# What's the best detailing tip you've learnt in 2020?



## SteveW

As the year draws to a close, it got me to wondering what if anything we've all learnt this year with regards to car cleaning and detailing.

I'm sure even the experts learn something new every so often?

I've gained a lot of knowledge this year since returning to DW in june after buying my new car. I've been cleaning cars for over 30 years, but until this year, my car cleaning routine was quite out of date really. But there is one very inexpensive tip I read about on here that I think is my favourite from this year and something I will continue to do every time from now on....

*Using an open hose to sheet the water off the car after the final rinse.*

It makes the drying process sooooo much easier. I'm even now considering buying a DI vessel to use for this process so I might even get away without drying off the small amount of remaining water after the open hose rinse.


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## Juke_Fan

The tip I have adopted this year is to mix your shampoo into a spray bottle and apply to the wash mitt rather than using shampoo in a bucket.

Quicker, cheaper and as you get a stronger mix of shampoo/water on the car it probably cleans better as well. Won't be going back to shampoo in a bucket anytime soon :thumb:


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## GeeWhizRS

SteveW said:


> I'm even now considering buying a DI vessel to use for this process so I might even get away without drying off the small amount of remaining water after the open hose rinse.


I would say my DI Vessel has been the biggest change for me this year. Having a black car (where the tiniest mark will show) I wanted to minimise anything touching the paint and that includes a drying towel. I still quickly blow off any standing water with the leaf blower or run the car up the nearby dual carriageway otherwise I tend to get water beads sticking around on the roof for a while which can collect dust.


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## JoeyJoeJo

Triple check QR parts are actually locked, then check again.
Complacency is the enemy.


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## minimadmotorman

JoeyJoeJo said:


> Triple check QR parts are actually locked, then check again.
> Complacency is the enemy.


I've launched a QR nozzle at the side of my dad's van this year. Never again!


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## SteveW

Juke_Fan said:


> The tip I have adopted this year is to mix your shampoo into a spray bottle and apply to the wash mitt rather than using shampoo in a bucket.
> 
> Quicker, cheaper and as you get a stronger mix of shampoo/water on the car it probably cleans better as well. Won't be going back to shampoo in a bucket anytime soon :thumb:


I take it you already have a coating of water on the car from the pre-rinse at this point?

Do you find it "suds" up well with this method?


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## SteveW

GeeWhizRS said:


> I would say my DI Vessel has been the biggest change for me this year. Having a black car (where the tiniest mark will show) I wanted to minimise anything touching the paint and that includes a drying towel. I still quickly blow off any standing water with the leaf blower or run the car up the nearby dual carriageway otherwise I tend to get water beads sticking around on the roof for a while which can collect dust.


Yeah, my car is black also, so know exactly what you mean


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## SteveW

JoeyJoeJo said:


> Triple check QR parts are actually locked, then check again.
> Complacency is the enemy.


I was looking at a QR gun and kept reading about "accidents" happening with the nozzles, so I ended up buying this instead to shorten my Karcher lance a bit


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## Juke_Fan

SteveW said:


> I take it you already have a coating of water on the car from the pre-rinse at this point?
> 
> Do you find it "suds" up well with this method?


Yep, plus wet wash mitt and I also give the panel a quick spray just to be sure :lol:

I find I get a lot of smaller suds/bubbles doing it this way and they stay on the panel longer as there is less water on the mitt so they don't run off straight away.


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## Andpopse

That teak oil is a long lasting cost effective alternative for restoring exterior black plastic parts.


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## JB052

Juke_Fan said:


> The tip I have adopted this year is to mix your shampoo into a spray bottle and apply to the wash mitt rather than using shampoo in a bucket.


Might give this a try, any indication of mixing ratio?


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## atbalfour

Juke_Fan said:


> The tip I have adopted this year is to mix your shampoo into a spray bottle and apply to the wash mitt rather than using shampoo in a bucket.
> 
> Quicker, cheaper and as you get a stronger mix of shampoo/water on the car it probably cleans better as well. Won't be going back to shampoo in a bucket anytime soon :thumb:


Shampoo is the one thing I wouldn't be looking to skrimp on personally. Unnecessary faff for no obvious benefit?!

Snow foaming the panel with shampoo I completely understand however...

Sent from my LYA-L09 using Tapatalk


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## percymon

To stick to Sonax BSD, I’ve spent thousands on potions and it’s still one of the best products for gloss and beading, cheap and simple to use.


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## sevenfourate

percymon said:


> To stick to Sonax BSD, I've spent thousands on potions and it's still one of the best products for gloss and beading, cheap and simple to use.


I concur - familiar story here Less is more re; application.....and then i don't find it smeary or overly grabby. The finish is awesome; for so little pennies especially. I too have tried 'many / most' others - and keep coming back to it.

Fair to say; if it all disappeared tomorrow - i'd be quite lost !


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## TeddyRuxpin

percymon said:


> To stick to Sonax BSD, I've spent thousands on potions and it's still one of the best products for gloss and beading, cheap and simple to use.


Same! All these videos and nothing seems to beat it - except on slickness - but then how often do you 'touch' your car, except for the handle?!?!

Hopefully not at all... 

I actually keep some Turtle Wax Seal n Shine just for the slickness and use it on the touch points (handles), otherwise I go Bilt Hamber DSW and then top up with BSD.

All these videos showing the next 'must have game changer' and it's almost always nonsense...


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## Juke_Fan

JB052 said:


> Might give this a try, any indication of mixing ratio?


About 100ml in a litre spray bottle was the recommendation I saw but if you have a really concentrated shampoo you can get away with less I assume.

I reckon I will get about 6 to 8 washes from the 1 litre.


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## Juke_Fan

atbalfour said:


> Shampoo is the one thing I wouldn't be looking to skrimp on personally. Unnecessary faff for no obvious benefit?!
> 
> Snow foaming the panel with shampoo I completely understand however...
> 
> Sent from my LYA-L09 using Tapatalk


I had the same feelings and often shampoo via a foam lance for ease. I had some Adams shampoo left that was clinging to the bottom of the gallon container so I diluted it to get it out. I was going to tip it straight into a bucket but on a whim decided to try the spray bottle approach and found I liked it and found it really quick and easy to do.

I won my self over on a whim but can understand if people don't like the idea.


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## 350Chris

A bit like the BSD comment above; I’ve learnt That retiring products from my kit bag is as good at saving me time as it is for improving my finish. Right product and tool for the job - backed with patience and technique


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## Liambo-235

My one is not so much a tip and more of an upgrade from standard Karcher lance and 2m hose to 10m hose and short trigger. Not having to move my pressure washer around is a god send.


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## saul

If you are going to deep clean carpets, couple of sprays of fabric conditioner..it really softens the pile and makes much easier work. 
Let it dwell and then hit with your preferred cleaner. 

Sent from my SM-G986B using Tapatalk


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## samm

Using Harpic Power Plus toilet cleaner on soot encrusted exhaust tips.

It worked when Autosol and 0000 wire wool wouldn't touch them. 

It is mildly acidic and works a treat, and costs about £2 a bottle.


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## Tykebike

Liambo-235 said:


> My one is not so much a tip and more of an upgrade from standard Karcher lance and 2m hose to 10m hose and short trigger. Not having to move my pressure washer around is a god send.[/Qig UOTE]
> 
> I'll second that, the short gun makes cleaning the wheel arches easier even though I have an angled lance. I think that the fact that the QR fittings enable the gun to turn easily is a big help. I also bought a Kaercher to QR adapter so that I don't have to change all the fittings.


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## SuperchargedLlama

For me it's been moving to a pure shampoo (Bilt Hamber Auto Wash atm), I've found it's made LSP application so much better, this obvious to me now but it's made a huge difference. I'd also saying having a shampoo bucket when doing the wheels, I never used to do that either.

I did also get a 15m hose and short gun which I love, but I'm not loving that the brass QR connectors are now being absolute dogs to close...looks like I need to get stainless ones and that's taken the edge off a bit for me.


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## SuperchargedLlama

samm said:


> Using Harpic Power Plus toilet cleaner on soot encrusted exhaust tips.
> 
> It worked when Autosol and 0000 wire wool wouldn't touch them.
> 
> It is mildly acidic and works a treat, and costs about £2 a bottle.


Banking that one!


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## noorth

I would say for me the most fun i had last year was when i got my hands on a few test panels. 

So that would be my tip of the year. Its great fun! And you actually get in the trenches has some would say. Instead of an armchair quarterback. Which i'm guilty of sometimes.


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## Commander2874

samm said:


> Using Harpic Power Plus toilet cleaner on soot encrusted exhaust tips.
> 
> It worked when Autosol and 0000 wire wool wouldn't touch them.
> 
> It is mildly acidic and works a treat, and costs about £2 a bottle.


Would love to try this but would the acid not be corrosive to metal tips?

Sent from my SM-G960F using Tapatalk


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## rowlf

The biggest lesson is to get a house with proper roads and parking space. Makes the job a whole lot easier and fun. Detailing also wouldn’t feel like a chore like it is for me now.


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## SteveW

Liambo-235 said:


> My one is not so much a tip and more of an upgrade from standard Karcher lance and 2m hose to 10m hose and short trigger. Not having to move my pressure washer around is a god send.


I bought an extension hose for my Karcher and it's made things a lot easier.

It wasn't a silly expensive one though so it does tend to curl up a fair bit still - but still gives me enough hose to get round the whole car without moving the pressure washer, so it'll do for now


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## SteveW

percymon said:


> To stick to Sonax BSD, I've spent thousands on potions and it's still one of the best products for gloss and beading, cheap and simple to use.


Not tried BSD yet. In my excitement about getting a new car and getting back into car cleaning in the summer I fell for the marketing blurb and bought 5ltrs of EZ Car Care Gloss Boss QD :lol:

So I've got a fair bit of that to get through first. It's pretty good though to be fair (for the price I paid anyway). But once I've used it I'll try something else and only buy smaller quantities of it so I can try different ones more often!


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## SteveW

samm said:


> Using Harpic Power Plus toilet cleaner on soot encrusted exhaust tips.
> 
> It worked when Autosol and 0000 wire wool wouldn't touch them.
> 
> It is mildly acidic and works a treat, and costs about £2 a bottle.


That's one worth knowing! Thanks


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## SteveW

Mother-Goose said:


> For me it's been moving to a pure shampoo (Bilt Hamber Auto Wash atm), I've found it's made LSP application so much better, this obvious to me now but it's made a huge difference. I'd also saying having a shampoo bucket when doing the wheels, I never used to do that either.


I switched from a cheap "shampoo and wax" to AG UHD shampoo last year and love it. Not sure if that counts as a pure shampoo though? It's nice and slick though.

Shampoo bucket for the wheels, yes I do that too rather than just relying on wheel cleaner. Again, something I've only recently started doing, washing the wheels first. I used to just use whatever shampoo was left in the bucket after shampooing the rest of the car!


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## SuperchargedLlama

SteveW said:


> I switched from a cheap "shampoo and wax" to AG UHD shampoo last year and love it. Not sure if that counts as a pure shampoo though? It's nice and slick though.
> 
> Shampoo bucket for the wheels, yes I do that too rather than just relying on wheel cleaner. Again, something I've only recently started doing, washing the wheels first. I used to just use whatever shampoo was left in the bucket after shampooing the rest of the car!


I think UHD has some sort of rinse aid in which helps sheet the water and aid drying....could that interfere with LSP? Maybe, although AG don't tell you rock anything else before you apply UHD was for example so I imagine it's okay. IPA wipedown is what you could do to be sure... but there is probably no need.


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## SteveW

I might give the Auto Wash a try once my UHD shampoo runs out. Got to try everything once, right? Does it create a lot of suds?

I've never used any Bilt Hamber products before but never hear anything bad about them.


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## Kenan

I confirmed with Autoglym that UHD shampoo leaves nothing behind. 

Sent from my Redmi Note 7 using Tapatalk


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## SteveW

Thanks Kenan, that's good to know


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## Derekh929

You don't need to spend hundreds of pounds to make your car look great. The oldskool products we sometimes forget about are sometimes just as good as the new ones, without the added detailing tax


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## Saladin

SteveW said:


> I bought an extension hose for my Karcher and it's made things a lot easier.
> 
> It wasn't a silly expensive one though so it does tend to curl up a fair bit still - but still gives me enough hose to get round the whole car without moving the pressure washer, so it'll do for now


I need one for my K2, I hate moving my PW. Are you able to share a link to the one you bought?


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## SteveW

Saladin said:


> I need one for my K2, I hate moving my PW. Are you able to share a link to the one you bought?


https://www.halfords.com/motoring/c...r-high-pressure-extension-hose-6m-680603.html

I just bought the Karcher extension hose when I bought my new pressure washer. I have a Halfords trade card so it worked out a bit cheaper than retail price.

Knowing what I know now, I'd probably have paid a little bit more and bought one from directhoses.net.


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## Saladin

SteveW said:


> https://www.halfords.com/motoring/c...r-high-pressure-extension-hose-6m-680603.html
> 
> I just bought the Karcher extension hose when I bought my new pressure washer. I have a Halfords trade card so it worked out a bit cheaper than retail price.
> 
> Knowing what I know now, I'd probably have paid a little bit more and bought one from directhoses.net.


Perfect, thanks Steve.

That hose appears to only be compatible with K3 and above. I'll reach out to DirectHoses and see if they supply one for the K2. Will update this post if they do for anybody in the future!


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## SteveW

Saladin said:


> Perfect, thanks Steve.
> 
> That hose appears to only be compatible with K3 and above. I'll reach out to DirectHoses and see if they supply one for the K2. Will update this post if they do for anybody in the future!


Oh sorry, I didn't realise that. I couldn't see it anywhere in the listing so assumed it was compatible with all K series with the QR style hoses?

Would be interesting to know though, because I may actually replace mine in the summer anyway, just to get rid of the stiffer hose that curls up all the time!


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## [email protected]

Juke_Fan said:


> About 100ml in a litre spray bottle was the recommendation I saw but if you have a really concentrated shampoo you can get away with less I assume.
> 
> I reckon I will get about 6 to 8 washes from the 1 litre.


my shampoo comes in a 1.2litre bottle, with a really cool self measuring bottle.

You'll get 48 buckets of shampoo from my 1.2litre bottle.

I can't imagine spraying shampoo onto a mitt / panel would be any safer than using a proper bucket of shampoo


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