Remember cleaning your family car with your Dad? This is one of many rights of passage as a youngster. Perhaps not your Dad, maybe your Uncle, older brother, a cousin (male or female). Perhaps your mother (I have known many petrol head females in my time and still do!) I can accurately predict the process ending with your elder throwing a bucket of dirty water over the car. Looking back, why did we do such stupid things. When I discuss with my friend Pav, we conclude that we did not know any better.

At what point did I get into cleaning cars? I recall going with my Dad to a petrol station to buy a load of cleaning gear. Now that petrol station has long since closed and been converted into flats, but it was probably a poor decision to go to a petrol station. We should have gone to Halfords at the very least. To this day I cannot think why we did not. Perhaps it was late on a Sunday evening and this was one of the few places open. However, we were not even cleaning one of our own cars but my Dad’s bosses’ brand new Jaguar.

When my friend Pav started to get into detailing over ten years ago, I took an interest in how best to clean my car. I had my Fiat Punto valeted locally in early 2003 but it was three years later that my friend actually detailed my silver wagon. Meanwhile there were multiple crimes against detailing carried out, predominately against my A3.

Collecting my Polo from Crystal Detail on a beautiful sunny Sunday afternoon from their premises just north of Reading, I was impressed as usual by Pav’s work. Obviously a smaller car than my previous but still with the challenging VWAG paintwork. You can see a selection of progress photos and the fantastic final results over on Facebook album.

A slight tangent now if you will allow me. Do you watch TV shopping channels? Why would there be a need in the modern world with instant internet shopping? Well for a few years I have been intrigued by Williams F1 Racing Waterless Wash & Wax sold on Ideal Home channel. Over the Easter weekend, while in Warwick, I finally took the plunge. The deal was too good to turn down, even though I was going against the best advice of my dearest friend Pav and the detailing fraternity. I just had to try out the product for myself. What I discovered later is that while it is average as a waterless wash and wax, it is more powerful to use as a finish after washing your car. I tried on both my Polo and my wife’s silver Yaris. The results were reasonable but I was really waiting for my two external taps to be fitted to the front of my property so I could officially be unleashed. It was only after doing a little bit of further research, which involved Googling the details on the bottle, that I realised this product is sold under license to be branded as Williams F1 Racing but is also sold (the exact same product) as Turtle Wax – Waterless Wash & Wax. I found a number of bottles for sale at my local Range, for an overinflated price. A single bottle for sale for almost the same price I had paid for four. In the end, I gave one bottle away to a friend and will use the remainder on my wife’s vehicle. I probably will not bother using again on my Polo. Particularly after it has been treated with GTechniq EXO v3 wax. This wax is amazing, and the results were visible the morning after I collected my vehicle. Heavy rain overnight meant I was in for some epic beading in the morning.

On Thursday 27th April I had my two external taps added to the front of my property. Some people may call it overindulgence to have both cold and hot water taps. They obviously do no understand the difference warm water makes to cleaning not just a car but your refuse bin. In fact, my first job on Sunday 30th April was to wash and rinse down our two bins (refuse and recycling, the brown bin is new and at the time unused). The hot water made light work of the plastic. While it may have been almost seventeen months since we moved in, it could have been many more years since the bins were cleaned. I was proud to get something done and finally be out using my trusted K2 Karcher once again. However, the real joy would come when washing my own car. For now, I turned my attention to my beloved wife’s 2010 Yaris. It was long overdue a wash, I did my best to rinse it down and apply the Williams F1 Racing Waterless Wash & Wax. As expected it provided a decent amount of protection. Little did I know that it would be over a month before I would be in a position to hit my VW Polo.

It is a known fact, I am a list person. There is just something satisfying about making a plan and nothing more fulfilling than ticking an item/task/action off. People will think it insane to be spending close to £200 on items for cleaning your car when you could get probably get your car washed twenty-five times at your local car wash, for the reasonable £8 a pop. As you will know by now, I am not like other guys! It was a case of prioritising the key parts I needed to restart my detailing journey. Significant purchases to point out include the Hozelock mega deal at Wickes for £20. However, as they were sold out in Bracknell, Slough and Reading I had to ask my colleague Nathan to purchase on my behalf from the Guilford store. He then elevated himself to hero status by bringing in the box on Monday morning by 6:45am before I had even arrived and left it under my desk. He then grabbed his laptop, left the office to work from home as he was under the weather. What a superstar! One thing ticked off the list but still several items to order and try. Crystal Detail always recommend excellent products and direction of application.

Sunday 4th June will go down in history as a momentous day in our household. With my wife away shopping out of town, I had the whole afternoon to finally wash my car. I had purchased a number (but not quite all) items on my car detailing wish list and was ready to spend just under three hours cleaning my car. Would I succeed? Would the British weather conspire against me?