So I want to start washing my car myself. Wanted some advice and some tips. I have Karcher pressure washer with a snow foam bottle. I'm planning to get Autoglym Polar Blast Snow Foam 2.5L bottle. I have two buckets, one with a grit guard and I have a sheep-wool meguairs mitt and two microfibre mitts one for the sills and edges and another for the wheels. I came across TRIPLE QX Professional Wheel Cleaner which is a degreaser that you spray on wheels and wash off. So wondering if i should first start by spraying this on the wheels then rinsing the wheels and then washing wheels with soap and mitt and rinsing again? next, should I rinse the entire car with the pressure washer and then apply the autoglym snow foam? what do I do after the snow foam? do I wait for it to run down or wait a few minutes etc? Am I supposed to rinse the snow foam down before using shampoo and mitt? Finally, in regards to drying. I have a big drying towel. But I've seen some drying and sealing agents that you can spray on and then rinse off which lets he car dry better and any little bit of water you can just dry with a towel. Any recommendations to any products that can dry and seal like this?
Other option is, I get the full Autoglym Polar system. Which I understand starts with the Polar Snow Foam, then the Polar Wash and then the Polar Seal. So watching the video demos from Autoglym. It seems that the process is that you cover the entire dirty car in snow foam first including the wheels. You then leave for a while Max 10mins it says. Then rinse off everything working from bottom to top. After that you using the snow foam bottle and use the Polar wash which is a shampoo and coat the car in the polar shampoo and use the mitt. Then you rinse the car and the final stage is using the same snow foam bottle you apply the Polar Seal, and then you dry off with a large drying towel. This seems like a simple enough process and i am assuming the seal seals for at least a few weeks between washes?
Some of my favourite products and well recommended from the folk on the detailing world forum Snow foam - Bilt Hamber auto foam Shampoo - Bilt Hamber auto wash or Car Them 1:1900 Fallout remover - Bilt Hamber korrosol Tar Remover - Autosmart Tardis Clay - Bilt Hamber clay Wheel Cleaner - Autosmart Smart wheels Rust inhibitor - Bilt Hamber Atom Mac Wax - Fusso 99 Seem very heavy on the bilt hamber products looking back at that, but they are good. Technique: 1) Snow foam, 4% impact ratio (This is not 4% dilution in the bottle ratio). Leave to dwell for 5 mins 2) Jet wash off 3) Clean wheels with 2 buckets, rinse wheels 4) Clean car with 2 buckets, rinse 5) Dry I use a resin vessel to avoid having to dry the car as it saves time and avoids another stage of potential damage. Any questions I'm happy to help but a quick search on detailing world will help you out. The forensic detailing channel is also good on youtube.
Start cleaning the wheels first. Use a wheel cleaner and your microfibre mitt then rinse with the pressure washer. If the car isn't too dirty, you can get away with not rinsing before applying your snow foam, otherwise a pressure wash blast first is a good idea. Let the snowfoam dwell for 5-10 minutes (don't let it dry) then rinse off, then you can wash the car with shampoo. The idea behind snowfoam is to remove as much dirt as possible without touching the car, to cut down on swirl marks. There's some great drying aids out there, 2 I've used are Gyeon Wetcoat and Auto Finesse Aqua Coat. Spray lightly all over the car, including windows, and pressure wash off. Really easy to use and makes drying easier as there's less water left on the car.
one rule i have always used is snow foam first. Never pressure wash a dirty car, all you're doing is blasting the dirt against the paint work. Snow foam works better when the car is dry too.
Ive looked into AF Aqua Coat. Looks good. As I am thinking to try out the AutoGlym polar range from snow foam then wash then seal. I am assuming the AutoGlym polar seal is equivalent to the AF Aqua Coat right? Polar seal needs to be sprayed through a pressure washer and snow foam gun and then dried with a towel. I'm assuming AF Aqua Coat needs drying with towel too?
After applying Aqua coat, if you rinse off with an open hose, most of it should bead off & you should be left with a small amount of bead which you can dry, but there shouldn`t be much left to dry.
