Total Care - car washing

Hi All,

This really is a stupid female question...

I take great pride in my car. I bought a Corsa from new almost a year ago. I
had the Total Care formula put on it as it's meant to help preserve the
car's shiny coating blah blah blah...

9 times out of 10 i take my car to a valet car wash and on the odd occassion
i wash it myself. When i wash it myself i cant seem to do a good job. there
is ALWAYS watermarks and not as shiney as the valet people can get it.

when i was talked into Total Care I was told that I would simply need to
wash my car with a sponge, water and a bit of car shampoo then rinse with
water and dry off with a chamoise. Which is what i do, and still i get
waterwarks! Grrr!!

So.. basically.. could anyone please give me a step by step guide to washing
a car. how many times should one shampoo. I usually shampoo over twice with
warm water then rinse with clean warm water then dry off with chamoise.

Also.. any thoughts on Total Care?

all advice greatly appreciated.

 

have you waxed it ?

 

My mother fell foul of the claims on her last Scenic disability car and I
seem to think she paid out over £100 for the honour. Having difficulty
moving she liked the idea of easy wash and go. Alas comparing it to my own
non treated car neither of us could see any difference and dead dried on
flies from motorway runs were no easier to remove either.

 

I know very little about this (only wash car once a year...whether needed or
not) but you say "rinse with warm water". Does that mean a bucket, in which
you keep rinsing un-clean cloth? A hose pipe might be cleaner?

 

Thanks all for your replies.

Bongo - No I havent tried waxing as according to this 'Total Care' thing
there's no need to wax.

Martin - yeah its a bucket but a seperate clean bucket which hasnt had dirty
cloths rinsed in it. yeah a hose pipe would be easier but with the hose pipe
ban and all that.

Chamoise.. are you supposed to wet it first or is supposed to be used dry?

 

always works better for me wet.

P.

 

I`ve washed my car 3 times in a year. And that was only because I was
working somewhere with a good pressure washer who let me use it. The car is
bright yellow, and if you ignore it then it all blends together and looks
OK. As soon as you wash it, you either have to keep washing it, or it takes
a month for the dirt the spread out properly

 

When I wash my Vauxhall with warm water it takes all the wax off and when
dry all the scratches come back. In order to remove (hide) these scratches I
have to wax the car again. Same applies when using car shampoos.

 

Try putting a small amount of dishwasher rinse aid in the rinsing water
(only about a thimblefull in a bucket) and also half that in the water you
use with the chamois. You should soak the chamois and wring it out as dry as
possible before wiping over the car and then rinse and ring regularly. It
should stop the water marks.

It used to work well for me in the days when I could be arsed to wash the
car properly. I now pay the kids to do it.

Paul