Keeping the Shiny Side Shiny

The club had been invited to display three cars at the Porrirua Corvette Car show in a fortnight and Noel had asked me to put the car on show.

 Now the weather of late had been pretty bad, and with a combination of having to park near the rail yards and not having cleaned the car for about 2 months, M1STA 2 was looking particularly filthy. Time to break out the cleaning bucket!

 As I was going to do a full nose to tail cleanup, I thought I would grab some pictures and share a little information on how to keep the shiny side looking good. The following information is not meant in any way to endorse any particular products, but does reflect the stuff that I buy and have found to be pretty good.

The process:

Find somewhere to park the car in the shade as many of the products don’t work very well if the metal gets too hot (they evaporate or dry too quickly).

Wet the car completely from a hose.

Pour a little car wash detergent into a bucket and add water. This should get you a good head of foam in the bucket and mix the detergent in well. Don’t use dish wash detergent for car cleaning as some of them can be very abrasive and can damage the paint over a period of time. Also, don’t use car wash detergent on your dishes because it’s just too damn expensive!
Wash the car down completely using either a clean sponge or, in my case, a lambs wool mitt. The mitt has the advantage that the wool fibres actually pick up more dirt than a sponge, and the Meguires one also has a rougher surface on the back side to help dislodge bugsplat, tar and any other stuck on gunk without marking the paint. It can also be machine washed. Don’t forget to pop up the headlights and wash them as well.

Once washed, rinse the car off again with the hose. As a tip, I suggest removing the hose nozzle for this as the slower flow of water out of the hose seems to leave fewer water spots than the hose spray as it dries.
Now comes the labour intensive part, - the drying and polishing. 

Use a chamois cloth to buff the car dry. This will provide a nice dry surface for the wax and help reduce water spots left over after the wash. Start with the flat horizontal surfaces such as the roof, bonnet, boot and engine cover as these will have water sitting on them. The sides will have dripped clear by the time you get to dry them.

For polishing, I use two different products for getting a shine into the paintwork—Mothers Sealer and Glaze and Mothers Canuba wax. Both of these form part two and three of Mothers three-part system. Part one is a prewash paint cleaner, but I have never used this product so I don’t know how effective it is. The sealer and glaze helps put a really good shine into the finish, and then the wax over the top helps protect it. I normally only use the Sealer and Glaze about twice a year, and wax about once every two months with just a wash in between times.

The process for applying the Sealer and the Wax is the same. Take two clean terry towels. On the first ,apply a little of the product then apply to the car, using a circular motion to spread it out. Wait for it to dry slightly, and then polish off with the other clean towel, tuning this towel frequently to make sure you are rubbing down with a clean section of cloth. Only do a small area at a time, i.e. each body panel, and don’t do this in direct sunlight as the heat will cause the sealer or wax to dry too quickly. You should actually feel a difference in the finish. It will go from slightly sticky to silky smooth as you polish. Try not to get it on any glass surfaces as it can smear in the wet and is not pleasant to look through. Once done, the finish should come up very nicely.

[Now that's a polished finish]

Now comes the detailing. For the mags, I use Eagle 1. Just wet the wheel, spray on, and rinse off. I also use an old toothbrush to help with any stubborn spots of brake dust, especially around the valve.
For the tyres, I sometimes use a little Simonez Bumper Black on the sidewalls to clean them up, as I think the high gloss of most tyre blacks looks wrong, and doesn’t last past the first 10K’s. If you use tire black, don’t get any on the tread surface as it could leave that section of the tyre slippery when driving after the clean up.

For the interior, I use Armourall or Meguires wipes on all of the plastic and leather surfaces. Try not to get any on the glass surfaces as it can cause streaking. Don’t forget to vacuum now and then too.

For glass, I use Meguires Glass Cleaner on all glass surfaces, inside and out. It does a fabulous job, doesn’t leave streaks behind and smells better than Mr Muscle.
After the glass is polished and dry, I then apply some Rain Repellent to the windshield and wing mirrors. Not to stop it raining, but to reduce water spots to tiny droplets that are then blown and wiped off the windshield very easily (also much easier to see through when raining hard). I finally add some BarsBugs to the windshield washer reservoir and top up the water.

That wraps up the clean up. Nearly ready now for the show in the weekend.

By John Howell