Cleaning products - How much would you spend?

A couple of years ago a mate of mine bought his 145 Cloverleaf from a guy who was a profesional car valeter. With the car he gave my mate a tub of wax - he said it was good stuff. This was passed to me and has sat in the cupboard ever since.
When I bought the GTA I decided to give it a whirl. Its hard work, but does give a good finish. I've loads left, but out of curiosity I've just googled it to see how much another tub is - £360!
Zymol Ital Glaze - great stuff, but I think I'll be back on Autoglym when I run out!

It's not a silver 145 QV with a reg N7 L**?

Roy

Originally Posted by TSE

It's not a silver 145 QV with a reg N7 L**?

Roy

It sure is!

Spooky!

I spent around £50 on bits from cleanyourcar.co.uk for the GTA, amongst that was some gliptone cleaner and conditioner for leather carlack paint cleaner and carlack degreaser and sonus glass and chrome polish wth some microfibre cloths/applicators and a pot of some collinite wax I haven't used yet.

Go the Autoglym valet case (Red) free when I subscribed to Classic & Sports car

Spent £34.99 on AG HD Wax and about £70 on the trade 5 litre versions of Aquawax, Custom Wheels & Bodywork Conditioner Shampoo over the last few months.

TBH, my garage could stock Halfords

i think the auto glym final finish is the nuts, and easy to put on, take off

Do the expensive zymol waxes not get free refills???

I sepend about £60 on a order of stuff every 3 or 4 months....... really need to stop that though.

Originally Posted by buffynorris49

i think the auto glym final finish is the nuts, and easy to put on, take off

I think it's rubbish.

Look at the rest of there product price tho
http://www.parcfermeshop.co.uk/searc...facturer=Zymol

Right, sorry for the delay in replying. The Zymol Ital that you have got is good but to be honest out of all the Zymol waxes I have never rated it that highly, both the £60 version and the revised £360 version.

Cleanyourcar.co.uk is a brilliant place for all car cleaning kit, Tim is a really helpful bloke and I'm sure if you spoke to him he would put together a good selection of bits for you.

How is the car these days? I've got a TS GTV at the moment but I do miss the 145 QV.

Roy

Originally Posted by TSE

How is the car these days? I've got a TS GTV at the moment but I do miss the 145 QV.

The car is in great shape, Allan has spent a fair bit of time and money on it. He's had all the dents proffesionally removed and a bit of paint done - it really does look mint
Its also got a Squadra chip and BMC panel filter we took off my other QV when I sold it.
If you look through some of the past Northern Italian Car Night pics you should see it - its a regular

Back to the wax, I just put it straight on and now I've read I should have used a product to clean and prep the car first. Is it worth getting some and doing the job properly? (I'd only got as far as the bonnet and front wings anyway )

I spent £70 on a tub of Swissvax Saphir wax. Wouldn't go above that, even though it's got the "Mystery Wax" on it at present which costs £300 per tub (thanks to the very nice Roy from The Shine Experience). I have invested a lot in my car and plan to keep it for a while, so I want to keep it looking good. I've found if you have a really good quality finish it's actually easier to keep clean. It took about 25 minutes to wash and dry the whole thing last night (excluding wheels which are a bit of a pain due to the brake dust - see other thread!). The dead insects came off easily, the water just fell off the excellent wax finish.

I use a mix of other products that are definitely at the premium end of the market. But I find they actually last quite well and do give a good quality finish.

Cheers,

Nigel

Originally Posted by Ferryman_1957

I use a mix of other products that are definitely at the premium end of the market. But I find they actually last quite well and do give a good quality finish.

Cheers,

Nigel

I couldnt agree more.

Originally Posted by Jim145

Back to the wax, I just put it straight on and now I've read I should have used a product to clean and prep the car first. Is it worth getting some and doing the job properly? (I'd only got as far as the bonnet and front wings anyway )

If you want your car to look good and keep looking good, it's worth getting a professional to sort it out by removing the swirls and getting a really good finish. This involves a lot of preparation work. It's much easier to keep clean and it will look superb. My neighbours always comment on how shiny my car looks. But it won't be cheap - around £300 for a full "detail". Worth it in my view.

You can see the results here:
http://www.alfaowner.com/Forum/car-d...d-156-gta.html (Pics of my detailed 156 GTA)

Cheers,

Nigel

got about 60 quids worth of waxes and about 40 quid in cleaning products and about a dozen microfibre cloths

Just get an electric sewing machine from Tescos, so I can do bit more stitching up, before I look at polishes.:

http://www.zen41135.zen.co.uk/slides/BRISTOL%20007.jpg

heres my car after a 100 mile drive to Bristol

has Autogym High Gloss, then a layer of Meguiers carnuba wax and then topped with Autogym super resin polish

Looks wonderful mate.:

Originally Posted by explosive alfa

http://www.zen41135.zen.co.uk/slides/BRISTOL%20007.jpg

heres my car after a 100 mile drive to Bristol

has Autogym High Gloss, then a layer of Meguiers carnuba wax and then topped with Autogym super resin polish

Shouldn't it be polish first?

Originally Posted by explosive alfa

http://www.zen41135.zen.co.uk/slides/BRISTOL%20007.jpg

heres my car after a 100 mile drive to Bristol

has Autogym High Gloss, then a layer of Meguiers carnuba wax and then topped with Autogym super resin polish

Looks good, I didn't want to walk on the pavement anyway