoon, and I am pretty happy with the result and it wasn't even great polish, but instead just old RePo, carnuba wax.

[wankski]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfEfLGL59GI

http://www.waxit.com.au/index.php?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage.tpl&product_id=189&category_id=13&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=1