Daily Driven GT3 Winter Wash & Protect

So New Year means some new products, to me at least, being put to use on a new car, to you at least, so stay tuned for some damp sudsy wash shots, as well as a bit of spritzing in the low-lying winter sun. Now, I know a lot of you prefer to see neglected run-of-the-mill stuff being cleaned over more fancy performance metal, but this particular GT3 does live outside, is used far more regularly than most 911s and hadn't been washed for months, so was about as dirty as a car of this calibre could realistically get. And to be fair to me, it has been well over a year since I featured something like this, so hardly feel I'm taking the mick by doing so again now. My aim with this one, whether it's your preferential bag or not, would simply be to remove the winter grime then breathe a bit of life back with a few P&S and RAG company products which have been kindly sent to me from Clean and Shiny UK, who I think were keen to see me finally put these well-respected brands to use in a video, and it's worth staying tuned for a discount code that can be used on the products featured here and more, as I figured if I'm bagging stuff for free, it's only fair I provide a bit of value for you too. So, before first getting to grips with the P&S Brake Buster product on the sizeable forged wheels, they had to be thoroughly rinsed off with the pressure washer to remove a good portion of the dirt, despite a distinct lack of heavy brake dust due to the carbon ceramic setup. There were still spores in months' worth of road grime and debris which I didn't really want to be rubbing into their surface, so blasted as much of that away as I realistically could with a 25 degree nozzle, before moving on to spraying a generous amount of the non-acidic wheel cleaner over the barrel, painted caliper, face and tyre wall, to test the claim that its versatility eliminates the need for multiple products when cleaning wheels, which I was very much hoping would be the case. Once applied, it was then left to soak in for a minute or so to properly penetrate as is recommended by P&S, before being thoroughly worked into all areas with a few different brushes just to try and get the best out of the product. Now, despite being acid-free and non-active, as in it won't change colour when it comes into contact with iron particles, I could tell it was still potent enough to provide a quality clean without jeopardising the finish of even expensive centre-locked wheels like these. Although carbon discs don't rust when they come into contact with water or chemicals like steel ones do, Brake Buster contains corrosion inhibitors to both protect the wheels as you clean, and prevent surrounding components like traditional discs from rusting up which can be a right pain in the backside. So, although I couldn't realistically put that to the test on this car, the product still gets a big thumbs up from me for that innovation alone. After being thoroughly worked into all areas of the wheel, including the dirty tyre walls with a stiff brush then, the wheel cleaner and any fresh grime it had effectively broken down was thoroughly rinsed off with the pressure washer, and while the product didn't have a huge amount of dust and dirt to cut through following the initial pre-rinse, still served to sufficiently brighten the wheels up to a better standard than say a shampoo alone would have, and with the rest tended to in a similar manner off-camera, it was then time to move onto the GT3's racy body with funnily enough a shampoo alone. So, because P&S's pearl shampoo is so concentrated, it could also be used as a dedicated snow foam, and knowing that, I'd already filled my bottle with a fairly strong mix of it to pre-clean the car prior to making contact, so after being hooked up, it was thoroughly blanketed over the mostly dry surface, starting with the dirtier lower parts to give them a tad longer to soak, before covering everywhere else with the stable suds and letting them sit for a few minutes, and I reckon if you didn't know this was a shampoo, looking at it on the surface, you'd almost certainly assume it was a dedicated snow foam product. Once it had sufficiently soaked into the German gaps and grooves then, which it probably could have done indefinitely in this cool damp weather, was thoroughly pressure rinsed off to remove it and a good chunk of the surface dirt it had served to soften up, as although there was no real protection on the car, I had spent a fair few hours machine polishing it months before, so the paintwork was still smooth enough to prevent cack from clinging to it, but even if it wasn't and the car had to be treated to a heavier pre-cleaner, it's always good to know your shampoo is versatile and concentrated enough to be used as a snow foam too. I'd filled my wash buckets up with a healthy amount of the highly dilutable liquid pearl a bit earlier and I'd be using a rag company ultra microfibre wash mitt to spread its slick suds over the surface, so once the solution had been fully frothed up, got to work doing just that from top to bottom, ensuring the semi-spent wash mitt was periodically cleaned out and reloaded in the appropriate bucket, just to try and keep things relatively contaminant free. I personally love a nice slick feeling shampoo that provides long-lasting suds, especially when cleaning fairly dirty cars or cars that haven't been tended to for quite some time, and so require a bit more back and forth action than the single maintenance swipe more regularly maintained cars can get away with, and this soap combined with the thick microfibre mitt seemed to provide just that. Now I think you can get this ultra mitt in pad form too, but I generally prefer the hands-in over the hands-on approach when washing, and this particular one comes with an internal stitch to wrap your fingers around and make things even more secure and workable, but a pad for the flat facing upper areas and this mitt for the sides and lower parts might make sense if you want to experience the best of both worlds. After spending some time giving the Porsche a good methodical contact wash, as there wouldn't be any other kind of prep going down prior to the bead making, pressure rinse the freshly washed parts off to remove the pearl and any dirt particles encompassed within it, and despite using a bit more in the bucket than I probably should have here, the concentrated pH neutral suds seem to rinse off just fine here and leave the surface free from any streaky residue or unsightly dirt, which was the main aim of the game, but I did unfortunately have to take cover with the camera before fully finishing, as the tedious winter weather decided to get in on the action with an impromptu rinse of its own, which I really didn't have time for here, but what's a car cleaning guru video without some unforecast rain to mess with your mojo? So once the extended shower had passed, the car was then quickly re-rinsed, as although the rainwater was likely more pure than what I was using out of the tap, there's usually far more of it left on the surface compared to after a dedicated pressure wash, meaning more work to dry it, so quickly boxed that off, keeping everything crossed it wouldn't show its unwelcome face again, before grabbing my complimentary bottle of beadmaker and rag company liquidator drying towel for a quick initial wet application. Although I was aiming to give the whole car a dedicated dry application of the protectant, wanting to try it on a few wet panels while the weather was still looking a bit iffy, so simply spritz some of the sweet smelling stuff over the damp unprotected surface, before simultaneously drying and removing any light residue with the twist loop towel, and while this one is smaller than the others I have in my arsenal, it's also more manageable than the larger ones which can get quite heavy and cumbersome once saturated, but this seemed to be ideal for soaking up the standing rinse water and spreading the beadmaker here, nullifying the need for a full buff which is usually required with a dry application, which saved a bit of time and allowed me to get a fair few parts of the Porsche treated just in case that was all I was going to have time for. Another handy drying towel I've been sent to try with this mini gauntlet item which is intended for use on areas like wheels and shuts, so after spraying a bit of beadmaker over the damp and still slightly sudsy Porsche ones here, wipe them down with a thick little towel to slicken them up and ensure they were free from any water or dirt that could seep out and jeopardise the subsequent dry application of the protectant, and I'd say despite only being small it's definitely a step up from the thinner, more generic disposable items I usually use. Speaking of a dedicated dry application then, once the rain had apparently naffed off for good and everywhere had been dried, which included a quick blow dry of the wheels, finally moved on to a more committed treatment of the car with an edgeless general purpose rag company towel which was first used to evenly spread the product over the surface, then once it had had a chance to sit for a moment or two, was thoroughly buffed off with a nice plush eagle item to remove any light residue. Simultaneously enhancing and protecting a car with beadmaker is supposed to be a relatively quick and simple affair which suited me so took advantage of the fact it's not a finicky long-term protectant and freely spritzed, wiped and buffed pretty much all areas of the GT3 to give it some quality slickness, gloss and short-term protection that will hopefully keep things ticking over until I can get back for a more in-depth clean. If I wasn't filming for a video, I'd probably spray a bit more of the car before wiping and buffing which would streamline the process somewhat but that wouldn't make for a particularly interesting or satisfying video so just worked panel by panel here, methodically spraying, wiping and buffing the beadmaker until all areas had been adequately treated with it, trying to showcase both the product and the racy lines of the GT3 as best I could and despite testing it in the cold it seemed to work just fine which for someone like me who rarely operates in ideal or controlled conditions is great. I finished up with a bit of the beadmaker on the faces of the satin wheels to hopefully make things a bit easier for myself when I have to clean them again later in the year as even when relatively straight to begin with they can still take quite some time and once everything had been treated the tyres were quickly dressed over with a nondescript water-based product as some parts of them were still a bit brown which I think was likely down to my rushed cleaning technique more so than the product itself and while dressing over ingrained dirt isn't exactly ideal it still looked better than brown nakedness in my opinion and if I was then to go on to grab a few nice after shots of the car before the sun went down, I had to call it a short winter's day at that. So despite essentially just being treated to a straightforward wheel clean, contact wash and superficial spritz the car was now thankfully looking far more like a 911 GT3 should. Although the beadmaker ideally needs to be left for a minimum of eight hours before being exposed to water, more rain was forecast later that night so I thought I might as well get in there first and grab some hydrophobics as what's the point of featuring a product called beadmaker if you don't actually show the beads it can make but either way considering the car was largely unprepped and the product was essentially uncured here the beadage and water repellency was still pretty impressive. I'd like to try the brake buster product on some more heavily ingrained wheels with traditional steel based brakes but it did a decent enough job at reviving these GT3 examples which hadn't been touched for a fair few months and although I think I could have given the tyres a heavier scrub do get the impression that as long as you have enough of this to hand you shouldn't realistically need much else. The concentrated pearl shampoo was a nice combination of cleaning power slickness and versatility and so I'll be finishing the big bottle of it off probably on my own motor as it's always in need of a good maintenance wash and the rag company microfibre definitely aided and abetted the enhancement process especially the plush wash mitt and twist loop drying towel which I'll definitely be putting to use on a number of other cars whether on camera or off. So I know most of you are probably already aware of the likes of P&S and rag companies they've both been covered at length by others but if you do like the look of any of these products or were considering restocking then you can get 10% off anything P&S or rag company from clean and shiny UK with the code guru10 and I've even included direct links to each item featured below to make saving a few quid even more straightforward so as always thanks for watching thanks again to clean and shiny for giving me a nudge in the right direction and I'll hopefully see you in a couple of weeks time with something nowhere near as fancy as this