Car Detailing - Help For Beginner in Limited Budget

[Petroholic]

Something about myself
1 i am a student and am strictly on a budget as my fatherwill never be willing to spend a lot on "car wash" according to him
2 I have 2 cars - a silky silver 2013 ritz , a golden city 6 years old. Both are light colours.
3 both cars have covered parking and the usage is less than 500kms individually for both cars in a month.
4 I recently started reading about detailing aaand found it quite confusing.At last I came across 5 detailing steps by meguiars and following this i started building my detailing kit.


these are the products i have or have ordered till now

1 wash - a local car wash shampoo ( although some iso 9001:2008 certified company ) - used it and it is ok . after applying you have to waiy for sometime and then scrub to remove dirt
-plan to buy amway shampoo costs just 250/- and have read good reviews

2 clay - have ordered clay from notorious for 300/-

3 paint correction - wurth rubbing compound - used it it only removes small scratches
waxpol finishing compound - used it and totally useless
stain remover again local company - excellent in removing scratches but harms paint
4 polish - meguiars ultimate polish - used it and am not impressed at all
5 turtle hard shell premium wax - excellent product till now
6 armorall extreme tyreshine gel - excellent again
7 some MF cloths and some banyan cloths
8 diesel,petrol,colin,toothbrush etc.
9 armorall carpet& uphol foam - used it ok product
10 stp sun of a gun protectant - used it ok product again
11 onr wash nd wax - ordered still havnt used

Gurus any suggestions ( which are vfm ) Am i going the right way??


and some particular questions -
1 why megs ultimate polish doesnt show much improvement im my car ( is it becoz they are light coloured ). What should i get for light coloured cars .
2 is there any better products in my budget ( in any category )
3 have made a qd solution using car shampoo in a spray bottle . It leaves soap residue on using.What is the right way to use it

 

[350Z]

You’re missing out a plastic polish. I’m using Waxpol Car Vinyl & Leather Polish and couldn’t be happier. It’s awesome for shining black interior as well as exterior plastics.

Drive Safe,
350Z

 

[singlanhn]

Well, as you said you are on budget, I don't think as beginner you don't have to spend money on so much stuff. If the car color in good shape you should try with only wash, followed by wax/sealant, or you might include clay between them.
As you have ordered clay from notorious, you are well aware of that forum, there is a wonderful thread by fordfan on the same topic.

 

[Shantanu.lko]

Dear friend,
You do not need to invest much on car detailing. IMHO, no need to buy clay, wruth compound, carpet foam etc. if you are on a strict budget.
Both your cars are light colored, so they do not need too much work.
I have a white maruti800
I use ezee(woolen cloth detergent) to wash the car. Then I dry the car using dhoti or cotton sarees(white) which are available at very low rate.
Then I use formula1 polish to polish the car. This takes a lot of time,patience and hard-work.
The bumpers and black parts are polished using 3M dashboard polish.
The tyres are shined using a mixture of 3M dashboard polish and waxpol polish.
The rubber mats are washed using any detergent and water.

This same procedure has been tried on a silver alto, red spark, and a golden santro zip.

 

[Petroholic]

wow from your replies one thing is clear to me that detailing is a very subjective matter just check out this thread on another forum ppl over there have the exact opposite reaction

ppl over here are pushing me towards cheaper products and over there ppl are recommending only expensive products.

I think i will go the middle way.I will stick to waxpol,motomax or such cheaper products but which are made for cars specifically.Will now refrain from buying imported products which most detailing experts recommend.

 

[Varun560061]

Do post the details from where you got the clay..

 

[sunbaj]

Petroholic as you have mentiond you have two cars one is not even a year old and the other is 6 years old. also they are parked in a cover area and your driving is also just 500 KM.

As for the car which is not even a year old you might not see any difference even if you use a polish as the paint condition would be good (as car is parked in a covered area) usually people polish their cars once or twice in a year depending upon the condition of the paint as poish has abrassive properties as it removes a thin layer of polish from the car. Instead I would recomed that you use a good wax to preserve the good condition of the paint that you have something like Colinite 845 or some 3M Synthetic wax. I have a 7 month old Dzire and I haven't polished it even once but make sure that I regularly WAX it with C845 once a month depending upon when I shampoo wash the car.

Now for your 6 years old car I am sure that Polishing would help to a great extent but then it depends how you polish and what you use to polish the car. Usually to get good results out of polishing best is to use a rotary buffer (which would be very costly) or use specific polishing pads as the pads which are used to apply the WAX or using a cotton cloth would not do justice to the polish (look for the same on the net). For the pollish to show good results it has to be rubbed with the paint for relatively longer duration unlike wax which has to be applied to leave a layer on the paint which is then latter buffed off after it dries.

Now coming to cheaper versus costly detailing produts.
When I had started using detailing products I started off with Formula 1 Wax and Waxpol Dashboard polish but now I have moved to stuff like C845 (Colinite 845), recently bought Auto Glym (Which is a polish for light coloured Cars), used 3M Finishing Compound which is a sealant.
The difference that I observed between a cheaper and costlier product. With Formula 1 wax I had to wax every second week but with C845 I am even good to go for 5 to 6 weeks. I spend half the time on applying C845 than what I did with Formula 1. Also some might not agree but Formula 1 has sligh abrassive properties whereas C845 has cleaning properties.
Now for Waxpol Dashboard shine. This was a dirt magnet. Within two days I would see lot of dust getting attracted to the Dash as it is a sticky/shiny paste. Instead I used Formula 1 which does not have a sticky or shiny properties but then both of the above does not have cleaning properties. So now planning to move to something which is non sticky non shiny and also has cleaning properties (something from 3M or Mothers)

How much you are willing to spend is your personal take. It also depends as to what state your car is as you will accordingly have to buy those products.

 

[Petroholic]

Thanks for the reply and i completely agree with what you have said

As you said there is a lot of diff in quality b/w cheaper and expensive products.So What i have done for now is that i have taken the middle path As you will see by the products i have bought They are somewhere in the middle of cheaper waxpol/motomax and high end imported products. For eg i am using turtle wax which is cheaper than coolinite/megs tech wax but more expensive than formula 1.( so the quality may also be assumed somewhere in the middle )

i HAVE ALREADY SPENT ABOUT 3000 ON THESE PRODUCTS AND I THINK IT IS NOT WISE TO SPEND ANYMORE.

 

[DetailedClean]

100% agree, always wise to start slowly when first starting out with detailing, as confidence and skill usually means upgrading :)

 

[saishibu38380]

here we use amway car wash, then amway silicone glaze . together it costs around 700rs.

 

[Civic]

Normally everybody starts with Formula 1, Waxpol, Amway shampoo etc, but as you become aware about more and more about detailing and various products, tend to upgrade yourself.

Now in India, I have seen most of the best products are started available.

 

[KALINGA]

I will suggest the Nulon - Automagic Car Care Set
Price is Rs 700 only and total VFM.

Nulon - Automagic Car Care Set - Buy Car Care & Fresheners Products Online | Snapdeal.com

I have tried this on my new Ertiga white color.

These are good, but not the best.
A very good VFM product for a beginner like me.

 

[srinivas_gs]

I am just amazed at the kits available for Car Maintenance. I am not sure how people have time and spend efforts in just car maintenance using all these kits. All I do to maintain is just the following:

1. Daily car exterior dusting and cleaning with damp cloth. This is done by a professional who comes early morning and completes his job in 45 minutes. Initially I saw how he works, gave my feedback and made him to adjust to my requirements. Every Sunday, he cleans with a car shampoo, (which I bought online) dusts interior and cleans the mats.

2. Once in two months, I wash the car myself, apply wax (Abro gold) and clean the interiors with Wax Pol after dusting the mats and carpets. I use Waxpol for Dashboard shining too. This takes 2 hours.

The results: Clean car.

 

[Civic]

1. Daily car exterior dusting and cleaning with damp cloth. This is done by a professional who comes early morning and completes his job in 45 minutes.
The results: Clean car.

When you clean your car, better use a good microfiber towels than normal cloth. It can trap the dust within itself and reduces the chance of swirls.