Chillihead Posted January 9, 2008 Report Share Posted January 9, 2008 Hi, not sure if this is a thing only available in Scotland? In Perth and certainly in Dundee, there are wandering folk with trolleys and yellow flags, who actively seek cars to wash, yup, even in the <0 temperatures we are currently enjoying. I have had my car (swirl free) washed etc regularly by these folk. I have to say that for £5.00 it is well worth the money. Hats off to the guy in Dundee on Friday, he approached me after I had parked, asked if "I wanted my car cleaned, just £5, and it would take 30 minutes", I eagerly answered yes. My car at this time was a matt grey colour with salty white tyres, gunmetal grey wheels and a rear that Germans would enjoy. The temperature was, DIS reading +/- 0 and the wind chill would have added -3, the wind was about +10 mph in the shade. I duly left my £5.00 with the guy and said I would be back in 10. After a healthy 15/20 minutes in Tesco, hey, after Christmas, bargains galore. I returned to my car. Guy still there, had not left and unaware of my impending arrival. Was cleaning the wheel bolt holes, I approached and apologised, he said, no problem. I asked if he minded if I sat in my car whilst he finished off. He replied, not at all, that the pre-wash was on. I then sat in my car, feeling somewhat embarrassed whilst he proceeded to rinse the whole car, use, what looked to me like fast glass on all the windows. Clean the wipers with AG glass polish. Thinking this was my time to leave, I lowered my window and thanked him, only to be met with. "I'm sorry Sir, not long now" Intrigued, I relaxed and listened to some good, if random (see ipod thread) tunes. Another 15 minutes later, after an AG metal polish of the trims, exhausts included, a final clean of all exterior glass, one last chamois and(now this really does impress me) a distance check of all panels and glass. A Waffle dry. All this in, a car park, with, believe me a cold, cold wind, for a fiver. He asked if all was ok. I gave him another, well deserved £5.00 and drove off, feeling suitably ashamed. Car still beading, not sure what he used but, after the quantities of salt they use up here, and the fact that the car was last waxed 6 months ago. I am impressed! Any other experiences gladly read. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mattchaps Posted January 9, 2008 Report Share Posted January 9, 2008 Yep, we have them guys down here too. Think the ones we have are all Polish. Not bad for a £5 but to see them take a sponge straight to a gritty body panel makes me cringe! For £6 I go to a Polish hand car wash where the first thing they do is give it a thorough going over with the pressure washer to remove any grit, then they shampoo with wool mits Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drpellypo Posted January 9, 2008 Report Share Posted January 9, 2008 [ QUOTE ] Yep, we have them guys down here too. Think the ones we have are all Polish. Not bad for a £5 but to see them take a sponge straight to a gritty body panel makes me cringe! For £6 I go to a Polish hand car wash where the first thing they do is give it a thorough going over with the pressure washer to remove any grit, then they shampoo with wool mits [/ QUOTE ] With a lovely harsh TFR to strip all the protection from your paint. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bpsmith Posted January 9, 2008 Report Share Posted January 9, 2008 Yup! You cant have it all ways! Simply not possible to get a grit free perfect wash from a single bucket in the middle of a 3000 space car park without using a serious TFR!?! Then people wonder why it looks awesome when they drive away but very quickly degrades... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
962C Posted January 9, 2008 Report Share Posted January 9, 2008 What the hell is TFR? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maersk Posted January 9, 2008 Report Share Posted January 9, 2008 Traffic Film Remover Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drpellypo Posted January 9, 2008 Report Share Posted January 9, 2008 TFR = Traffic Film Remover. A harsh, caustic, cleaning agent. Will strip wax. In short! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maersk Posted January 9, 2008 Report Share Posted January 9, 2008 I believe, Doctor, mine is shorter! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
962C Posted January 9, 2008 Report Share Posted January 9, 2008 [ QUOTE ] Will strip wax. [/ QUOTE ] Fantastic stuff then. Hmmm. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drpellypo Posted January 10, 2008 Report Share Posted January 10, 2008 The thing is, if you're going to spend two hours on a car (like I do) then you can afford to use mild products, and pre-foam, then do a nice two bucket wash. If you're restricted to 20mins then it's very very difficult to do it any other way. Don't get me wrong, I DO use TFR, but only if I'm replacing the wax, so in the case of a machine polish etc. Otherwise, it's gentle shampoo, and I take my time. A lot of these guys use a harsh TFR, which gets rid of muck quickly and easily, and then use a shampoo with wax in it. Believe it or not, you do get beading from this, but, it doesn't last long, and the TFR, if used regularly over time, can do damage to your paintwork. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bpsmith Posted January 10, 2008 Report Share Posted January 10, 2008 You pays your money and you takes your choice, as they say! In fairness to the guy doing it, he is not pretending it is anything else and only charging a fiver. If you are happy with that then no harm done in the short term, but long term there is potential for damage I guess. A lot of people change their cars so often that they would never actually come to see much, or any, difference to their paint so wonder what the fuss is about? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chav Posted January 10, 2008 Report Share Posted January 10, 2008 exactly. I've used washing up liquid before now. Makes no odds, the car goes each time after a couple of years.... Plus, the shite on the roads, such as stones, salt, grit are for more damaging to paintwork than some chap in tescos with a sponge and bucket! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bpsmith Posted January 10, 2008 Report Share Posted January 10, 2008 Aslong as you also have respect for those who do like to keep their's spotless then there are no arguments with those here generally. Although, on the same basis, you could also argue why we all are not driving the cheapest and most economical ride, as no difference in speed when stuck in the traffic we have these days!?! ;-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chav Posted January 10, 2008 Report Share Posted January 10, 2008 [ QUOTE ] Aslong as you also have respect for those who do like to keep their's spotless then there are no arguments with those here generally. [/ QUOTE ] Each to their own. And if anyone enjoys detailing cars sooo much that they'll do it for free, PM me for my address!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steelwind101 Posted January 10, 2008 Report Share Posted January 10, 2008 Intreasting thread! I think alot of people dont understand/appreciate/care at first for swirl marks etc. My friend had a 900 coupe in black and would park it out in the sun and say how nice it looked it. It was really just alot of hazie white lines in black paint. You could not see the shape and panels properly for love nor money. It took him about 2 yrs to understand what i was saying. After reducing the effect of a nasty key scratch i had to buff the whole door panel. Only after this, a few days later did he tell me that the panel i had buffed was clean and black! Needless to say the next weekend we polished it back to about 95% perfect. Geoff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chillihead Posted January 11, 2008 Author Report Share Posted January 11, 2008 [ QUOTE ] Yep, we have them guys down here too. Think the ones we have are all Polish. Not bad for a £5 but to see them take a sponge straight to a gritty body panel makes me cringe! For £6 I go to a Polish hand car wash where the first thing they do is give it a thorough going over with the pressure washer to remove any grit, then they shampoo with wool mits [/ QUOTE ] I must admit, I read that as polish, not Polish. Yup, same here, guess this is a Summer temp for them. Sorry. I still maintain, as an OCD car owner, I have yet to see any scratches! However, txt "nature" tp 60222, if you bargain well, you will get a free interior/exterior valet! All for the pain of a 1 day trail in a 110 308 "Sport" I did it, it was a v v v good valet! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tarmac_Terrorist Posted January 11, 2008 Report Share Posted January 11, 2008 I think the 'scratches' we are referring to are in the main, the swirl type marks you can see on paintwork in bright light / sunlight. Many folks don't really care about these but are the sought of thing that will give many of us folks in the cleaning forum a nervous breakdown just thinking about them! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wyliss Posted January 11, 2008 Report Share Posted January 11, 2008 Talikng of swirling, I went to Ford of Winsford the other week to look at cars for the Mrs and the sun was shining on an A4 Avant, what I saw was absolutely criminal. The whole car was swirled to hell, so sad to see it. When I got home it made me appreciate all the advice and help off here to keep my car looking 99% swirl free. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steelwind101 Posted January 11, 2008 Report Share Posted January 11, 2008 Dibbs, if you look most of these car detailers mix up rinseless wash type product or gloss products like AG Autogloss rinse and rub it on with chamois! The senseless pain of it all! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
962C Posted January 13, 2008 Report Share Posted January 13, 2008 [ QUOTE ] Plus, the shite on the roads, such as stones, salt, grit are for more damaging to paintwork than some chap in tescos with a sponge and bucket! [/ QUOTE ] I think the point people are trying to make above is that if your car is washed smooth and waxed and protected in the first place, salt and grit do a lot less damage to the paint. There was a chap on here the other day saying he swore his bonnet had less chips on due to liberal use of Zymol, as the stones 'kind of slid off' the nose rather than digging in (cannot remember his name, but was a blue RS4) Sounded strange at first but makes sense when you think about it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bpsmith Posted January 14, 2008 Report Share Posted January 14, 2008 And, believe it or not, you also save on fuel consumption! They did some tests in a wind tunnel using 3 mini's. 1 was absolutely stinking, 1 was clean but no protection, and finally the last 1 was fully cleaned, polished and waxed. The wind resistance on the last one was substantially less than the other 2, with the clean car also out performing the dirty one for obvious reasons. Cant remember where I got the link from, so cant post, but they reckoned that there was roughly 15% improvement in consumption from Detailed car to Dirty! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chav Posted January 14, 2008 Report Share Posted January 14, 2008 [ QUOTE ] they reckoned that there was roughly 15% improvement in consumption from Detailed car to Dirty! [/ QUOTE ] I think that is somewhat of an exaggeration! Maybe a fraction of a percent at most. (Car Surface area/contours/rigidity and hence 99%+ air flow do not change whether clean or not!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bpsmith Posted January 14, 2008 Report Share Posted January 14, 2008 Doh! Missed the decimal point! It was supposed to be 1.5% not 15%. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scotty Posted January 15, 2008 Report Share Posted January 15, 2008 I think another decimal shift might be in order Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phantom Posted January 16, 2008 Report Share Posted January 16, 2008 I used some of these guys last year in Wokingham, never again, ended up with two 2 foot long curved scratches on my bonnet. Usual problem of cleaning so many cars and not rinsing their sponges properly in between washing each car. I guess some are better than others but never again Ironically I have always cleaned my car by hand but on this occasion I was a bit lazy and needed to get the car cleaned quickly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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