Washing the car

[Robin427]

When washing the car, I find water rushes at great speed towards the rear corners of the cockpit where it cascades down into the carpet - what do people suggest to stop this? A damp tea towel?

[dave.n]

Robin
Point the car facing uphill by quite a gradient or jack the front up. It makes it a lot easier.

[Robin427]

Doesn't it then run backwards past the windscreen and in that way?

[Viper]

Well spotted, u jack the front first then the back,

[mark_biddle]

Robin, You could get that guy from Fifth gear to wash it. Top price is 5k, but he rubs the wax in with his hands and has a special bucket ......

http://fifthgear.five.tv/jsp/5gmain....&featureid=283

[Robin427]

Fair enough - just given the car a bit of a soap down but when I started polishing, noticed that there were spots of glue, gelcoat and other substances all over the car. Have just spent about 30 minutes with a cloth and bottle of acetone wiping the sticky stuff off - got to shampoo the beast again now!!!

[Robin427]

OK, finding it very difficult to get a smear free finish. I'm using car shampoo with wax in it (Tesco own brand, I confess - but better than washing up liquid...), applied with a sponge and bucket.

I'm then wiping down with a damp cloth to rinse the suds off, as letting them dry on their own seems to make things worse.

Then polishing with a dry cotton cloth, but still having smear marks left behind... car hasn't had it's full proper polish yet as I've got some damage bits to repair, as well as some artifacts from the mould, but any clues as to how to improve things?

[dingocooke]

I only use soap and water if the car is really sh1tted up with mud, and then I use it carefully and just kind of sponge off the dirt.
I do this because of the 'water running where you dont want it' phenomonen you describe.
Most of my cobra cleaning is done with turtle wax spray polish, very watery, spray on from the handpump bottle, wipe the dust off, let it dry, and buff to a nice shine.
Quicker than a wet wash too.
Dont do it in bright sunshine though; streaky!!!

Oh, and before I start, I spray Mr.Sheen on all the deadflies, and other roadkill stuck to the body work, and while it softens up, I go and have a cuppa (from the kettle not a flask tho...) and then the bugs just wipe off, with no pressure or risk of scratching.
Its an old bike helmet cleaning tip.

(I do wet wash the wheel arches and underside though)

Steve

[craigh]

get yourself off to halfords and get some autoglym shampoo and one of their aqua dry cloths,i have used them for years on various cars and the results are good,i tend to polish without washing now providing there isnt any serious grit on the surface to scratch he gel

[dingocooke]

Sorry just saw your question, better if you leather off the water after youve washed, or youll get streaks from the evaporated chlorine salts in the water.
My reasoning is if your going to rub it all over twice (once to wash, once to leather) why not use the watery polish instead?
Most Cobra cleanups are not getting loads of real muck off anyway, just restoring a nice shiny car look,

Steve