Have I bought the wrong stuff?

[davemartin01]

I spent a bit today on stuff to clean my 1 week old DS3 and I bought the Autoglym shampoo and Super resin polish. I know the shampoo is good and needed but have I been a premature buying the polish as I have been googling and read that polish is abrasive and really only needed when the paint work is dull etc. Should I be putting it on my new car so early or should I buy a wax instead. I don't want to get into heavy detailing or anything, just a nice shiny clean car that is protected etc..

How often should polish like the one I have bought be used? Any info on what I have bought and when to best use it is gratefully received! I've been a bit rash on my buying I think as I swung into halfords on the way home from work as I plan on cleaning it for the first time in the morning!

Thanks all

[davemartin01]

Oh dear it would appear my quick stop is working out to be a disaster! I also picked up a bottle of Halfords own Alloy Wheel Cleaner and a bottle of Alloy Wheel protector. It says on the cleaner bottle in small print "Do not use on polished alloys". I assume the black 17" bellones are polished...

What a plonker. I usually spend ages reading labels but I was in such a rush....

[HarroDS3]

I use only autoglym stuff, and what you need for your wheels is Autoglym Custom Wheel cleaner, you could also get the wheel sealer, never used that though, the brake dust seems to come off pretty good anyway. Then I have the aqua wax, you can apply that when the car is still wet, but when the car is dry I use the HD wax. Also use Ultra Deep shine as my car is black and its best used on dark colours. And bumper care, I use that on the rubber bits around the door ect. Hope this helps

Keith

[davemartin01]

I use only autoglym stuff, and what you need for your wheels is Autoglym Custom Wheel cleaner, you could also get the wheel sealer, never used that though, the brake dust seems to come off pretty good anyway. Then I have the aqua wax, you can apply that when the car is still wet, but when the car is dry I use the HD wax. Also use Ultra Deep shine as my car is black and its best used on dark colours. And bumper care, I use that on the rubber bits around the door ect. Hope this helps

Keith

Thanks Keith, I am going to pop back to halfords and have a look at that cleaner. I will read the labels this time!!

In the meantime I have just washed and polished with Autoglym shampoo/conditioner followed by the Autoglym Super resin polish. It looks superb!!

[DS3Finland]

Super resin polish: "Cleans, polishes and protects all types of new or moderately deteriorated paintwork"... So i think your good to go with that. I used it on my yellow and i turned out to be ok.. No showroom shine, but seems to last ok. Could use something to seal it tho.

Got some zaino's gloss enchancer, but been too lazy to add it. :P

[CliveP]

You will be fine with Super Resin Polish - even hardened detailers like me, (only a hobby but I view ten hours as a quick detail), Super Resin Polish is way up there - it is a very filler heavy polish which means it fills swirls in the paintwork to hide them (it doesn't remove them simply fills them in) . The result is a deep shine but with little protection - it ideally needs a wax on top of it to provide some protection. It's level of cut is very low, especially when applied by hand, even by machine it removes little clearcoat.

By far the most important thing is to wash your car using the 2 bucket method and never ever let a sponge or leather touch it, these cause the horrible swirl marks you see on 99% of cars in the sun, and despite people thinking 'I don't see them' they rob your car of depth of shine - soft wool wash mitts and soft drying towels is what you need.

If you have to rub anything hard to remove it from your car you're doing it wrong.

Please take a look on www.detailingworld.co.uk for advice and guides - my username is the same on there.

Hope that helps,
Regards,
Clive.

[alexmj1]

I used Autoglym Super Resin polish and followed it up with Autoglym HD wax, car looks great.

[CliveP]

Yes, a nice combination, with good durability....

Regards,
Clive.

[alexmj1]

Good show room shine as well.