Cleaning the D3
 

I've been a bit behind when it comes to cleaning the D3, don't think its seen any cleaning since before the A8 meet at the Fairmile last year., possibly late October.

I live on a farm and the driveway to the house consists of 300 yards of mud and gravel. At this time of year all that happens is it gets cleaned and looks the same again within a couple of days, not usually a problem because I do such low miles.

Over christmas I covered a lot of miles in a single week on salted roads, so now the car is even worse than usual. The polished alloys have taken on a nice anthracite colour and the car is almost black and not silver.

I want to give the D3 a clean to at least remove this dirt. Now, usually I'd just go down the road and pay £7 to the local car wash, they do a fantastic job using decent products (unlike some) but the volume of mud and dirt is the worry.

Any advice, maybe a good jet wash would be a start.

A nice before shot of the grime so we can marvel in the transformation.

Yeah I would defo be jet washing all the crap off first be before attempting anything else.

Mine was do dirty even a jet wash and snow foam didn't shift everything! I ended up doing both of those and then giving it a hand wash on top - it's now looking presentable although a bit more time on the lower quarters is still needed when the weather is better!

Defo worth attempting to get as much baked on crud off before hand washing.

I don't think I washed mine in the last 6 months.
Its really bad and I feel ashamed.

I would jet wash it the best you can.
Find a hot jet wash and use that.

Snow foam would also be recommended if you can.

Possibly jet wash and snow foam several times to remove it the best you can.

Make sure you removed as much as possible before you go any where near it with a mitt.

Well I relented today, and visited the local east european operated car wash, how do these guys manage. Temperature is just over 0c with 20mph gusty wind from the north, yet they have cars queueing to get washed such is the reputation of these guys.

Car is at least clean again, after being some months since it was last done. All the salt and mud has gone, but it will be back again in a few days.

I was wondering this only last Sunday, how do these guys manage?? £5 exterior, £13 with interior. TBH they go a bit too quick with the interior and are very generous with all the sprays that I do the interior of the '8 myself. Can not fault them on the exterior clean. +++

Can't fault them other than dragging the crap from the bottom of the sills and wheels all over the car.

I have yet to see a splash and dash that washes top down, uses grit guards etc.

The one here has a four stage process,

1 the car is sprayed with detergent,
2 the car is pressure washed,
3 the car is hand washed from the top down,
4 the car is hand dried after the door shuts are all cleaned.

All done in different areas of the wash facility, and the cost is £7.

^ This ^

Sorry Mannyo, but my car would not go anywhere near these places.

How do they manage?

Answer: check out the chemicals they are using on your paintwork, you wouldn't use these yourself, and you can expect to start seeing the lacquer peeling off your alloys soon enough if you continue to use these places.

Using sponges and leathers is bad enough, but I'll bet my mortgage that the ones they are using are the cheapest horrible rubbish and are never cleaned, in other words, they are dragging grit all over your paintwork.

most of them use BRICK ACID on the wheels

i know a few people with knacked alloys from using these guys