Car Valeting is an essential part of maintaining your car/van; you must protect the paintwork all year round. Whether you do it yourself or get a professional to do the job for you, it's a must for any car owner. There are many different car shampoos, polishes, waxes, tyre dressing, plastic conditioners, leather cleaners, even different polishes for different coloured cars.
So how do you protect your car?
Always start off by adding copious amounts of water to rinse your car off; the reason why you do this is to get all the small particles of grit-dirt-dust off the bodywork. You do not want to start using a sponge on your car where particles left behind can damage your paintwork as this will scratch the car once the sponge is used.
You then require a good shampoo and conditioner, add this to a bucket with approximately 5 litres of water. Dependant on how much you want to spend on your equipment to wash the car you can purchase buckets with grit guards in them, this keeps the grit from your sponge in the bottom of your bucket and not going back onto the sponge to possibly damage your car paintwork.
Once the car is washed with the shampoo and conditioner it’s time to rinse your car off then take a chamois to dry the car.
Tar Removal
You will have probably noticed when washing the car that black spots are on the doors and would not come off when washing the car. These are Tar deposits and will need to be removed. The easiest way to remove these is with a Tar & Glue remover. You must do this at this point as the Tar & Glue remover will strip polishes and waxes from the car. Simply spray the Tar & Glue remover on the tar spots and leave for a couple of minutes, you will see the tar running down your paintwork, just wipe with a cloth to remove the tar. In some cases if the tar is heavy you may have to repeat the process.
Polishing Your Car
Now your car is dirt free and tar free it’s time to apply a polish, the best way of applying polishes is with an application sponge. Use a bucket again with a couple of inches of water in as the sponge will need to be kept damp through the polishing process. Dip the sponge in the water in the bucket and squeeze to remove most of the water, add your chosen polish to the sponge and use circular motions to apply the polish, panel by panel until the whole car is polished. The polish will then need to be removed, use a microfiber cloth to remove the polish, remove the polish in straight lines rather than a circular motion.
Waxing Your Car
After polishing your car you need to seal the shine of your car to the car, the secret is to provide a layer of protection between the exposed material (your polished paintwork) and the air. One of the best waxes I have come across to do this is HD Wax from Autoglym. With this wax you get the application sponge and the polishing cloth so you have no need to buy anything else to wax your car.
To apply the wax use the same process as polishing but use the red application sponge and red microfiber cloth. The red microfiber cloth is designed in a different way than other microfiber cloths which produces a better finish when your waxing. The wax will protect your car for months, every time you wash your car after applying the wax your car will look like new again, no polishing required.
Equipment Required
- Hose Pipe- Jet Wash
- Buckets
- Shampoo & Conditioner
- Sponge
- Tar & Glue Remover
- Microfiber Cloths
- Polish
- Application Sponge
- Wax