Bug Splat

[acra]

The bane of all drivers when it comes to hand-washing; but is there a way to help us along?

 

Just wondering if anyone has any tips or suggestions for getting rid of bug splat (especially old and motorway splats) that works well, preferably avoids excess hard rubbing, and prefferably keeps the paintwork intact!?

 

At the moment, I'm left with the option of leaving it (blegh) or hard rubbing with a hot shamoire leather...

[107 Codf]

I wouldnt use a chamois leather at all......

 

See the swirl marks on your car there causes by that...

 

Here is a guide I put together for the 107 owners club

 

Fot the record we all use http://www.wheelygoodstuff.co.uk for our products but you get the jist

 

Whats Wrong With A Sponge?

 

Millions of people wash their car using a sponge. But if you read the threads on this forum you will see that hardly any members are washing their cars using a traditional sponge... Why is that? It all comes down to the flat face of the sponge:

 

Imagine automotive paintwork with your typical dirt and grit particles stuck on the top of the paint, that you want to wash off to reveal your car's shine. Some of these dirt particles are sharp:

 

Now, if you place a sponge down on top of these grit particles as you would do if you were washing your car with a sponge, the grit particles become trapped between the face of the sponge and the paint - they have no where to go owing to the flat face of the sponge:

 

When you wipe the sponge across the paintwork, you wipe the sharp grit particles straight across the paint. As they move over the paint, the dirt particles leave a thin hairline scratch:

 

These little scratches are highly visible in bright light because they catch the light, and this is what gives you the dreaded swirl marks that rob you paint of gloss and colour and ruin the car's look.

 

Wash Mitts

 

Lambswool and Sheepswool wash mitts have been developed to get around the problems of sponges trapping grit particles by the flat face. If you run your fingers through a lambswool mitt, you can see that it is deep pile and not flat faced:

 

Returning to the grit particles on paintwork, when the wash mitt is placed onto them, the grit particles are absorbed into the mitt - safely away from paintwork so that they cannot scratch the paint:

 

Therefore, sweeping the mitt across the paint doesn't sweep the grit over the paint also and so you don't inflict lots of tiny hairline scratches.

 

Note: While wash mitts are considerably better than sponges, it is impossible to completely avoid inflicting the odd swirl marks here and there using a wash mitt. What follows in this thread are tips on how to keep these inflicted swirls to an absolute minimum.

 

Which Wash Mitt?

 

There are a great number of washmitts on the marked nowadays, ranging from lambswool and sheepswool to cotton chenille to microfiber. In my experience the best mitts are the lambswool and sheepswool. When choosing a mitt, choose one with a soft deep pile that will be kind to paintwork. Two excellent mitts are:

 

Meguiars Lambswool Wash Mitt

Eurow Sheepskin Wash Mitt

 

and there are others too.

 

So Many Shampoos! Which to Choose? [Wheelygoodstuff!]

 

At the end of the day, shampoo choice for your car is going to come down to personal preference. But there are so many shampoos on the market its hard to know which ones to go for! A couple of things to look for when choosing a car shampoo:

 

1. Lubricity in the washing solution - you want a shampoo that makes the washing solution feel nice and lubricated so that dirt particles can be encapsulated by this lubricant and any that aren't absorbed into the wash mitt will slide off the paint without scratching in the rinsing water. Soapy suds are pleasing and can make car washing fun, but lubricated wash solution is more important.

 

2. A shampoo should contain no harsh detergents if you are washing a car that you have spent many hours polishing, sealing and waxing. Harsh detergents strip wax straight off the paintwork leaving your paint surface dried out and unprotected. Fairy Liquid is therefore a big no no for washing cars. You feel what happens to the skin on your hand if in prolonged contact with harsh detergents, it dries the skin out - it will do similar damage to paint.

 

With this in mind, there are still a huge number of car shampoos that fit the bill - ones that I have used and rate are the following, so if you're struggling on which to choose, try one of the following:

 

What is the "Two-Bucket Method"

Again, millions of people use a single bucket of car wash solution to wash their car, but if you read the threads on this site you will find most members wash their cars using the "Two-Bucket Method" - whats that?

 

As suggested by the name, the two bucket method uses two buckets, not one. In thie first bucket, you have your car wash solution as normal. In the second bucket you have clean fresh water. First off you soak your mitt in the wash solution and begin washing the car (as described below). Then, before dunking the wash mitt back into the wash solution, you rinse it out in the second bucket of fresh water - this rinses out the dirt and grit particles from this mitt so that they cannot come into contact with your paint, reducing the number of swirls inflicted.

 

A grit-guard is also a very worthwhile investment and sits at the bottom of the bucket (I have two, one in the rinsing bucket and one in the wash solution bucket). When dunking you mitt into the fresh water bucket, rub it across the grit guard to increase the amount of grit particles which are removed from the mitt. Also, it keeps them trapped at the bottom of the bucket so even less chance of the mitt picking them back up and them reaching your paintwork to inflict scratches.

 

Washing

Here I describe the generic technique I use to wash cars...

 

Wheels, Arches, Door Jambs

 

Start with these. When washing your wheels using a wheel brush, the shampoo solution (or wheel cleaner solution) can spray up onto paintwork, and if you've just cleaned the paintwork, you'll end up needing to clean it again to remove the dirty spray from wheels! Don't forget to open all doors and boot and clean the door jambs and the insides of the door (without getting wash solution into the locking mechanisms, I cover these up) - these areas can pick up a lot of dirt as well and it adds something a little extra to open the door and see the jambs as clean as the rest of the car as these areas are often forgotten about.

 

Pre-Rinsing

 

This loosens up dirt and wets the paintwork ready for washing. Using a hose pipe, direct a gentle spray of water at the paintwork at a shallow angle. If you blast the paintwork with high pressure at ninety degrees to the paintwork, you'll force grit into the paint and cause scratches. Just a gentle spray of water to wet the paintwork is all that is required. If you don't have access to a hose, use a watering can with the rose fitted to produce a gentle spray of water:

 

 

 

Shampooing

 

This is the major stage of the washing process, and the time when most scratches can be inflicted if care is not taken. This removes fresh surface contamination from paintwork such as dust, grit, mud, road film etc... Add the correct amount of car wash solution (according to the dilution ratio on the bottle) to your bucket and fill with water to produces suds and lubricated wash solution:

 

The water can be cold, or warm - I prefer warm water as it keeps my hands warm, especially in winter!!

 

Now, use the two bucket method described above. Use two wash mitts - one for the top areas of the car (roof, bonnet, upper sides above the wheel arch line) and one for the lower areas (below the wheel arch line, front and rear bumpers). Use a light parallel motion when washing, with out applying forceful pressure that will inflict scratches.

 

If a mark is stubborn and wont come off with gentle movement of the wash mitt, it will require a stronger cleaner such as tar remover or clay. Start from the roof and work down, therefore the large quantities of dirt that form on the lower parts of car are not transferred to the traditionally cleaner upper areas of the car. Try to avoid letting the shampoo dry on the paintwork as this will cause streaks and soap spots, for this reason try to avoid washing in direct sunlight. If you are in direct sunlight, it may be necessary to wash and rinse a panel art a time. Continue until the car is completed.

 

Rinsing

 

Once washed, the next step is to rinse away the soap bubbles and film. If using a hose I first of all use a light spray of water to wet the paintwork (using the rose on the watering can), just like the pre-rinsing step. Then follow this up with a flow of water from the hose (rose off the water can this time). Most shampoos are free rinsing and require this flow of water to make the rinsing water "sheet" off of the paintwork. (This sheeting effect will work best on well sealed and waxed paintwork). On a sealed/waxed car, keep rinsing until the water sheets cleanly off the paintwork and leaves behind only water beads and not flat regions of water. This makes the car essentially self drying! Rinse from the top of the car down.

 

Drying

 

Another risk stage as far as scratches are concerned. First off, I find that using a waffleweave drying towel is far safer and more effective than using a chamois leather. A couple of examples of good quality waffle weave drying towels are:

 

Sonus Der Wunder Drying Towel

Sonus Ultimate Waffleweave

 

Also Pakshak towels are very very good too! Rather than sweeping the towel across the paintwork to remove the water, I prefer to pat dry the car. The sweeping of the towel has more risk of inflicting scratches as stray grit particles may be picked up and inadvertently swept across the paint inflicting swirl marks. Instead, pat dry the car by laying the towel down over the wet paintwork. Gently pat the towel, then lift off the paintwork. The towel will absorb the water to dry the paint. A thin film of water may be left behind but this will quickly evaporate to leave a sparkling, streak free finish.

 

And there we have it - safe washing technique to avoid inflicting dreaded swirls into paintwork.

 

Kudos to clean yourcar.com for this one

[acra]

:( Erm... that's a little bit in-depth for an 8-grand car isn't it? Maybe that might be worth the effort, if your car is woth several tens or hundreds of thousands of pounds - but a C1? No way.

 

You kinda dodged my question too though; I asked how to remove bug splat, but I'm guessing that a gentle massage for the car ain't gonna do that at all well...

[107 Codf]

Dont use a shampoo I'd use a similar solution to a tar remover

 

try www.wheelygoodstuff.co.uk they have some good stuff.

 

To in depth for an £8000, I dont car how much my car cost I still have pride in its appearance

[wozza]

Tar remover should be fine for a new car and then get a fair bit of wax etc on there to help protect it in future and make it a little easier to clean.

 

If its really hard to get off claying it would be the answer. Although shouldn't really be needed on a brand new car however depends where you keep your car. Mine has to be done a couple times a year due to my drive having trees over it. Thus the tree sap and dead bugs etc gets hellish to remove.

[acra]

Eventually got round to fixing this problem - got a tar, sap & bug remover from Turtlewax. Was about £6, and works a treat!

[Tyke]

:huh: Erm... that's a little bit in-depth for an 8-grand car isn't it? Maybe that might be worth the effort, if your car is woth several tens or hundreds of thousands of pounds - but a C1? No way.

 

You kinda dodged my question too though; I asked how to remove bug splat, but I'm guessing that a gentle massage for the car ain't gonna do that at all well...

 

Dont know about 8 grand, more like 5.8.

The C1 is a plastic cheap car, thats not a bad thing as its got lots going for it.

But mine gets a basic wash and shampoo and thats it, it gets me from A to B and is not a extension of my manhood or a object of worship.

Dont get me wrong its a great car for the price but i aint gonna spend hours polishing it or adding go faster stripes.

[acra]

Dont know about 8 grand, more like 5.8.

The C1 is a plastic cheap car, thats not a bad thing as its got lots going for it.

But mine gets a basic wash and shampoo and thats it, it gets me from A to B and is not a extension of my manhood or a object of worship.

Dont get me wrong its a great car for the price but i aint gonna spend hours polishing it or adding go faster stripes.

 

Mine was a little over 8 grand - I got the Rythem 5dr, with alloys and air con. Still, I pay a fair bit of detail to it's cleaning - but I use a sponge and shammy, polish after - I'd never really thought about the swirl marks, but I'm probably not going to change.

I like to do a fair bit of modding here and there, and so I'm just getting started with my C1 - although the go faster stripes wouldn't suit mine's colour.

[Tyke]

Mine was a little over 8 grand - I got the Rythem 5dr, with alloys and air con. Still, I pay a fair bit of detail to it's cleaning - but I use a sponge and shammy, polish after - I'd never really thought about the swirl marks, but I'm probably not going to change.

I like to do a fair bit of modding here and there, and so I'm just getting started with my C1 - although the go faster stripes wouldn't suit mine's colour.

 

The only time i spent any effort or money on modding/making something look nice was when i was into motorbikes more than 20 years ago(jeez where did the time go!) as you get older(im almost 50) you cant be Ars** spending ages cleaning and polishing a car.

I wish i felt like you Acra and did spend time on my C1 making it look nice.

I bey your only a young lad with lots of drive and energy still.

We have not gone too far in our C1 but tomorrow we are taking it on a 200 mile round trip to see family in Wakefield.

Our peugeot 306 can stay in the drive this time.

Actually our C1 needs a good wash as the wife as been using it the last few days and she never ever washes and cleans our cars.

[acra]

Yep, only 18 at the moment - The only reason I mod my car though is to make it feel mine. Sounds a little generic, but I'll elaborate: My first car was an old Proton GLS (for those who don't know, it's a clunky old saloon car, looks like a squarer Vaxhaull Carlton). It was a hideous shade of light blue, and had many problems - including a window winder that broke, a clutch that was already very worn, squeeky wipers that didn't wipe very well and a ventelation blower that on full blast blew leaves. Still, it was my own car - I had the money to buy it, insure it and fuel it, and with it's quirks it was a bit fun. Also, it was different to most people's boy-racer saxo's, 106's and the like.

When the clutch went finally (after owning it for about 3 weeks), I decided I could either keep spending money on the car, or get a new one. My Gran gave me 8 Grand, and told me to buy something safe (and brand-new, hence the lack of a cheap BMW!) so I had the choice of a C1/107/Aygo, or a Volkswagen Fox. Liking the look of the C1 more, I got it - on full options; aircon, alloys, the lot. The thing is though, after a few weeks the novelty of owning a brand-new car went, and I missed my old car. Having a car that you couldn't possibly afford yourself (as a poor student :P ) means it didn't feel like my car. I feel that I have to personalise it some more, to try and get that 'my car' feeling. Haven't quite got there yet, part of me still wants my Proton back. I would have ended up not modding it at all (bar some security things like central locking, better locks, alarms and stuff).

 

There, that was nice and in-depth :( :lol: