Cleaning your MINI can often be laborious and a task often given to the local car wash that will blast it wish a pressure washer and run over it with a tatty old sponge. Other people spend hours cleaning and polishing their pride and joy. At Lohen we use Dodo Juice products to clean and detail our MINIs. Behind Dodo Juice’s funky product names and marketing are highly technical and award-winning cleaning and detailing products. Chemistry is at play. Complex polymer chains make up the cleaning products to provide a protective barrier to the MINIs paintwork. The transformation of your MINI has 4 key stages with each stage having a specially formulated cleaning or dressing agent:
- The Wash Stage
- The Preparation Stage
- The Protection Stage
- The Finishing Stage
The Wash Stage To avoid rubbing large particles around the surface rinse with a hose. If you have recently waxed your MINI Lohen recommends you use a wax friendly shampoo such as Sour Power on this stage and then jump to the finishing stage. Otherwise its time to go to town! There will no doubt be areas of tar brake dust on the wheels that will need some extra TLC; use Dodo Juice Tarmalade and a Mellow Yellow wheel cleaner to lift these blemishes. Allow to these to work for some time and rinse with the hose. Next it’s shampoo time. Using clean water, a soft sponge such as the Basics of Bling microfibre wash pad and a mild detergent (do not be tempted to use washing liquid it is aggressive and contains high levels of salt, leaving hard-to-remove white streaks) use a mild detergent such as the Dodo Juice Born to be Mild shampoo. Change the water reasonably frequently as it gets dirty and, once complete, rinse off with the hose again and dry with a microfibre towel. The Preparation Stage You now need to prepare your MINI’s surface for the wax. In this phase you’re removing embedded dirt and imperfection; you can use Lime Prime, a pre-wax cleaner, applied using a microfibre cloth or ideally a clay bar. Buff off with a clean microfibre cloth such as the Basics of Bling. Lime Prime is also great for cleaning up black trim and interior parts – even more benefit for your investment. The Protection Stage Wax on, wax off time. Lohen has a range of Dodo Juice waxes to suit your paint colour; easy to apply soft waxes such as: Purple Haze for dark coloured MINIs, Orange Crush for warm coloured MINIs like reds and oranges or alternatively hard waxes like Blue Velvet and Banana Armour. Apply the wax using your fingertips, a panel at a time. The wax takes between 5 and 15 minutes to cure; you can tell when it’s complete if it’s hazed over and has a tacky feeling. Once cured, buff off. You can reapply after half an hour to build up the protective layer. The Finishing Stage The easy part! Spray over a with a protection detailer like Dodo Juice Red Mist to apply a powerful water repellent layer that is super slippery and reinforces the fresh wax layer that you have already applied. Why bother, I hear you cry! It actually makes your next wash much quicker so is a worthwhile investment for your efforts meaning you spend less time detailing and more time enjoying your MINI!
