ilogikal1

^^^^^ don't do that! The answer entire depends on whether the wheels are clearcoated or not; Clearcoat, use anything but be aware that overly acidic or overly alkali can cause massive problems if misused. Stick to something relatively ph neutral. If not clearcoated, best to stick to the safest option, that being shampoo and chemical paint cleaners (without abrasives) if needed. Auto Finesse Revolution would be a good place to start. Depending on what the "black gunk" is, you may need either tar remover, iron remover or both to get them clean. Degrease is also an option. Just don't use toothbrushes! That will scratch and swirl the surface up as much as wet sanding...

Kranzle if you have money to burn. Nilfisk if you're on a budget. Karcher if you want plastic yellow tat... If you're considering any other brand, check the fitting before committing to anything as you may find it difficult to find a lance that fits. Which brings me nicely to; a proper foam lance is pretty much the only attachment you'll need for washing the car, but a 15m hose also comes in handy over the 5m jobby you'll get with the pressure washer.

Perfect for maintenance cleaning of leathers but not really ideal for deep cleaning. I regularly recommend them.

I reckon he was more worried about his hair and image than being a bad ass Sith Lord. Can you imagine him standing up next to Darth Maul. Maul would be thinking, who's this pretty boy then It's very easily explained in just two words too; Disney villain. Even ignoring Abrams ineptitude at all things film, Disney was never going to let Kylo Ren be another Maul or Vader. I mean, they didn't even give him a theme tune...

Just never let your car leave the house. Park it in your front room, rebuild the house around it, lest it get dinged, or stone chipped, a bit cold in winter, wet in rain or even marginally dirty from time to time...

Also, this.

The lance will make a difference - assuming you're using a proper lance and not the crapy chemical bottle that comes with the pressure washer you'll need to consider all of the following which will affect how foamy the same product actually is; Water pressure, pressure washer pressure, how clean the lance itself is, how clean the gauze in the lance is, the flow rate of the lanc, the flow rate of the pressure washer, the flow rate of the water feed, the length of hose to the pressure washer, the length of hose from the pressure washer, water hardness, product dilution in the bottle, dilution setting on the lance, whether it's a Saturday afternoon or not... It's perfectly possible to make any snow foam product more or less foamy with ridiculous ease. With all of that said, it's worth noting that all of that should be massively irrelevent when choosing a snow foam. More/thicker foam doesn't mean it's a better product. If you want the foamiest snow foam get AutoBrite Magifoam (and to obtain that extra ripped off feeling, order it from AutoBrite Direct ). Don't do that. Either that. Ever. Magifoam is sh*t. AB Direct are worse! Instead get a foam that works; Bilt Hamber Autofoam, Car Chem Snow Foam or Auto Finesse Avalanche. Two of those are very economical, the latter works but isn't cheap. Then learn how to use it; i.e. Panel Impact Ratio (PIR) is the single most important factor to getting the most out of snow foam - with BH and CC you want to aim for ~5% product PIR, AF is closer to 7%. The closer you get to this magic number the better the cleaning will be without starting to strip any LSP you have on the paint. None that work. But white foam shouldn't be a problem on a white car, a decent foam won't hang around for more than 5 minutes and you really do need to thoroughly rinse the car after foaming before moving anyway so there realy shouldn't be any chance of missing any. It is easier if you work methodically to apply and remove though. If you want to try a coloured foam, Magifoam comes in various colours. They're all equally sh*t though.

No. These are.

Also abrasive so it'll be when, not if. Just so you know.

And the circumstances. Generally speaking if the police spend any time actually investigating, the insurance company will consider their own investigation. If the police specifically highlight something on the car being the cause of the incident they will almost certainly dig deeper themselves then. As for not knowing about modifications, as Dan said, provided it's "reasonable" that you genuinely didn't know about them it probably won't be an issue (unless it directly led to the claim) but they may charge you the financial difference of declaring it after the fact. It does depend largely on the insurer and their own terms and conditions in the contract though - some will decide on nothing less than how many other payouts they've had in a given period... unofficially, of course, there's always an official "reason" for it.

Any chemical cleaner will be fine, just avoid anything with abrassives - i.e. most metal polishes, wire wool, polishing pads, etc. For tar spots, tar remover - spray on, leave to work, rinse off. For stubborn spots, wipe over with a microfibre cloth before rinsing. For heavier dirt try an APC (all purpose cleaner - supermarket's own is as good as any other branded version, so just pick up the cheapest, but go for the liquid versions rather than the crean ones - dilte appropriately and use to wash as normal. For normal cleaning, just use soapy water after a pre-wash. The best way to keep it clean is to seal it once it's clean. Anything designed for wheels is sufficient but for ease of cleaning I'd recommend a coating but if you're willing to reapply regularly (every month or two) FK1000P is sufficient, cost effective and versatile.

I have the GT Pack, Nismo exhast, RAYS and the only actual modification of the Z badges declared on mine. Admiral class all of them as modifications (and have a history of using even badges as a way of dodging paying out!) which is largely why I am in the habit of declaring them. Granted most other insurers don't give a toss but I'd rather let them decide what's going to invalidate my cover rather than just assume and be wrong.

I'm not going to lie, I hate you a little bit right now... [/jealous].

By all means wait until renewal to fit them to avoid the admin fees of adding them to policy mid-term but if they're fitted mid-term they should be declared at once.

Anything that wasn't on the car when it left the factory is a modification, although only certain companies count dealer fit options prior to delivery. It's always best to declare everything regardless and let the company decide if they want to charge you more for it or not than trying to second guess them, and always declare everything when fitted, don't delay it for any reason.

Do the throttle reset (guide is on here somewhere), if that doesn't work by itself give the butterfly fly valve on the throttle body a clean and redo the reset. That should sort you out.

You're absolutely right, it looks really nice... until someone goes and opens those ridiculous doors.

I don't understand, this is perfectly normal right.... Right?!

When using a clay mitt (or cloth) definitely rinse thoroughly. It could get very messy otherwise. no need for a complete wash again though.

It depends largely on your preferred trader tbh, even AutoGlym Tar Remover is adequate (although better when decanted onto a spray bottle). With tar remover it's much more cost effective to spot treat (pardon the pun) rather than cover the entire car in it. As you're using a clay mitt though, I wold strongly suggest that you keep the two stages separate as the tar remover will eat your clay mitt if it comes into contact.

Nope, Iron X won't touch the tar at all. To be honest it won't even touch that much iron in my experience... You'll need something else for the tar - Autosmart Tardis is by far the best sticky stuff romover I've used but due to their new policy of not permitting resellers outside of their own fanchised reps it can be both difficult and expensive to get hold of these days (do NOT buy it from eBay, you have no idea what you're actually getting from there and some people will pass off anything as Autosmart products on eBay!). Pretty much any tar remover is better than nothing.

I has arrived to add a millionty more steps to your process. As has been said, no need to (or point in) dry(ing) before claying. I'd also replace all the subsequent washes (after the initial one, obviously) with just a thorough rinse. There's no point in using IPA before polishing either, so move that step to after polishing. You'll use the IPA to remove anything left behind by the compounds to give you a true indication of the correction acheived. Also, polish and compound are that same thing, so that's yet another step you don't need to worry about and use of a glaze would depend entirely on your chosen Last Stage Product (LSP) - if waxing, glaze is optional, if using a sealant it's likely to be detrimental, if using a coating then it's a big no-no. Also worth noting about polishing, you need to make sure you're working the polish for long enough - when the polish turns clear and you can't really see it on the paint anymore, that's about long enough - but the best way of checking the actual correction acheived is by wiping the area with diluted IPA and checking it in direct sunlight... but you don't want to polish outside (too high a chance of contaminant ruining everything for you!) so decent lighting is a useful indicator whilst you're going round the car - it's usually worth rolling it back outside once you've done the car if the sun is out to double check the finish. And yes, you will need to seal afterwards, whether that be a wax, sealant or coating depends on a billionty other things but largely comes down to what you're trying to acheive - looks durability, cost, ease of application, speed of application, something new, something old, something blue... no wait, that's something else. With regards to the actual polishing, as previously stated, always start with the least aggressive combination and step up only if you need to. Whilst the paint on Z's is butter soft (Stu, try polishing a BMW, you'll really appreciate how [comparatively] easy the Z is to polish ), the polish will still need to be worked properly to be effective, this will likely take a 4-5 passes and a good couple of minutes per section. Polished Bliss give great advice by the way. My full process would be; Wash. Rinse. Iron X. Rinse. De-tar. Rinse. Clay. Rinse. Optional paint clenser. Polish (compound). IPA wipedown. What follows after this will be determined by the LSP. I think that's covered everything.

Sadly not, and it could be a few months before I do as well - I'm relying on my brother-in-law to be proactive... which is not one of his strong points!

Sorry Stu, I've only just seen this so apologies for answering your question in the same year it was asked... No, tbh. Coatings are expensive, they only come into their own in terms of durability but by applying coatings over anything other than bare paint (or trim depending on the product) you're just reducing that durability and it then becomes even more expensive. That's assuming that the massive volume of solvents in the coatings don't just strip any sealant below in the first place too. I wouldn't want to do it the other way round either as that itself is like applying a wax over a sealant - it'll reduce the durability of the top layer (as it won't bond to the coating much, if at all) and you're removing the water/dirt repellency behaviour of the underlying coating. So whilst there's no harm in doing it that way round but it's essentially a pointless exercise and waste of product all round.