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gday all! So recently i've purchased an mx5 for my first car and one of the first things required was to give it a nice wash, polish and wax. I assumed the process would be very simple but after doing some quick research i became worried about issues people have such as water spots, swirl marks etc. Could someone provide a run down of the process they follow and a list of higher quality products to be used? Cheers!

Put the roof up and drive through the auto wash ..

the spots will come off in the next wash

Have a look on the Car Care Products website - lots of info on products and tips as well.

Put roof up, hose car, wipe with sheepskin mit soaked in carwash, hose off. 10 minutes total. Add another 10-20 mins for a good clean of the wheels. Fastest washing car in the world.

manga_blue wrote:Put roof up, hose car, wipe with sheepskin mit soaked in carwash, hose off. 10 minutes total. Add another 10-20 mins for a good clean of the wheels. Fastest washing car in the world.

Sweet! Recommend mothers wash? Definitely thinking of going with the sheepskin mitt compared to the presta one i saw on mx5mania. Not that it makes a real difference..just want to do the best job

i recently spent 3 days detailing my car, that was paint only, still got to do the engine and interior.

depends on how hard you want to attack it.

a quick wash will only take 10 mins

hoe old is the car? try not to use soap, because that will damage the rubber and seal if use too offen, hose on and wipe till its clean, for the wheel, any kind of wheel cleaner is fine, you might need to bush a little. if u wanna wash the engine bay. make sure you dun spreay water on the spark plugs, and don't let the water get into the intake.

Regie wrote:i recently spent 3 days detailing my car, that was paint only, still got to do the engine and interior.

depends on how hard you want to attack it.

a quick wash will only take 10 mins

3 days?! What steps do you take if you dont mind explaining. im such a newbie haha

tescoking wrote:hoe old is the car? try not to use soap, because that will damage the rubber and seal if use too offen, hose on and wipe till its clean, for the wheel, any kind of wheel cleaner is fine, you might need to bush a little. if u wanna wash the engine bay. make sure you dun spreay water on the spark plugs, and don't let the water get into the intake.

its a 97 na8. yep i'll definitely be more careful when it comes to cleaning the engine bay. cheers for the valuable info guys !

tescoking wrote:hoe old is the car? try not to use soap, because that will damage the rubber and seal if use too offen, hose on and wipe till its clean

lol

way to rub all the dirt particles straight in to the paint.

Hose off.
Bucket with car wash soap and water
Bucket with clean water
microfibre cloth or mitt.

Dip in to soapy water, scrub car
dunk mitt in to clean water bucket and squeeze off.

Back in to soapy water bucket and repeat till car is soapy.

Hose off

Chamois dry.


If you really care (enjoy doing it)

Foam lance first..
Makes car look like this



Leave on for about 5 minutes
Hose off
then do all those other wash steps above.

For the wheels..

Iron-X

Spray on, leave for 5 minutes
Looks like this after a short time...



scrub with brush, then hose off.
Obviously do this wheel stuff before hosing off the whole car and chamois dry at the end.

NOTE - hose this sh*t off your driveway ASAP if you care about the driveway at all.. it will stain.


At this stage, the car is ready for about 4 hours detailing (if you haven't detailed it at all before or it's new to you etc)

Do not use a micro fibre cloth on your rear window unless you want to scratch it.


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It's not hard at all, it's a small car and it's very easy to work with.

Here a good washing guide for you to follow.

http://www.detailedimage.com/Ask-a-Pro/how-to-properly-wash-and-dry-a-car/


Or you can follow my guide.

If you wanna learn how to clean your car, a good place to start is by watching Larry's videos. Take basic advice from him if you don't want to be as hardcore as him.

Mx5's are awesome as first cars, congrats and welcome to the obsession.

Here are some links:
http://youtu.be/X0Sqi1lAj1A?list=PL96D52AF54166C886

https://www.youtube.com/user/AMMONYCdotcom/videos

It usually takes me around 2 hours to do a quick wash. Gotta love black...

Mother nature takes care of all my car washing needs.