DIY - Car Care & Detailing thread

Fiat, Soul, Character, Love, Passion are the often-used words & are regular experiences, emotions of Fiat Car owners. We treasure our cars like a family member. Let's share here some simple Do It Yourself (DIY) Car Care.

Broadly the exterior Car detailing includes following steps:

1. Shampoo Wash

2. Preparing the Car Surface to make it "Like-New" - Claying

3. Paint Sealant

4. Wax

CAR SHAMPOO WASH

Use a good Cotton Cloth. Those Yellow clothes thingies sold at traffic signals are useless. Either use Microfiber or soft cotton "baniyans". Do not use sponge. Why? It all comes down to Flat face of the sponge

Lets see the car paintwork with your typical dirt and grit particles stuck on the top of the paint, that you want to wash off. Some of these dirt particles could be sharp:

[attachment=3:30z4u1n8]gritonpaint7sf-2.jpg[/attachment:30z4u1n8]

Now, if you wash the car with a sponge, the grit particles gets trapped between the face of the sponge and the paint - they have no where to go due to the flat face of the sponge:

[attachment=0:30z4u1n8]spongetrapgrit2zs-2.jpg[/attachment:30z4u1n8]

When you wipe the sponge across the paintwork, you actually wipe the sharp grit particles straight across the paint. As they move over the paint, the dirt particles leave thin hairline scratches:

[attachment=2:30z4u1n8]spongemakeswirls1jy-2.jpg[/attachment:30z4u1n8]

DO NOT WIPE CLEAN YOUR CAR WITH DRY CLOTH. Reasons - same as above. I never touch my car with a dry cloth. However, if you've a compulsion like I do (after 2 hours B2B city traffic drive reaching home after 9 pm but still wants to clean the car quickly before covering it with car body cover), go for a good quality Car Duster. Those multi-color Rs. 25 duster thingies are absolutely useless. Go for California Car Duster or Jopasu Car Duster (India-made).

The "Two-Bucket Method"

The two bucket method uses two buckets, not one. In the first bucket, you have your car wash solution (Shampoo'es water with foam) as normal. In the second bucket you have clean fresh water. First off you soak your washing cloth in the wash solution and begin washing the car. Then, before soaking the cloth back into the wash solution, you rinse it out in the second bucket of fresh water - this rinses out the dirt and grit particles from this mitt so that they cannot come into contact with your paint, reducing the number of swirls inflicted.

After the wash comes the "drying" stage. The Chamois - Original leather Chamois or the Synthetic Chamois - is the best for drying the washed surface as it has the best absorbent characteristics. You could use a Microfiber as well to dry the surface.

Why Protect Paint?

Paintwork requires protection of its own as well. Its like the skin of your car and it is continuously subjected to contaminants and environmental harm when its outside. Paintwork protection comes in two generic types: Sealents and Waxes.

Examples of the contaminants are:

> Ultraviolet Radiation (UV) from sunlight - you cannot see UV, it can cause fading
> Rain - rain water is actually a contaminant which can also be filled with pollution and acids
> Bird bombs - highly alkaline and can eat into the finish of your paint
> Industrial Fallout
> Road film/ dirt/ tar
> General muck and grime

[attachment=1:30z4u1n8]protectedpaint7bw-2.jpg[/attachment:30z4u1n8]

The chances are that you may have just spent many hours washing, and removing defects from your paint and glazing it to get that sought after wet look shine, but it is necessary to protect that finish with a hard-wearing layer in order to keep the finish looking at its best, otherwise the elements above will degrade and damage the paint finish. So a protective barrier is applied to the paint:

Paint Sealants

Paint sealants are man-made paint protection (synthetic). They have been developed to provide tough protection for paint finishes to protect you pride and joy and preserve the finish you have worked so hard for. As the name suggests, it "seals" the paint surface finish.

The look obtained from applying a paint sealant is a very reflective and generally crystal clear look. Reflections in paintwork are sharp and eye catching and metallic flake is allowed to show to its full potential. However, paintwork sealents have been known to lack a certain richness to the finish - despite the superb reflections, the finish can sometimes lack the warm glow obtainable from a carnauba wax (see later) though the modern Paint Sealants now come very close to matching the warm glow to paintwork that is a trait of a carnuaba wax.

Generally speaking, paint sealants have high durability (3-6 months) when compared to carnauba waxes (1-2 months) and are therefore favoured by those who are looking for a durable finish that is easy to maintain by simply washing the car. Additionally, they are favoured by those searching for the ultimate in shiny, reflective surfaces from paintwork and those wishing features such as metallic flake to be shown off to its highest.

Paint Sealants require curing time - say 24 hours before you apply wax for that Wet-look Glow finish

Few examples of Paint Sealants:

Some examples of sealant products:

> Wolfgang Gloss sealant
> Meguiars NXT Tech Wax 2.0 (yes, its actually a sealant!)
> Meguiars #21 Synthetic Sealant
> Autoglym Extra Gloss Protection

Carnauba Waxes

The look generally achievable from a carnauba wax is one of a warm glow to paintwork that comes from a glossy and rich looking finish that has great depth.

To apply a wax, always follow the manufacturers instructions, here are some generic tips:

> Use a sponge or microfibre applicator for application by hand.

> By hand, apply in circular motions first and finish in straight lines to ensure even coverage.
> Keep the layers thin, remember the residue you remove is wasted product!
> After letting it dry to a haze, Buff off residue with a microfibre towel.
> Apply it Panel-by-panel i.e. first apply it to only hood, let it dry to a haze, buff it & only then go for the next panel.

EDIT: There is an excellent contribution by the member anoop on the car detailing process - from Washing to Wax Polishing on Page 13 here---> http://www.teamfiat.co.in/forum/showthread.php?53-DIY-CAR-CARE&p=68652&viewfull=1#post68652

 

Re: DIY - CAR CARE

Wecome aboard, Dr. Amit

So nice to hear from you again

Thats a good agency there at Ahmedabad. What I did is to get 3M Paint Protection Treatment done (review thread posted in relevent section here). It made my Linea just-like-new :-D making me so happy :wow

 

Re: DIY - CAR CARE

For waxing, its preferable to use pure carnauba wax only. Avoid any Wax POLISH as polish contains some cleaning agents which takes off a few microns of the paint. I used Formula 1 carnauba wax earlier but now its very very difficult to find original one. Currently I'm using Turtle wax Super Hardshell which is excellent. The details are in my Linea Ownership thread/ topic.

For that plastic part, I've used only Formula 1 product called "Dashbaord Protectant" & used very rarely with the spray can bought 7 years back still lasting. It gives very good results.

 

Re: DIY - CAR CARE

From easily available Wax in India, Motomax is a brand by our very own Pidilite (owners of Fevicol brand). Another one is Waxpol.

If you look for wax products on ebay sites, you can get hold of nxt Tech Wax 2.0 which is a combination of Wax & Sealant - an excellent product I would say.

 

Re: DIY - CAR CARE

Binze,

Exactly what does it do? Does not allow brake dust to accumulate on Alloys?

Never mind. You just post. You've so many Love-hate experiences with TASC to share with members :mrgreen: