[Detail Matt]

Not seen the 1er so dirty - been really busy and had no time to wash it properly.

Anyway at a loose end yesterday due to arranging to be home for builders ( who never showed!)

I thought I'd give the BM a complete wash and share with you how you can remove lots of grime without actually touching the car! and therefore avoid inflicting more damage

Ok, so here's some grime shots of the disheveled 130i destroyer ( )

Anyway it was out with the gilmour.

I used the snow-foam in the bottle

And added some megs shampoo plus to aid lubricity

and set the gilmour to 1:128 parts mix (weakest)

First job as always is the wheels and arches so I used the schmitt wheel cleaner and various brushes

Then using the schmitt i took the main grime from the wheels and tyres

Following this the brush was used to agitate the awkward areas and free any stubborn specs

Then a microfiber work towel was used to slip into the spoked areas

Its worth noting that after my initial detail when i first got the car i sealed the wheels with PB WS and this now negates the need to use a dedicated cleaner! nice

The wheels easily came up good

Then onto the bodywork. in order to maintain my swirl free finish i wanted to removed as much grime as poss before making contact so as described up top the gilmour was used to spray over the car

following coverage the suds were left to dwell for five mins - just enough time for a coffee and a quick smoke

I then removed the gilmour bottle section and sprayed clean water over the car rinsing away the suds and grime. Considering I ve not actually touched the car yet its looking pretty clean already

anyway after this stage the regular wash routine was implemented and the vehicle dried off. What was obvious that the collinite was still beading away after a couple of months

thanks for reading, just thought i share how you can reduce risks of swirling further

Matt

 

[preppeller]

Nice! im gonna have to do some non contact washing, looks very little effort!

 

[TommyD]

My dad has an attachment for the Karcher that looks similar to the gilmour you speak of, will this do the same job?

 

[Detail Matt]

My dad has an attachment for the Karcher that looks similar to the gilmour you speak of, will this do the same job?

hi tommy

it might do - not too sure. I think its a similar principle but not sure on the effectiveness or adjustability.

sorry can help there mate

 

[TommyD]

Adjustability isn't great, but you can certainly lather the car up like in your pics. I never used it much, as i wasn't sure what was the best solution to put in it.

 

[Detail Matt]

hi there

chammy is a no no really mate - best to dry using a drying towel as per safe wash procedure sticky. This thread was just a pre -wash, it was followed by the regular wash afterwards - it was to remove the grit prior to a wash. Idea being that as much grit and grime removed without touch the less chance of actually marring.

matt

 

[Detail Matt]

Hi Matt
Oh, i see..sorry for the confusion. Is it to avoid 'swirls'? I don't think it's that noticeable on my Alpine White baby though..or silver cars. You probably know better.


Many Thanks

hi mate - yes white does hide them well. a chamois traps any dirt or particles between the paint and itself and as it is dried they can marr the surface. even though its been washed there is still airborne particles that can land on paint before you dry it. sounds a bit anal I know but anything that can be done to eliminate inflicting the dreaded swirls the better imho.

look at this one from last week, it looked mint until we looked at under the lighting i use

before

after

Must admit white is really growing on me rapidly

this was my 120d when i bought it from BMW

after

its really surprising like you say how certain colour really mask swirling until you really look.

 

[tminal]

Hi Matt,

I'm going to give this pre-wash a try when i get my new 1er, I ordered a Gilmour (and other stuff) with free snow foam from Elitecarcare.co.uk on Monday and it was delivered on Wednesday. Even though my new 1er will be White I still want to limit the chances of swirling etc.

Tony

 

[08ABC]

If only we were allowed to use water here *sigh* Once our boat's desalinator is fixed, I will be down the marina using the boat's water supply to wash my 1er (esp. the wheels!). Then I will photograph my finish

 

[TK38]

wow now thats the technique to get all the crap off the car

 

[tminal]

Day off today :woohoo: so a bit of hands free washing on the 1er was the order of the day! Car was washed 2 weeks ago and having done 700 miles it was not looking its best. I am trying to limit the risk of swirls to the car and it seems to be working as I have used this method since I picked the car up in July although I normally only do 1 application of the foam.

I rinsed over the car with a pressure washer first and the muck would not budge!

Used the Gilmour with Snow foam and Megs Shampoo Plus as used by Matt and applied the foam to the car.
Waited 5 mins before rinsing with the pressure washer again.

Then did a repeat of the above which I don't normally do but as it was so bad i had no choice!!

Here are the results with me not actually touching the car yet!

I then went on to wash the car with no effort using a wash mitt very gently before drying with a Sonus derwunder drying towel, followed by a quick spritz of Mega Last touch detailing spray. I have not waxed the car since August when I applied 2 coats of collinite and when it rains I will take some beading shots to show how durable the collinite is!

Cheers

Tony

 

[tminal]

As promised, beading shots of the Collinite 476s wax after 4 months, not the best pictures but beading is very noticeable.

Cheers

Tony

 

[JED]

Hi Matt

It is possible to get the Schmitt foam wheel cleaner in this country? I have found it from Autogeeks.net but they are in the States?

Cheers - JED

 

[dnw]

I've just ordered a Glimour (finally...) - what ratio of snow foam to meguiars shampoo did the two of you use? thanks!

 

[chris emersons]

Thanks for that Matt, really useful info.
Getting a new 123d m sport coupe on friday week. My current 120d m sport Lemans blue paintwork has got quite scratched over the 3 years and 82,000 miles i've done in it despite careful washing and drying, seems the paintwork is a nightmare on these new BM's.
So, ordered myself a gilmour and snow foam because i think im gonna need to do a lot of washing on an alpine white one !!
Do you wash the wheels first then snow foam the car dry ? believe the foam clings better to a dry car ?

 

[JimWD]

Hi Chris.

Give this guide a read, hopefully it'll answer a few questions for you :

http://www.whitedetails.co.uk/files/dummiesguide.pdf

Jim

 

[robson]

I have been snowing for a while now and have had better than expected results for a contact-free wash. Recommended for sure.

 

[roshambo]

I have been snowing for a while now and have had better than expected results for a contact-free wash. Recommended for sure.

Wow. You've revived a helluva old thread lol!

Matt

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[robson]

so I have! dates are not very visible to me in this browser! this must be some kind of record haha.