ULtraPLanet

It?s hard to gage the real world of car fanatics reading some of those detailing forums out there. People cleaning the bugs off their cars in the parking lot after the morning drive to work

So how about it E60 owners (drivers) are you obsessed or just enjoying your lease?

jamespratt

Lease, lease ? Who says mine is leased? Owned outright thank you very much!

530E60NL

For me waxing the car a few times a year is a way of having some fun on my own.. It 's a great way for me to relax and think about stuff.

ULtraPLanet

My thoughts exactly!

JDN

Cleaning my car is a great bonding experience. It is one of those satisfying things in life today that leaves me with a feeling of accomplishment and pride. It is right up there with cutting the grass. It's simple. It's easy. When you get through you can see, feel, and sometimes smell the results -- great therapy.

530E60NL

Exactly, for me it is therapy too and the best thing is my car looks great afterwards wich is very rewarding..

E60COYOTE

I fully agree with the bonding thing! Eventhough I only wax 3 to 4 times a year, I am washing the car almost twice a week. It takes me a good hour to wash, dry and vaccum. My wife is starting to give me a hard time!!

Jimbo

Owning my ride since Dec 03, it has only had 6 hose washes (3 by the dealer). I wipe it before and after taking it out including the rims. I also wipe it wherever I am if any visible junk has landed on it. So if you see some guy in a parking lot wiping a Titanium Silver E60, that be me! I also use a full-size Cal Duster on it regularly.

For my quick wipe downs I carry a qd in the trunk that I call "Carwash in a Spray Bottle" (filtered/soft water and a bit of RainX self dry car soap) and use it regularly. You can use other car soaps but they may leave a film if you don't get it all off. Once you spray a small area, wipe it with a soft, dampened cloth and then dry it with another soft cloth). I'll probably try Klasse All-in-One next, so I can put some shine on it while qd'ing it.

I've waxed it about 4 times - what's that? - about every couple of months.

At home it doesn't take long to keep it spotless now that I'm using a mini-Cal Duster to get the brake dust of in a couple of minutes and also use Swiffer dusting cloths to do the interior. If there are spots on the rims and for dust behind the spokes, I use my qd and a dampened towel to get it clean. I use Black Again for tire shine/conditioning. It works okay so I'll try something else next time, probably Forever Black because it has a black coloring agent in it.

I use Folex carpet cleaner on the mats/carpet and Greased Lightning to remove any grease spots that Folex can't get out (Folex is also an excellent all-around cleaner). I use my wet/dry shop vac to get up any solutions applied to the mats. I vacuum whenever necessary. At least once or twice a week. Since my mats are light grey, it's easy to pick off any junk manually if you don't have time to vacuum.

Having a light grey interior is the worst to keep up-I'm sure the other light colors are as well. Hey-if you're thinking about getting light grey, be sure and get black carpet mats, unless you want to clean them weekly or enjoy getting in a car with black marks on your mats, 'cause that's what you will be seeing. I use Guardsman Leather cleaner (for all fine leather furniture) on the interior along with PermaPlater Leather Guard to protect it. It does help that only two adults drive the car and we have no children at home-otherwise I would have purchased a black interior.

I'm also using Windex with Vinegar-D to clean the glass and also starting to use Solar Polish (can be applied in direct sun) for the paint about every month. I also use PermaPlate acrylic paint polish about every three months.

I did spend one long 9 hour detail session getting off every micro piece of junk on it with water thinned Gel-Gloss and putting on 2 coats of polish/wax (it had been temporarily parked outside). Gel-gloss is basically a liquid clay bar substitute for light colored cars. It also gets out light scratches. It also makes your glass as smooth as silk and can be thinned to make it extra gentle.

I purchased a Noah car cover after that. Now that it's covered and I have better products to work with I spend about 80% less time than I used to. I purchased some DF Concourse Micro Fiber towels that are much softer than just about everything else and use them regularly. I also purchased some 100% cotton birds-eye diapers that work great as all-around towels. You have to wash/dry them about 10 times to get the cotton to fuzz up for softness.

As I told the service reps- my goal is to be able to drive it onto the showroom floor at anytime and not be able to have anyone tell the difference between my used car and the new ones. I always detail it before taking it in to the dealers-whether it needs it or not, just in case I missed something. By the way, several other car owners have approached me at the dealer's and asked me what I use to get my shine.

So all this work-what is it good for? to paraphrase an old rock song. It's a good time to zone out and I find it very relaxing and rewarding, especially for such a fine ride.

Anyway, that's my experience.

JDN

Jimbo -- You are the bonding winner - hands down .

Jimbo

Much cheaper than a therapist...j/k.

Keeps me out of trouble and my wife enjoys driving a clean, shiny ride as well!