Two weeks after I took delivery of her, we've finally had our first rain-free day! I took the opportunity to give the Cayman S an extended wash and wax. I had bought a range of P21S products from Serious Performance several weeks ago:
First the wheels were cleaned. The P21S wheel cleaner is pretty awesome. I used up a lot of water as it needs to be thoroughly rinsed off the wheels. It comes as a spray. You could just leave it on for a couple of hours and hose it down - there's no need to scrub the wheels but as there is a hosepipe ban in force, I used both the wheel brushed I had to agitate the dirt and speed up the cleaning process. By the way, the standard Cayman S 18" wheels are very easy to clean. You can even get to the back part of the wheel quite easily with a longer wheel brush. The wheels were left sparkling after around 40 minutes (a lot of that time was spent filling buckets with water!).
Then the interior was vacuumed and cleaned with a damp chamois. The hatch area was also cleaned. I have noticed something about the rear hatch: the drivers manual says you should slam the rear hatch shut. This is not actually possible if the doors are closed due to air pressure. If you open the doors then you can actually slam the rear hatch shut. Anyway, cleaning the interior took around 20 minutes.
Then the bodywork was washed using the mitt and the Supagard Acid Rain Resisting Shampoo. This is a very mild shampoo that hardly foams at all. It's ideal for use in the current water shortage as it requires very little rinsing. Using water from a steady supply of buckets, the bodywork was rinsed. Then the remaining water on the bodywork was removed using the aquablade (Turtle Wax aquablade from Halfords). Finally, the bodywork was dried completely using the chamois leather cloth. Shampooing and drying the bodywork only took around 45 minutes.
Next, the tyres were dressed using a remarkable tyre dressing that I found in Halfords today. It's the very best tyre dressing i've ever used and it comes with a very clever applicator sponge that minimises the amount of dressing used and there were hardly any drips or waste. I reckon a single bottle of the tyre dressing would last for around 15-20 applications (on all four tyres). The gloss shine of the tyre-wall is very impressive indeed. I'll post the details of this product on here but I don't have access to it at the moment (my brother has borrowed it as he was so impressed with the results!). All four tyres were dressed to an exquisite gloss shine in 10 minutes.
Once the tyres were done, the paintwork was cleansed using the P21S Gloss Enhancing Paintwork Cleanser. This is a white liquid that is applied with a damp sponge and then buffed to a shine using a towel. It's a very quick process and the entire car was prepared in around 30 minutes.
Next came the hard part: waxing the car. The P21S Carnauba Wax is quite a hard wax and comes with a small circular sponge applicator. I've never actually used proper wax on a car before so this was an enlightening experience. I applied the wax one panel at a time but have no idea if it was applied too thinly or too thickly. I left it for a few minutes and then tried to buff it with a towel. It became spotty and coarse. I waited a couple of more minutes and tried buffing it again. This time the wax glossed up quite nicely but still not perfectly. I had to wait and re-buff the wax a couple more times to achieve a very good gloss finish on the paintwork. This meant that the entire car took nearly an hour to get done. Just for good measure I applied a second, thinner coat and this second coat took around half an hour. I probably just haven't got the hang of this waxing business yet!
Having got the hard part out of the way, I shined up the tailpipe (as it had become a little discoloured) using the Autoglym Metal Polish. This worked wonders and the tailpipe is nice and shiny now for only 10 minutes of effort.
I then did the windows inside and out using the Turtle Wax Window Cleaner. This was straighforward and took less than 15 minutes. I also cleaned the mirrors.
Finally I cleaned up the door edges, hatch edge, fuel filler area, etc. It was a very rewarding experience to spend so much time cleaning and waxing the Cayman S but I did get to know the car a lot better! Just to reward her for being so good during the cleaning process, I treated her to a tankful of Shell Optimax.
It's quite hard washing a car without a hosepipe. Using buckets instead of my Karcher power washer, I probably used 3-4 times as much water as I normally do. So much for the hosepipe ban!
- P21S Wheel Cleaner Gel Kit - £12.99
- P21S Gloss Enhancing Paintwork Cleanser - £9.99 (I think this is the same stuff that Porsche sell via Tequipment)
- P21S Concours Look Carnauba Paste Wax - £17.99
- Tyre dressing from Halfords - £5.99
- Supagard Acid Rain Resisting Car Shampoo - from my old Supagard kit of cleaning products that I got with my BMW 530i
- Turtle Wax Window Cleaner - £3.99
- Autoglym Metal Polish - £6.99 from Halfords
First the wheels were cleaned. The P21S wheel cleaner is pretty awesome. I used up a lot of water as it needs to be thoroughly rinsed off the wheels. It comes as a spray. You could just leave it on for a couple of hours and hose it down - there's no need to scrub the wheels but as there is a hosepipe ban in force, I used both the wheel brushed I had to agitate the dirt and speed up the cleaning process. By the way, the standard Cayman S 18" wheels are very easy to clean. You can even get to the back part of the wheel quite easily with a longer wheel brush. The wheels were left sparkling after around 40 minutes (a lot of that time was spent filling buckets with water!).
Then the interior was vacuumed and cleaned with a damp chamois. The hatch area was also cleaned. I have noticed something about the rear hatch: the drivers manual says you should slam the rear hatch shut. This is not actually possible if the doors are closed due to air pressure. If you open the doors then you can actually slam the rear hatch shut. Anyway, cleaning the interior took around 20 minutes.
Then the bodywork was washed using the mitt and the Supagard Acid Rain Resisting Shampoo. This is a very mild shampoo that hardly foams at all. It's ideal for use in the current water shortage as it requires very little rinsing. Using water from a steady supply of buckets, the bodywork was rinsed. Then the remaining water on the bodywork was removed using the aquablade (Turtle Wax aquablade from Halfords). Finally, the bodywork was dried completely using the chamois leather cloth. Shampooing and drying the bodywork only took around 45 minutes.
Next, the tyres were dressed using a remarkable tyre dressing that I found in Halfords today. It's the very best tyre dressing i've ever used and it comes with a very clever applicator sponge that minimises the amount of dressing used and there were hardly any drips or waste. I reckon a single bottle of the tyre dressing would last for around 15-20 applications (on all four tyres). The gloss shine of the tyre-wall is very impressive indeed. I'll post the details of this product on here but I don't have access to it at the moment (my brother has borrowed it as he was so impressed with the results!). All four tyres were dressed to an exquisite gloss shine in 10 minutes.
Once the tyres were done, the paintwork was cleansed using the P21S Gloss Enhancing Paintwork Cleanser. This is a white liquid that is applied with a damp sponge and then buffed to a shine using a towel. It's a very quick process and the entire car was prepared in around 30 minutes.
Next came the hard part: waxing the car. The P21S Carnauba Wax is quite a hard wax and comes with a small circular sponge applicator. I've never actually used proper wax on a car before so this was an enlightening experience. I applied the wax one panel at a time but have no idea if it was applied too thinly or too thickly. I left it for a few minutes and then tried to buff it with a towel. It became spotty and coarse. I waited a couple of more minutes and tried buffing it again. This time the wax glossed up quite nicely but still not perfectly. I had to wait and re-buff the wax a couple more times to achieve a very good gloss finish on the paintwork. This meant that the entire car took nearly an hour to get done. Just for good measure I applied a second, thinner coat and this second coat took around half an hour. I probably just haven't got the hang of this waxing business yet!
Having got the hard part out of the way, I shined up the tailpipe (as it had become a little discoloured) using the Autoglym Metal Polish. This worked wonders and the tailpipe is nice and shiny now for only 10 minutes of effort.
I then did the windows inside and out using the Turtle Wax Window Cleaner. This was straighforward and took less than 15 minutes. I also cleaned the mirrors.
Finally I cleaned up the door edges, hatch edge, fuel filler area, etc. It was a very rewarding experience to spend so much time cleaning and waxing the Cayman S but I did get to know the car a lot better! Just to reward her for being so good during the cleaning process, I treated her to a tankful of Shell Optimax.
It's quite hard washing a car without a hosepipe. Using buckets instead of my Karcher power washer, I probably used 3-4 times as much water as I normally do. So much for the hosepipe ban!
