I have my 05z now for a week. sadly i have no garage or a covered drive way.
the car sits on the driveway and hit by sunlight and rain and prob snow come winter.

first, i see alot of dead bugs in the radiator grill. can i just hose that out with water wth the hood up?

second, i see dirty stains on my front wheels, didnt hit n e water puddles, is this break dust? and the rotor seems rusty , is there a way to clean the rotor?

third, i see water spots on the top of the car, i guess from rain residue that baked in the sun, looks like welts and bird poop. whats the best way to clean these aside from a full blown car wash?

fourth, please, flame me if u must, but can someone teach me , or walk me through the process of cleaning and protecting the car? i love the car and i want to keep it looking and smelling good as long as i can.

i would like to clean the car as soon as possible, but i dont want to make any mistakes.

oh and with microfiber cloth , drying cloths, do u run it in the washer to clean it or do u hand clean them? and do u just use the normal cloth detergents?

lastly is there a spray that retains the new car smell?

thank u!

 

Hey I wrote this for someone a while back on some of the things I do. I haven't edited it since I wrote it but I think most of the information will suit you.



Originally Posted by --------
"I'm pretty much in the boat you are in when you started with car care ie: polishes waxes etc. I was curious if you could post your final findings in this post and the steps you took to achieve a decent priced solution to a nice shine.
https://my350z.com/forum/showthre...best+wax+black

I can't bring myself to spending as much as some of these people on a good shine, I'd rather find something equally sufficient at the local Autozone etc.. If you could post the type or brand of towels and all the accessories used to do so that would be awesome. And possibly things not to do.
Thanks "


Here is what i did start to finish and the items i used. (i appologize for the spelling and grammar i am in germany right now and typing on a german keyboard where all the buttons are different)

first i clean my wheels. i used to wash the car first but then found all my overspray would end up on the already washed and dried car.

i fill up a 1 bucket with water and soap (turtle wax ice). i wash off whatever i can with a chilian wash mitt (that i only use for my wheels). after the intial wash i spray armoral degreaser all over the place around and in the wheels. i also spray the wheel wheels. let it sit for about 10-20 seconds, then go in with the chelian mitt and agitate everything i can get at and agitate the rubber on the tires with a tire bristle brush. i dont know the make, but they are all generic. after i rinse and dry the wheel, and just poke at any spots i missed and rinse again. i also rinse the wheel wheels. i use all my old and somewhat dirty towels on my wheels. (costco towels) yellow towels 30 pack for like 15 bucks. i only use these towels once to dry my car. after they go into the wheel cleaning+drying bin.

so now all the wheels are clean. i wait to apply tire spray untill i am finished with the whole car.

stuff for wheels = 5 gallon bucket
turtle wax ice soap
amoral degreaser, but any degreaser at autozone will work
chelian wash mit (i got a 3 pack for my birthday) but i use 1 and only the same one all the time on my wheels only.
costco microfiber drying towels
costco tire spray(used after) but all tire sprays are pretty generic too. i find costco has the best price for a 3 pack.


now i am ready to wash my car

first i wash with the 2 bucket system.

i use turtle wax ice soap in one bucket and fill it with warm water from my sink. the other bucket is my rinse bucket which you can fill with the hose water.

i stick my hose in the warm bucket to get the soap to sud up.

next i put the windsheild wipers up and rinse the whole car from top to bottom. then i use a sheepskin wash mit and do sections at a time. first i do the roof, hood, windshields, trunk, wing, front and back bumpers and half of the doors, everything above the imaginary line i draw for myself above the crease line in the door. after that i switch to another mit. Next i do the lower part of the doors doors. finally i do the really dirty secions like around the wheel wheels. i find the worst part is right where the Z emblems are right behind the front wheels. i always wash in verticle pattern, because i beleive no matter how well you wash you are going to get some swirl marks, but if you do them verticly they stand out less than horizontal ones. i always wash in streaks on the whole car, never circular motions.

evertime i go back to my buckerts for more soap i rinse my mit in the rinse bucket and then the soap bucket.

next i open the doors, hood, and trunk and lightly clean all the door and hatch jams. and rinse them with the hose with the "mist" setting. i get a little water in the car, its not a big deal. now your whole car should be clean. next i take (new only) yellow microfiber costco drying towels and dry the windhseilds to get the towels a little wet so they can absorb better. then i dry the hood roof and hatch with 2 towels and do the rest of the car with 2 other towels. after everything is dry i spray the costco wheel spray on very carefully and wipe the drippage off the rims. I reciently got a shop vac that has a blower function. It works great, except I have put a few tiny scratches in the car because I accidently nicked the nozzel against the paint.

now the whole car should be clean and dried.

next i bring my car into the garage and turn the lights on as high as they can go. i ordered the clay bar and lube kit from detailed image. i claybared the whole car in the same way i washed it. because my car is still pretty new and didnt really have many swirl marks yet i didnt use a polish. I have used turtle wax Ice polish by hand on other cars and it does a so so job. i got FMJ sealant from detailed image and it comes in a package with an applicator, the sealant, and a microfiber buffing cloth. i just applied it in a sweeping stroke fashion and did the whole car before buffing off in the same way i applied it. its really weird once you put that stuff on you can really tell where the sealant is and isnt, and the same with the areas you clay bar. its amaying what it picks up even if the car looks sparkiling clean. after i buffed off the whole car, i got microfiber applicators from autozone and poorboys wax from detailed image. i just applied in strokes to teh car. did the it in the same fashon i washed the car. did the roof for example, then the hood. after i finished with the hood i went back and buffed off the roof. the stuff is really easy to use, and i didn everything by hand. i used the costco microfiber towels to buff off the sealant and the wax.

that is pretty much it. next time i am going to use the merneza light poishes and maybe buy a porter cable, the meneza FMJ sealant is working awsome. i hope this helped if there is anything i missed let me know. like i said i am a complete amature at this stuff.

for cleaning up i wash out the wash mitts in clean water buckets and hang them up. i just throw the used microfiber towels into the wheel cleaning pile and done.

Finally I spray on the tire dressing from Costco. I then go around with a towel and wipe off any overspray on the rims, and let it sit for about a half hour

good luck let me know if i there is anything i missed or had any other questions

 

hi thanks,
so you buy new towels every time u wash your car??
dunno if i can do that.

soap and rinse bucket is a nice tip.

after soaping, rinsing, drying, claybaring and waxing. how can i clean off just little trouble spots like dried out rain spots, bird poop etc?

i have a nissan oem car cover for the z, is it safe to use in wet or super hot weather? i know some car cover fabrics can harm the paint.

 

1. You could just take your hose, and start spraying through the front of the grill, should take most of it off. If you want to be really thorough you could use a pressure washer hose.

2. It's most likely brake dust. If you want a lot less brake dust you could change out to ceramic pads. If you want to make them easier to clean, put a wheel sealant on top of the wheels after you clean them. To make it easier to clean the brake dust off, you can use p21s wheel gel cleaner. The rust on the rotors will wear off right after you drive it.

3. If those water spots will not come off on a regular wash, you may have to use clay bar. Meguiars have a over the counter clay bar that isn't that abrasive. If you need something more abrasive, for really stubborn contaminations, you can get Clay Magic over the counter also. If bird poop is etched into the paint, that'll be tough. Next time make sure you wipe off the bird poop as soon as you see it (using a quick detailer and a clean microfiber clothe). I normally leave quick detailer in my vehicle and a small mf towel for these types of situations.

4. Here's a great website for detailing guides.

http://www.autopia.org/forum/guide-d...ng-drying.html

There are a lot of other guides as well.

5. Microfiber towel. I throw then in the washer machine by it self (and seperate from drying/cleaning towels, and window washing towels). Make sure you use a liquid detergent only. I hand dry mines also. You do not want to mix towels with your bath/cotton towels as they will leave tons of lint. Do not use fabric softener as well.

Just clean/vacuum the interior often and do not smoke in there that should keep the smell lasting for a pretty long time.

 

You do not need to buy new towels everytime you wash the car.

After claying, all those dried out spots/bird poop should come out.

I have been told your car must be clean in order to use those car covers. So when they are dirty and you use it they will scratch the paint.

 

recommend any products? i mean can i goto a place like target and get the microfibre towels and drying towels?

or should i order everything online from a specialty detailing store?

 

Personal preference really. If you want convenience you can buy stuff otc at places such as target and autozone. I personally order my products online since the products I use are not in stores.

 

The costco microfiber towels are pretty cheap for the amount you get, if I just use the towel on the hood, roof and trunk/wing I may reuse it, but I am always afraid of picking up specs of sand from the lower part of the car, then having them get stuck in my towel and drag them across a really visible spot like the hood or something.

Quick detailers kill bird poop

 

Begin with a simple one-step cleaner-wax: https://my350z.com/forum/showthread....ighlight=magic

As you become more confident, you can graduate to multi-step techniques.

 

I buy my microfiber towels at Target for a good price. As far as cleaning solvents go I'm going to start ordering online for the best products. Just got my Z a few days ago and don't want to skimp on cleaning.