Cleaning and valeting the family car is part of the weekend ritual for countless motorists up and down the country, but are we doing it right?
Here we get some top tips from our friends at Mawsley Car Valeting, who have an exceptional reputation for providing high-quality valeting and detailing services both for private clients and at events.
With over 20 years’ experience, Mawsley Car Valeting creates a service that is friendly and professional, and with great attention to detail, which is often overlooked.
Owner and founder of Mawsley, Chris McCleery, expanded on his company’s impressive CV.
“We are now official detailers to the BTCC, and we keep classic cars looking their best at three of the largest Concours events in the UK: London Concours, Concours of Elegance and Heveningham Concours.
“We also work as an ambassador for Autoglym’s professional product range.”
We asked Chris for five tips on how to get the best results when cleaning and valeting your classic or modified vehicle. This is his advice.
1. Know your car cleaning products
Understand what your cleaning products are used for, what each product does, and how to use it efficiently. This will give you a greater understanding of what the product will achieve on the vehicle.
2. Give it your best shot
I would recommend anyone that is going to clean a car for the first time to go full on; give it your best shot.
Give it the biggest clean you can, so wash, clay, get the paint squeaky clean and then layer that polish, that wax, get it absolutely perfect.
Going forward from there, the maintenance washes you do will be so much easier.
3. Make valeting your vehicle a regular job
Another good top tip is regular maintenance. Keep on top of it and it will make the car easier to clean every time.
4. Buy the best equipment you can afford
For the very best results buy good quality gear – that’s the right buckets, the right brushes, the right wash mitts, the right drying towels, the right hoovers and pressure washers. Good equipment will make a massive difference to what you are doing and how effectively you do it.
5. Be methodical with your cleaning
Always have a starting point and a finishing point when cleaning your vehicle. When I’m vacuuming a car, for example, I will always start in the driver’s front side, then driver’s rear side, rear passenger side and then front passenger side and then, finally, the boot. I always finish in the same place.
And then when you are washing the vehicle, start with the wheels and wheel arches. If you don’t and you do the bodywork first, the soap and water will dry on the vehicle.
Use one bucket for the wheels and arches and a different one for the body. Power wash the soap off and dry them off as you go: first the wheels, then the body. On the body, start from the top and work your way down and dry it off as you go to avoid streaking.
Make sure you’re not making any of the common mistakes that come with cleaning and valeting a classic car by reading our blog. And if getting great results in your DIY car valeting still seems like hard work, give Chris a call at Mawsley Car Valeting on 07766 863193.
Great insurance, whatever your vehicle
And once your classic, modified or standard production car is sparkling again, now would be a good time to dust down your insurance documents. For the best classic car cover at a great price, call Adrian Flux on 0333 270 4929 for a swift no-hassle quote – 81.5% of customers receiving an online quote in August 2022 could have obtained a cheaper quote over the phone.