Your choice of cleaning eqt...

[Tel]

Right, where do we start? I guess being nosey I wonder what you find works for your cars, in particular your F-Type.

FWIW, I use Zymol for their Carnubas, particularly their concours wax, and field glaze for quick top ups.

I am currently experimenting with Dodo Juice's Supernatural Carnuba Glaze.

All bare hand applied, and buffed with Purple monster MF towels.

Grit, guard and double bucket wash regime with 100% Merino long hair wool mitt, PH neutral shampoo and conditioned with Loreal Condfitioner for all hair types , only kidding!

Individual foam and cotton detail applicators for the 'fiddly' bits, Terry towels for the wheels and arches, finished off with a Meguiars Tyre dressing which IMO is horrible, but smells nice! I'm just using the stuff up, then I'll find something better.

Thats' a cross section of what I'm currently playing with when the car is not being driven.

[Selborne]

I thought you would end up starting a detailing thread !! Glad you did

I have been through most things overs the years, starting with Mer and Autoglim in the early days, both great products, but things have moved on a bit nowadays.

I have spent some time trying to see which is best Wax or Sealants and have done a full clean down and re-polish with both Supernatural Dodo Juice Micro Prime, Supernatual Wax and Glaze as well as Zanio Z1, Z2, Z5, Z6, and Z8, you have probably seem my thread on Wax or Sealant, the truth is, there is not a lot in it, the wax gives a slightly richer, warm glow shine while the sealant gives a hard shell shine, the main difference is the protection, the sealant is 4x better, nothing sticks to the car at all, as can be seen from my photos from Scotland, taken after 700 miles of rain and showers.

So what am I using, Well for any preparation, cutting, glazing etc, I use the Meguiars Professional range, Foam Cut and Mirror Glaze, as well as Ultimate Polish, this gets the paint ready for a final protection and super shine coat, this is where the The Zaino Range, as described above comes in, for a clean start I use the Z-AIO(1) and then build up two layers of Z5, then two layers of Z2, topped off with Z6 high gloss and Z8 final finish. To give you an idea how good the Z-AIO is on its own, here a picture of my wife's Evoque, this gets Z-AIO once every three months, and thats it !

For my tyres I also currently use the Meguiars Tyre gel, but although it looks good it flings everywhere, I used to use Turtle Wax Wet and Black, but cannot seem to find that any more, that was good.

For the glass I use Meguiars Glass cleaner, that is a good product.

and Meguiars Metal Polish for the exhaust, this is also a good product.

Good of fashioned chemical guys Speed Wipe is great for just wasting 30 mins when bored !

As for cloths and towels I use the 'Cleanmycar.co.uk' standard yellow ones, they are the softest and best I have found to date, I find the purple monster clothes a little to dense.

Anyway, I hope this has explained my OCD well enough

A couple of pictures to explain the shine on my F Type;

[Jagman14]

The OCD attention to detail has certainly paid off... that finish is show room quality!

[Bluebird]

I have had really great experiences with the new range of nano sealants - Wolf Body Wrap, Gtechiq's in particular. You lose a bit of colour depth vs wax on red cars but the protection is really great and lasts ages with only a little attention.

Am really tempted by the new Serum product - looks like it will prevent many of the small scratches and marks that plague us all from daily driving.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38Z_Up5hUts

[Jagalot]

My new F-Type came with a comprehensive kit of Autoglym products so I am assuming that the dealer used similar products prior to delivery. It certainly looked great when I picked it up last week (see photo in introductions).

I'm no expert so I would welcome any opinions on continuing to use Autoglym (at least until it all runs out!).

[Selborne]

Morning Jagalot,

The Autoglym range of products are of a high quailty and do achieve very good results, however as I stated earlier, if you want to take you car to another level, there are other products that can assist. The only point I would have with Autoglym, is to avoid using the Red Label Resin Polish, as it is a cleaner polish and has a fine cut in it. With a new car you should not start with a cleaner polish, but use non-cut products, Autoglym Gold Label, high gloss does not have the cut.

Which product you wish to use and how much OCD you have will determine what product is best for you, if you are using the car as a daily driver and are happy just to keep it in good order with a polish once a month, then I would recommend Zaino Z-AIO, this is a clearner polish with a sealant and maintains extremely good results. If you want to polish more often then you can top Z-AIO off with Zanio Z2 and Z6 for more protection and more shine. If you would rather use a natural product, then I would recommend Dodo Juice Supernatural Wax, much more work and shorter protection period, but a very deep rich shine.

But the truth is that most of the enthusist products on the market all provide extremely good finishes and levels of protection, see my thread on Wax or Sealant, goes into more detail and shows pictures of the my car with both different products.

I hope this is of assistance,

best regards

Jamie