Cleaning tips for your Cali

They are looking nice :thumb
Are you sure about this, they can be a twat to get off lol
 
soulstyledevon said:
Now the OCD kicked in......

Wheels spray rinsed, clayed and polished.
Check the before pic, with brake dust on the wheel. The Clay Bar has lifted this off and brought them back to life.
Now do I get the jack out and remove the wheels to do the inside...:headbang

View attachment 56520
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Ha, ha! I guess if you have the time.
My folks next door neighbour does that everytime he washes his car. I like to do a job properly but there's no way I have the time to do that everytime, especially as they will be dirty again by the end of the week.
I use those wheel brushes with a handle and some reasonably strong mixed APC in a sprayer. The brushes get at the back wheels easy but with the brake calipers in the way on the front you can use a small brush or roll the van forwards/backwards a few feet.
 
Karlos said:
I never use jet washes, I use a bucket with a decent wash & wax mixed with recycled rain water from one of our water butts, Start with all openings doors boot bonnet fuel filler rinse with rain water from a watering can.

The main vehicle start at the top as Borris said and work my way down rinsing as I go then allow to dry (difficult the last few months) 2 different sponges, one for bodywork and the other for wheels. Wax every couple of months.

Always worked well for me, Audi always comment on the bodywork condition of my wife's car which is 5 years old now and has had this treatment about once a week.
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Nice Cali and very smart indeed.

Candy white is one of my favourite colours. I've had two VWs and a Skoda in that colour in the past and the current van is half Candy White. It always looks crisp and stunning when cleaned and I've always felt that unlike the darker colours it looks cleaner for longer. It's also easy to touch up without the repair showing like on a metalic colour

Using rain water from water butts is a really good idea especially it you live in a hard water area. The calcium deposits left behind after a hard water wash are very unsightly and a right $@d to shift. However be careful, I'm sure you'd know this but just in case, if the water butt contents have come off your roof via the gutters and down pipes then it will contain grit from the tiles as well as other grit laden crud often deposited by our feathered friends. Whilst most of it will settle at the bottom of the butt below the tap level, it would be dangerous to assume that all you are drawing off is clear water. I've also tried doing this in the past and discovered grit in the water, thankfully before I used it! It should really be filtered before use.
 
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soulstyledevon said:
@Karlos get a two bucket washing method going. It really works...

Im onto the glass today.
Hot rinse with a spray bottle, clean down, then claybar rinse again and finally wax...

Check out the glass reflection... :cool:

View attachment 56518
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You've missed a bit. :)

I would like to do the same but we've lovely blue skies and a wind
chill of about -10.

Nice Gondola. :thumb I was looking for one last year, found one but it was 3k:headbang
 
westfalia said:
You've missed a bit. :)

I would like to do the same but we've lovely blue skies and a wind
chill of about -10.

Nice Gondola. :thumb I was looking for one last year, found one but it was 3k:headbang
Click to expand...

That was my project for late summer last year.
Unfortunately the rain came and I haven’t been able to make a start.
Will hopefully get things moving over the coming weeks. It’s going to be garden room/play house for our little one.
Gonna mount on a small deck with a slide off...

Well that’s the plan ;)

E1DA25BB-017B-4D1F-952E-B9EE9F6FEA0D.jpeg
 
CaliBear said:
Ha, ha! I guess if you have the time.
My folks next door neighbour does that everytime he washes his car. I like to do a job properly but there's no way I have the time to do that everytime, especially as they will be dirty again by the end of the week.
I use those wheel brushes with a handle and some reasonably strong mixed APC in a sprayer. The brushes get at the back wheels easy but with the brake calipers in the way on the front you can use a small brush or roll the van forwards/backwards a few feet.
Click to expand...
I do it once a year per set.
When winter wheels get on, I clean both inside and outside of the alloys. When alloys on, I clean the steel wheels. Not that easy anymore as the rust is coming up.
 
Borris said:
Nice Cali and very smart indeed.

Candy white is one of my favourite colours. I've had two VWs and a Skoda in that colour in the past and the current van is half Candy White. It always looks crisp and stunning when cleaned and I've always felt that unlike the darker colours it looks cleaner for longer. It's also easy to touch up without the repair showing like on a metalic colour

Using rain water from water butts is a really good idea especially it you live in a hard water area. The calcium deposits left behind after a hard water wash are very unsightly and a right $@d to shift. However be careful, I sure you'd know this but just in case, if the water butt contents have come off your roof via the gutters and down pipes then it will contain grit from the tiles as well as other grit laden crud often deposited by our feathered friends. Whilst most of it will settle at the bottom of the butt below the tap level, it would be dangerous to assume that all you are drawing off is clear water. I've also tried doing this in the past and discovered grit in the water thankfully before I used it! It must be filtered before use.
[/QUOTE
]Thanks Borris, I clean the butts out twice a year and the 2 I use for bodywork come off a corrugated plastic roof on my carport at the back of my garage the water goes into the first but and overflows to a second which is the one I draw from.
I love the Candy White so glad I didn't go for Mojave Beige which was my first choice. I had thought of a bottom half wrap but think I have talked myself out of it although I do like your van colour with the lower half in Starlight Blue.1.jpg
Click to expand...
 
Sorry not sure what went wrong there, my reply should have been -

]Thanks Borris, I clean the butts out twice a year and the 2 I use for bodywork come off a corrugated plastic roof on my carport at the back of my garage the water goes into the first but and overflows to a second which is the one I draw from.
I love the Candy White so glad I didn't go for Mojave Beige which was my first choice. I had thought of a bottom half wrap but think I have talked myself out of it although I do like your van colour with the lower half in Starlight Blue.1.jpg
 
soulstyledevon said:
That was my project for late summer last year.
Unfortunately the rain came and I haven’t been able to make a start.
Will hopefully get things moving over the coming weeks. It’s going to be garden room/play house for our little one.
Gonna mount on a small deck with a slide off...

Well that’s the plan ;)

View attachment 56525
Click to expand...

Awesome! You bought one of the gondolas from Flumserberg. That‘s our homebase! For the last nine years I trained kids there on the snowboard (base-boarding.ch)!
Seeing the gondola your garden next to your California made my day!
 
Karlos said:
Sorry not sure what went wrong there, my reply should have been -

]Thanks Borris, I clean the butts out twice a year and the 2 I use for bodywork come off a corrugated plastic roof on my carport at the back of my garage the water goes into the first but and overflows to a second which is the one I draw from.
I love the Candy White so glad I didn't go for Mojave Beige which was my first choice. I had thought of a bottom half wrap but think I have talked myself out of it although I do like your van colour with the lower half in Starlight Blue.View attachment 56544
Click to expand...
Looks like a good set up.
 
Karlos said:
Looks fantastic, might be a stupid question but do you clay bar the glass as well?
Click to expand...

I clayed the glass. Then rinsed and cleaned again with a glass cleaner :thumb
 
sapto said:
Awesome! You bought one of the gondolas from Flumserberg. That‘s our homebase! For the last nine years I trained kids there on the snowboard (base-boarding.ch)!
Seeing the gondola your garden next to your California made my day!
Click to expand...

Sapto, epic...
My wife and I went for a long weekend in January. It’s a beautiful place and would like to go back in summer.
We had some lovely conditions whilst there.
Your so lucky having these places on your doorstep.


FB647F04-B120-4782-A7A7-08383567593D.jpeg

39E3E555-7FB6-49D8-8D68-CBF99DA8379E.jpeg

2A0C401A-15E3-428B-9DAC-93D14DECAF97.jpeg

8CE99288-25CD-41CD-BE57-8D218539D489.jpeg
 
Scoobz1 said:
What products do you use please and where do you source them from ? Amazing job !
Click to expand...

Scoobz

Demon Tweaks - Snow
Turtle Wax - Wash
Wilkos - wheel clean and tyre dress
Clay Bar - Bilt Hammer

You just use water with the Bilt clay.
 
soulstyledevon said:
Scoobz

Demon Tweaks - Snow
Turtle Wax - Wash
Wilkos - wheel clean and tyre dress
Clay Bar - Bilt Hammer

You just use water with the Bilt clay.
Click to expand...
Thanks for that - will have to get myself a claybar and dig out my old car cleaning kit. Cali is fairly new to me so haven't done it yet !
 
Twenty years ago we invested in a Karcher commercial pressure washer such as garages have. It has had a new heater coil and new hose otherwise nothing and still going strong. One of the best purchases we have made. So very useful for so many applications. It was not that bad price-wise at the time either - about £1250 I think.
 
Ahhh, takes me back to my Beetle polishing! Lovely memories
 
HectorPascal said:
Twenty years ago we invested in a Karcher commercial pressure washer such as garages have. It has had a new heater coil and new hose otherwise nothing and still going strong. One of the best purchases we have made. So very useful for so many applications. It was not that bad price-wise at the time either - about £1250 I think.
Click to expand...
I have a Karcher pressure washer although not a fancy commercial one like yours. Ours cost about £200ish from B&Q about four years ago. It does a decent enough job however I wish some bright spark would invent a pressure washer hose that doesn't tie itself in knots as soon as it's un-reeled. Not only does it do that but it lays in wait to trip me up and loves nothing better than to get itself caught up on everything it possibly can. It's a love hate relationship. Definately a case of you only get what you pay for!

Does your washer produce heated water?
 
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  1. Jet wash
  2. Snow foam
  3. Rinse
  4. Iron Out
  5. Snow Foam
  6. Clay Bar
  7. Rinse
  8. Dry
  9. Side bars polished
  10. Coat glass with GTechniq SmartVision G1
  11. Machine polish (2 or 3 passes depending on what the panel was like)
  12. Panel wipe on all panels
  13. Coat with GTechniq CSL
  14. Coat with GTechniq Exo
  15. Pint
A fairly full on day - be nice to see it in the sun tomorrow.

Wheels to come off another day to be treated & rubber dressed when new tyres are fitted.
Bike rack off to be cleaned & treated.
Plastic to be treated with trim restorer.
Still need to pull of masking tape!


IMG_1407.jpegIMG_1408.jpeg

IMG_1406.jpeg
 
A very shiny Clio Williams after 3 months of eating through social isolation! Looks lovely
 
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